Gold Camp Road Pictography
Headed west form the city of Colorado Springs, Gold Camp Road is an incredibly scenic way to get to the Cripple Creek/Victor area. It takes longer than using US 24 and SH 67, but the views make up for it quickly. Here's my pictorial essay of the "Trip that bankrupts the english language."
South and westwards
Officially, Gold Camp Road ends at 21st Street in Colorado Springs as Lower Gold Camp Road. However, it's marked from US 24 off of 26th Street, so that's the way we'll go.
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Starting at the marked way to get to Gold Camp Road at the intersection of US 24 and 26th Street.
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Heading south on 26th Street now, we pass the oldest cemetary in Colorado Springs (there's death dates in the 1780's) and a Sign of Fugliness™.
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A dancing arrow says hi. This guy's a master of understatement: this is actually two switchbacks.
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Starting up the switchbacks.
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How steep of a climb is demonstarted by the height of the electrical tower. It's cool lighting up the top of that tower with your car's headlights at night.
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At the intersection of 26th Street, Lower Gold Camp Road, Gold Camp Road, and Bear Creek Valley Lane. We'll turn right on Gold Camp.
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A closer look at the street sign to the left in the previous pic.
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The start of Gold Camp Road. Not too impressive now, but just you wait.
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The first of many, many rock cuts.
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I spy with my little eye... something very old at the saide of the road.
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The parking area for the Section 16 Trailhead. This goes northwest from here to the Green Mountain Falls area. Well, almost. There's some private property that blocks the trail. Also, check out the cameras watching the trailhead from the left side of the road.
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Rock cuts and parking all rolled into one shot.
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Dipping back into Bear Creek Valley. We intersect Bear Creek Valley Road (on the left) and one-way High Drive (on the right).
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Interesting sign. It'd probably be a little more interesting if it was legible. White text on a light blue sky? Puh-leeese.
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Heading up out of the valley. Here's a construction sign that's been around since 1988.
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Run-on sentences, anyone? The road is closed due to one of the tunnels collapsing. There's a heated debate raging now about weather or not to reopen the road to vehicular traffic. My vote is no, BTW.
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Narrowing road due to that rock outcropping on the left.
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Old cable guardrails are prevalent on this stretch of Gold Camp.
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Colorado Springs's growth has spread all the way up the side of the mountains to Gold Camp and beyond. These houses up here start at $750K and there's no upper limit.
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Where there's not houses, there's a ton of foilage.
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Still climbing.
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How high have we climbed? This is the view from the left. The curving road to the right center is Circle Drive (SH 29), and the two parallel strips above the trees are the taxiways for the Colorado Springs Airport.
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Zooming in on downtown Colorado Springs. You can pretty much tell where the eastern edge of the city is by where the trees stop.
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And we still climb some more.
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More rock cuts.
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Looking southeastwards now. That's the Broadmoor Hotel complex in the center. The Broadmoor is the only 5-Star rated hotel in the area.
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Did I mention that we pretty much hang off the side of a mountain for the first parts of this trip? No? Whoops. Hope you're not afraid of heights.
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At the end of the asphalt section. You didn't think we'd be on a paved road the entire way, didja?
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Ominous signs await traffic at the start of the gravel section. Can you guess which one is newer?
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Onto the gravel section! This becomes extremely narrow through here.
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Traveling torough a tight rock cut followed by a whole lotta air on the left.
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How narrow is it? There's not enough room for two cars to pass each other. The r-dub-mobile is sitting at about a 30 degree angle up the mountain to allow the 'stang to pass.
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A look at where we're heading. Hopefully that deep of a cloud will be history by time we get there.
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Another deep rock cut. So how did Gold Camp Road come to be a road? It started out as a railroad line bringing gold down to the city from the Victor mines. When the mines started drying up, a entrepreneur converted the railbed to a road and charged a toll for the trip. Today it's a city, forest service, and county maintained road for its entire 25 mile length.
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One of many trailheads off of Gold Camp. This one is for the Captain Jack's Multi-use trail.
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Proof of the trail's name. This is an older metal sign. I love the exclamation point, too.
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Just after Captain Jacks lies Tunnel #1.
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This tunnel is pretty short and is in great condition.
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This section as well as the closed section is a mecca for all types of outdoor activities. You have to keep your eyes open for random bicyclists and hikers.
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Looking over an arm of the North Cheyenne Canyon at the cut for Gold Camp Road. If you look closely in the valley, you can see the cut made for the Columbine Trail, which runs the length of North Cheyenne Canyon.
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We're about to turn west now, so this is the last glimpse of the city we'll see for a while.
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Some, but not many, rock cuts are wide enough for two cars to pass. This is not one of those.
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A break in the clouds allows us to get a great shot of the road and a cut.
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Another tunnel or a deep rock cut? You'll have to go to the next page to find out.
- Where to next?
- This trip's Index
- Page 2
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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