1 year anniversary mega-trip
The r-dub site has been online one year as of 5/12/06, and I thought it best to celebrate with another roadtrip. I planned this one out before leaving home, and just kept going until the batteries in my camera were dead and the memory card in my camera almost full. What I was left with was a ton of pictures and a car with an additional 720 miles on it. Okay, maybe this trip was a little too long...
Heading back to the Front Range
Okay, I'm thinking that I may run out of daylight before I can get back to the Front Range, so we better start heading east again.
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Still under that really dark cloud from the last page, we see that SH 125 turns into WY 230 at the border. Yup, WY 230 connects to two different Colorado state routes.
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Looking down 125 at the border. Nice that our welcome sign fell down and went boom. At least someone came out and propped it up.
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Looking down 125 from the ridge in the background in the previous picture.
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125 travels through a whole lotta nothing on its way north and south from here.
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There's also very little traffic. I actually took this picture, tied my shoe, and meandered back to the car without a peep from another driver.
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Going over the Platte River. Since the South Platte is in the South Park area, I'm going to assume this is the North Platte River here.
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Interesting mile marker that was a subject of discussion in the MTR newsgroup reccently. Apparently this is labeled this way due to thefts of the Mile 69 signs. I was tempted to steal this just to mess with some minds.
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Approaching the intersection with SH 127 again.
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Which way to go? And can you see what is missing from this picture? (Hint: which way to go?)
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The only way we know which way 125 turns is to look at the signs on the crossroad.
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Remember that really low asset tag from the last page? Here's the bridge it's ... uhmmm... assetting.
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Rolling through a rock cut, we find ourselves back in Walden.
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Another shot of downtown Walden.
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At the intersection with SH 14 again. Since it's not too clear, I'll help you out: SH 14 turns right between the two gas stations.
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There is a sign at the intersection, it was just hidden behind that truck in the previous picture.
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We're back on eastbound 14 again.
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We'll be traveling on the Cache La Poudre (pronounced cash la poo dra, where dra sounds like the dra in draft)/North Park scenic byway as well now.
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SH 14 gets closed at times, too, but not as often as one might think.
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Heading straight towards those mountains, which are part of the Medicine Bow Wilderness Area.
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A reassuarance shield surrounded by scenery.
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SH 14 curves around property lines ...
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... and various hills and gulleys while heading out of the North Park area.
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Getting closer to the mountain range.
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This sign doesn't kid around. The last time I was on this road I almost took out a rather large jackrabbit.
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Framing the peak with some trees. If my camera would have been a little faster, this would have been framed perfectly on both the left and right. Oh, well: it's still a great shot.
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Another turnoff to Rand amongst some more controlled "Smokin' weed."
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Yurts! I got yurts! Getcher yurts here!
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All of a sudden I feel like I've been transported to a rural Maine highway.
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This isn't a typo. There's actually a Colorado State Forest State Park. Us Coloradans and our names, I tells ya.
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I wonder if this is a distant relative to Comrade Yamamoto's moose mission?
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How 'bout a side of scenery to wash down that yurt?
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More places to recreate. Is that what those kids call it when they pull off into a parking lot in a desolate place?
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Funny thing about this sign: there's not much in the way of cell phone signals up here. How you supposed to call anyhoo?
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Starting to ascend Cameron Pass.
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When the pass is bad, the only way you're getting past here is on foot. Then you'd just be a moron.
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Heading up the pass. Snow is starting to make an appearance on the sides of the road again. Not bad considering it was about 70° in Walden.
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We're still bordering Colorado State Forest State Park, by the way.
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I wonder how many times a year crews have to clear rocks from the road here?
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In four miles from the avalanche sign, we have a bit of snow on the sides of the road.
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At the summit of Cameron Pass. Yeah, there's a National Forest sign back there somewhere.
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One way avalanches happen in the high country is when this condition occurrs. See how much that snow is undercut? One weak layer of snow there and that whole bank will come crashing down. I got to see this happen on Loveland Pass once.
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The eastern turn around point. This pass doesn't have any majorly steep portions on either side of it.
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Yeah, we'll be headed downhill for a while. Again, there's nothing too steep on this pass. And that's a reservoir to the left. It was completely frozen over still.
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14 twists and turns down into the Poudre Canyon.
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So I'm tooling around, minding my own business when I glance to a side road and find this specimen of a sign. Just in case you ever wondered what a Level 6 Road is, this wordy beast will happily tell you. This is one of many signs at this Sign Convention™
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Just in case the Level 6 Road sign wasn't enough of an explanation, Larimer County added this one.
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Mr. Restricted Bridge just couldn't take it anymore. I was tempted to take this sign, too, but I already had the Mile 68.99 sign, remember? ;)
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Since I doubt this bridge was built in 952AD, I'm going to assume there's a "1" behind that post.
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Also at the Convention but being shy and standing apart from the other signs is this wooden gem.
- Where to next?
- Page 8
- This trip's Index
- Page 10
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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