Jonesin' for a Roadtrip 2
I wake up and the first thing I think of is "I have to get out of the Springs for a while!" Sounds like a roadtrip to me. Grab the camera, fill up the car, and let's get going. On my last trip north, I noticed some great things to get pics of but ran out of daylight. That won't be a problem this time! The pics for this trip start up right where that last trip left off.
Coming to a close
So our daylight is quickly waning. There's some more pics I want to show you, so please forgive the progressive crappiness of the pics on this page. My camera is just not that happy in low light situations.
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You don't see the pointed LBS's around here much anymore. Not sure why.
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Waaaiiiit a minnit. Does that say Business Route?
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Yup. Sure does.
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I guess there's no gas along the business route anymore. Wasn't there any blueout available?
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Right at the intersection of SH7 and Bus SH 7.
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Headed towards 72. Check out the mileage marker: not even fifteen miles old and 7 already has its own business route. Not bad!
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After a few miles, BR 7 meets back up with SH 7. SH 7 passed through some pretty impressive rock cuts on a long descent to where we are now.
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This road doesn't look too happy anymore.
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Another Point of Interest. And they're not talking about the folded sign. What are they talking about then? Well, guess you'll have to make a trip here to find out. Evil, aren't I?
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Approaching SH 72. The 2 of 72 does not mean the second branch of 7. It's just coincidence.
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A pretty graphic example of the fading plauging the state highway signs. The Yeild sign in the background has the color red that's supposed to be seen on the C in the state highway signs. Ouch.
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We've turned down 72 now. A few hundred feet into the road, I realized this was the END! of 72. After pulling a quick U-turn, I pulled back up to 7 to get this snap. 7 is in the far background, the End sign is in the middle, and the Scenic Byway sign is in the foreground. That's a Columbine flower on the scenic sign, BTW: Colorado's state flower.
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A close up of the END 72 sign. That's not a brand-spankin'-new End sign there.
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Headed the right direction again, we come across the first reassurance shield on 72. It lives right around a corner, so I had to play quick-draw with my camera. Hence the blurriness.
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In many of my other trips, I have pointed out the double-high roadside reflectors. Here's the reason why CDOT installs them that high.
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Graphical sign? We don't need no stinkin' graphical sign!
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Another big rock cut. SH 72 is full of these.
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This rock cut even has a mileage sign growing out of it.
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After much twisting and turning, we're about to descend into Nederland.
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And we descend quite rapidly. That stripe mid-pic is where we were about 2 minutes ago.
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Jackpot! My first sighting of the new MUTCD standard reduced speed ahead sign in the field that isn't on a construction sign. What do I win?
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A close-up of the sign. The green tag shows when the sign was installed. It reads 03.
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Good thing the speed limit drop is advertised, too: this sign is seen just over a small rise. You don't know the change is happening until you're right on top of it.
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Nederland boasts a pretty active roundabout in the heart of the city. Since we're running out of daylight quickly, we're going to start heading home via 119 and Boulder Canyon towards Boulder.
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Colorado really needs to figure out how to uniformly sign the roundabouts. Remember the shots from the first page of this trip? (Yeah, same trip: scary, huh?).
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Heading down Boulder Canyon on SH 119 now. We rapidly descend into Boulder.
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How rapid, you might ask? The advisory sign sez 10% Grade 3/4 Mile. Hang on!
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Here we go!
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Verification of the grade. The pic quality is really starting to go downhill. (No pun intended--or was it???)
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One thing about descending a canyon on a two lane road. You really believe you're going to run into the canyon walls on the curves.
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Continuing the descent.
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A wide spot in the canyon allows for recreational parking. Check out the stone walls along the edge of the parking area!
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That's an 8% in that blur. I'd say we're starting to flatten out, but we're really not.
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Trees and rocks and school buses, oh my!
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An intersection in the middle of the canyon. "Hang on," you say. "If we're in the middle of a canyon, where does the cross road go?" Well, I'm glad you brought that up. It goes...
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...straight up. Look for the guardrail.
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More stone wall goodness. Rule of thumb: if you see streetlights in a canyon in Colorado, it only means one thing:
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Tunnel! Hold your breath all the way through it!
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Quite a few homes line the canyon when it's wide enough to handle it. Many have private bridges over Boulder Creek. Some of these bridges, like this one, are a bit rickety.
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And then out of the blue you're spit out of the mountains and into Boulder, where Big Brother watches your speed.
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Let's finish up this trip with one more END!. This time, it's the northern end of SH 93. 93 is a major state highway linking Boulder to Golden. It's two lanes for the majority of its length, and it's constantly crowded.
At this point no picture I took was worth salvaging because of the lack of daylight. But you gotta admit, that was one heckuva roadtrip today! See you for my next marathon roadtrip! -R.
- Where to next?
- Page 8
- This trip's Index
Section Links
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the orginizations listed within this site. I'm just a bored roadgeek with way too much time on his hands. All of the picts in this page are mine and mine alone unless otherwise noted. Remember, kids: stealing is bad, mmmm-k? I get quite pissy if things are taken without telling me. I don't like to be pissy. You won't like it either. If you want to link to this page, that's fine. Please shoot me an email beforehand so I can link to your page as well. K? Thanks. --Ryan
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