the southern figure-8 tour
Looking back at the trips I've taken, I noticed something. I have gone north, west, and east of Colorado Springs, but I haven't headed south. I decided I needed to fix that. One eight-hour car trip later, I came back with a fistful of pictures. Here they are!
Pueblo, CO from the interstate
We're still motoring towards Pueblo, CO on I-25. The cloud cover we're experiencing should be pretty much history by the end of this page.
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Another fugly dancing arrow sign leading to another winding detour route. This detour and the one on the previous page are to replace some dying bridges over small gulleys.
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Exiting the mainline. The rumble strips on the shoulder weren't covered up at this detour.
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On the previous page, we saw the exit for Porter Draw. This box culvert is where the frontage road usually zig-zags to the other side of the I. Obviously, that's not going to happen right now.
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Instead of End Construction signs, this is how we're told the construction is ending.
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But wait, there's more!
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Another advanced warning sign.
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Normally these signs only have the Begin underlined, not the entire upper part of the sign. The correct version of the sign lives on the opposite side of the road.
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Entering Pueblo, Colorado.
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Lanes narrow, text shrinks.
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No, the sign's not broken. This VMS updates the message by scrolling each line left to right. I caught it mid-scroll. The other messages is "Eagleridge/Trucks No/Left Turn" (or something like that)
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RBGS stating how important exit 101 is to Pueblo. Lake Pueblo, aka the Pueblo Reservoir, is the closest thing to a major body of water to Colorado Springs, so it's where many people go to recreate.
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More slalom driving around exit 102.
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With the construction, the usual overhead sign was removed. This is what we have now. This is the only notice of the exit heading southbound.
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At the exit. US 50 East joins with 25 for a mile. SH 47 heads east from here (a BEGIN!ning!), curves past CSU-Pueblo, and intersects with US 50 east of town. It's a nice bypass route.
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Sign bridge goodness. I love the double arrows, the large (to the point of screaming at you) STREET!, and the I-25 sign on the left. You don't see those much in Colorado.
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Pueblo has its fair share of non-standard width bridges. Namely, all of them.
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The exit for US 50 east. This is a jughandle exit that's really tight.
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Exits start coming fast and furious now. There's an A and B exit for every mile for the next 4 miles.
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I've noticed a trend towards really large shields on the overheads recently. What's up with that?
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The decorative wall separates us from the railroad tracks. Those tracks are between us and the Arkansas River, which goes under the nice arch in the bridge in the background.
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Exit 99A. This is also where we finally escape the nastiness of the clouds and the pictures improve. 'Bout time.
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Anothe sign bridge. I love the Frontier Pathways Scenic Byway sign posted on the LGS. It's almost legible. For those of you trying to figure out how to pronounce Junta: it's "hoon" (rhymes with "coon") and "taah".
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Yikes. Where's the accel lane? This is at the merge for exit 99B.
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Another narrow bridge going over surface roads.
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The speed limit for 25 drops now, demonstrating Glenwood Canyon isn't the only spot in Colorado where the interstate has below-standard speeds.
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A dancing arrow and friends sign.
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Exit 98A. Another tight, narrow exit.
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Big beefy pole holding a smaller sign.
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Over another bridge. This bridge doesn't go voer surface streets...
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...it goes over the Arkansas River. The Historic Arkansas Riverwalk doesn't actually follow the river, just the river's water in a nicely maintained park setting.
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The exit to an older part of town.
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Now we get exits that take you to intersections of small side streets.
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This picture doesn't do the curve to this bridge any justice. The curve is necessary to get the road over the railroad tracks.
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The positioning of the clearance sign makes me wonder if it's for that side or the right side of the bridge.
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The RMSM plant is one of the biggest employers in Pueblo. They make many of the rails for various railroad companies here.
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Exit 96. We're out of the A-B exit mess now.
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A short onramp from a residential street. CDOT has big plans to convert this substandard freeway to something nicer, when money is available, that is.
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The BEGIN!ning (or END!, depending on your point of view) of SH 45. This is a western bypass of Pueblo. This is also the bridge that got hit hard by a errant truck. The pic didn't come out, but the damage to the lead southern median pillar is quite impressive. Because of the number of pillars on this bridge, CDOT was able to keep the bridge open for now.
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Back to warp speeds.
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And then its about 96 miles to the New Mexico border.
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This is how the majority of the bridges on I-25 look through this stretch. The interstate mostly crosses small gulleys.
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Most exits out here only get the Next Right sign. No arrow sign or 1 mile sign.
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Due to the layout of the land, two close exits were required here. Burnt Mill Road (the one we're about to go over) only heads west, while Verde Road heads east.
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Shouldn't the decimal mileage numbers be smaller than the whole mile numbers?
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Aahhh, that's better.
- Where to next?
- Page 1
- This trip's Index
- Page 3
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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