Colorado Gems

If you’re fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to live along the Colorado Front Range your primary access to points west are I-70 that crosses Colorado from Kansas to just west of Grand Junction, and Highway 285 that heads west out of Denver and is increasingly becoming the alternate to an overwhelmed I-70 that routinely sees travel times doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled. Colorado Springs folks have Highway 24 and folks in NOCO (northern Colorado) have Highways 14 and 287 to escape the urban sprawl but increasingly it takes some real dedication and effort to explore the furthest reaches of this State we call home.

My better half (three quarters?) and I settled in the Denver area because that’s where the jobs were when we got hitched. Today, even with some employers embracing work from home, Denver remains the State’s population ( 3 million in the metropolitan area) and employment epicenter which is great if you relish the urban/suburban environment. For me, I spent my career in Denver dreaming of weekend escapes to my beloved mountains. I could tolerate 40-60 hours spent cube-bound so long as Friday through Sunday evening was spent at an elevation higher than a mile high (Denver’s professed elevation is 5,280 feet). The new work mode that’s taking hold in some places referred to as 996 (you work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 6 days a week) would never have worked for me and negates the entire reason I live in Colorado rather than say, Ohio or Alabama (with apologies to both of those great States). Now that I’m gainfully retired (is that even a thing? It should be…) my ongoing quest for a routine altitude adjustment from the front range flatlands hasn’t changed though the advantage of retirement is I don’t have to wait until Friday evening to head out of town. 

Recently my wife and I headed out to explore south central Colorado. Hooking up the camper our first stop was a town many of you already know and love: Crested Butte. Known for wildflowers, mountain biking, as well as great skiing I’ve spent a fair amount of time in CB and never get tired of this beautiful and unique mountain town tucked into the far end of the Gunnison Valley. As you’ll see in the video below we hit CB during one of its street fairs which meant some crowds in town but the hiking and biking trails were not busy at all so I was in heaven.

After a couple of days in CB we journeyed south to the little town of Lake City which boasts a population of 413 (as of 2024…. Might be 415 by now!). I’ll bet your high school had a larger population than that. Heck, my neighborhood King Soopers (one of our local grocery chains) has more than that. Now, if you haven’t been to Lake City I’m going to encourage you not to go (just kidding) because it’s peaceful and quiet and kind of a hidden gem. True to its name it features a beautiful lake

as well as access to a spectacular high mountain route called the Alpine loop that connects Lake City to Silverton and Ouray (two other Colorado gems). The Alpine loop is not by any stretch a highway. It’s not even paved. It spends much of its time far above 10,000 feet and the two passes we drove over (Cinnamon and Engineer) were both over 12,000 feet. And no, don’t plan on driving your normal passenger vehicle. Even though I drive a 4X4 truck we rented a 4X4 Jeep from the good folks at the campground where we were staying and was glad we did. In the off-roading community the Alpine loop is rated as “moderately difficult” and all I have to say to that is ‘Amen!’ If it’s only “moderately” difficult I’m not sure I want to behind the wheel of what qualifies as ‘very difficult’. Engineer Pass especially was an eye-opener with a couple of “Oh S@$#" sections that introduced a pucker factor not usually associated with driving a motor vehicle. Put another way I was a little envious of the dirt bikes and OHV’s that were the norm on most of the route. All that said, the Alpine Loop is stunningly beautiful and with a little caution and white-knuckle driving its doable by mere mortals. Still beware that the route is not only challenging but remote as well and you’ll pass signs warning that rescue services (let alone cell service) may not be readily available. And the rescue services are busy down there - just a week or so ago a Florida couple had to be rescued after driving into a snowstorm (I know, I know) atop Engineer Pass. 

From Lake City we journeyed over Slumgullion Pass (which is paved and features gloriously smooth asphalt) to South Fork Colorado which is swiftly turning into one of my favorite Colorado destinations (Shhhhhhhh! Don’t tell anyone). We were there last year to do some ‘rail biking’ but had also gotten in some great biking, hiking, kayaking and paddle boarding and sightseeing. Not a lot of Front Rangers make the jaunt to South Fork and you might be excused if you think its a suburb of Dallas (a great opportunity to practice your Texican…) but everyone was really nice, really relaxed, and just really glad to be there. This trip we ventured to the little town of La Garita which is so small it doesn’t even qualify for a U.S. Census population count. What it lacks in population it makes up for in the form of one of the most photogenic churches at which I have ever aimed a lens. La Garita is also adjacent to Penitente Canyon which features camping, hiking, and rock climbing as attractions. 

We also took a day trip to the town of Creede which claims a year-round population of 281 souls but swells to upwards of 5,000 come high summer. Thankfully we were there when nowhere close to 5,000 folks were in town. We availed ourselves of the opportunity to take in a show at the Creede Repertory Theatre and the very strong cast did play to a full house while putting on a wonderful performance.

Thanks if you’re still with me as I wasn’t planning on writing this long of a blog but this was a fun trip and as long as you don’t tell anyone else where you’re going I’d highly encourage you to visit this less traveled (less traveled being a relative term…) part of the State I call home and which to this day I’m still getting to know.

Aaaah, Fall…

The calendar says it’s October but across much of the country you’d think it was still mid-summer. My better half and I actually went kayaking at our local reservoir a couple of days ago and it was just darned hot, even out on the water. Normally folks would be hauling their boats out of the water and waxing up their skis in anticipation of cooler temps and white flakes lazily falling from the sky but this year… not so much.

The news says it’s in part due to abnormally warm ocean temperatures near China and Japan that’s pushing the jet stream northward and allowing abnormally warm temperatures to rein across much of the United (?… maybe we need to change that name like someone did with the Gulf of America) States. I know the snow and cold will ultimately make their presence known, but for now having summer extend well into autumn is okay with me. 

Up in the Colorado hills it’s been a fantastic fall foliage season, perhaps the best I have ever seen. That is, if you could actually get up there to witness it. In Colorado one mountain town closed the exits from the interstate due to the hordes of folks descending on the town in their annual pilgrimage to see Populus Tremuloides (the quaking aspen) go from its summer green to its fall yellow. And this year there was also a lot of gold, red, and orange as well. A year or so ago my better half and I had spent a considerable sum on a fall foliage cruise up the Atlantic seaboard from Boston to the Canadian maritimes and while I know the fall colors back east are amazing on that trip at least the colors we saw paled in comparison to what our local aspens put on display this year. 

It’s getting to the point that if you try to get to the Colorado High Country on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday it may not be worth your bother. What’s normally an hour and a half to two hour jaunt can easily turn into a five or six hour ordeal - one way. But not to worry… its only anticipated that our state will grow by another 1.72 million people by 2050. I’m fortunate enough to be retired so I have the luxury (and luxury it has truly become) of being able to head to the hills during the middle of the week when mid-week traffic on I-70 is only as bad as weekend traffic was five or ten years ago. But I digress.

Once you made it above 8,000 feet, traffic notwithstanding, you were treated to some amazingly vibrant colors. I spent my time around Twin Lakes, Leadville, and Estes Park (went to Estes because of the government shutdown thinking the crowds would be smaller and they…. were!). Here’s some of what I saw:

Of course all those vibrantly beautiful leaves must fall and much of my time over the next couple of weeks will be spent dutifully raking and bagging said leaves so that my trash company can do me the honor of hauling them away one trashcan-full at a time. Not quite sure where to put the rest of our household trash, but that’s a topic for another day. For those of you who were fortunate, and brave enough to get into the hills to see this year's changing colors… congratulations! You were among the few and the proud and your efforts are to be applauded. And for those unlucky enough to have been caught up in the traffic nightmare that I-70 routinely becomes, my condolences and please don’t read this while driving on the mountain highway… well on second thought, go ahead… you’re not going anywhere anyhow.