Roadtrippin' Colorado Style

Ugh. I thought we were closer than that.

Crossing the Continental Divide. At the elevation that much of Colorado Springs lies above.

Okay, we were at a loss here. What are these things? 12 foot in diameter, looked to be about a foot wide and a half a foot tall, and hollow. Any guesses?

Hopefully somoene at CDOT sees this. See? This is how our highways should be signed.

Now the clouds are going to start to come into play.

The Hadsell Road exit. What's so special about this?

The exit lies at the top of the second passing of the Continental Divide. The interesting thing is that the map we were using only showed 80 crossing the divide once.

Otherwise, exit 206 has nothing special going for it.

Colorado used to use those Give 'em a BRAKE signs in the late 80's/early 90's.

Fold-open sign for random closures. My guess is that the other road that would be closed would be eastbound US 30 where it splits and heads north with southbound US 287 towards Medicine Bow.

Hey look! More two lane action. The construction has been everywhere on this trip.

This sign is technically correct since the left lane has the mainline 80 traffic while the right lane has merging traffic. It just looks weird, that's all.

Coming up to the town of Sinclair. Wait a minute, you say, I know of the gas stations by that name, is this a coincidence?

Probably not.

This closure point fines trucks and cars stopped on the highway.

Okay, this is getting tiring.

Old truss bridge on an old alignment. The sign in front of the bridge reads Legal Loads Only.

Another climb into some snowier areas.

Too bad the sun went behind the clouds for this picture.

More work zones.

This time the work is consisting of ripping out the old roadbed and replacing it, presumably in cement.

Had to stop for a pit stop. Got out of the car, looked back southwest, and saw this shot.

A long line of wind turbines. The turbines stretched out as far as the eye could see to the north.

Looks like rain ahead.

Those clouds are really dropping some moisture ahead.

And it looks like we're going to drive right into it. Yay.

Maybe not. 287 is a great shortcut between Laramie and Fort Collins, and it doesn't look as threatening heading south at this point.

Abandoned power poles stretch for a few miles outside Laramie.

As soon as the little one saw this sign, the "How many more minutes?" questions started. The answer? 2.5 hours, give or take.

I have never seen this rest area open. What was the point of building it if it'll never be open?

When in Wyoming, US 287 is quite unimpressive. Yeah, there's some hills and valleys, but nothing compared to what happens as soon as you cross into Colorado.

An interesting thing to point at is just ahead.

Many maps show Virginia Dale as a town along 287. Nope, try again. The other side of the town limits is at the t-bar type sign on the left. There's nothing much out here.

Yup. Nothing much at all.

Well, except for the Virginia Dale Community Church.

Interesting rock formations.

I saw some for sale signs out here. I wonder what land here is going for. We're not in civilization, but it's only about 30 minutes away.

Turnoff to the town of Livermore. I'm betting not a lot of alcoholics live in Livermore.

21 miles is soooooo much better than 425.

287 curves around some sizable rock formations.

And when it can't circumvent, it goes through the rocks.

That's a pretty opinionated rock.

Back at Ted's Place. We've been here before.

Since we've already seen this stretch of road and points south, I only have two more pictures for you. First up is this cool view.

And this cool sign at a railroad crossing that goes diagonally across an intersection.

Last but not least, a shot of the little one as proof that I was not making the whole thing up. She's in there somewhere. Blanket and pillow forts rule!