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."
Past trestles and county lines.
We're still traveling westwards on Gold Camp Road. We've seen how the builders used the old railroad trestles to create paths over low points, now we'll see how scenic this road gets.
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Heading over the filled-in trestle we saw in the last page. I wish that the sky was not as cloudy today. These would have been some fantastic shots. As it stands, though, I can't complain about these pics.
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Another rock cut. If you ever wanted to get your year's share of rock cuts, this is the road to take.
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Another filled-in trestle.
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How we know when we're entering Teller County. If you look down the road a bit, you can tell that the road quality may be a-changin'.
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Teller County is a fan of making the dirt road as close to a washboard as they can. And they do a heckuva job, too.
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The Aspens are coming! The Aspens are coming!
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This cut kinda scared me, especially with the amount of rocks lying in the road around the curve. I sped up a bit so that the r-dub-mobile wouldn't need cosmetic surgery.
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Now who was the careless one who left this view laying around off the side of the road?
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Rosemont Reservoir is one of a few Colorado Springs Watersheds open to recreational use. The others are on the north slope of Pikes Peak. There's a line of reservoirs on the south slope of the peak, too, but they're not accessable to the public.
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If you squint, you can make out part of the reservoir in the trees on the left. This is the clearest vantage point to see the rez.
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The forest rangers have been really good about marking the roads motorized vehicles are allowed on. And, if I'm not mistaken, if you take this right and follow the road to its end about 11 miles up, you'll end up at a reservoir that lives at 12,000 feet. I'd try it, but that road scared the underside of the r-dub-mobile. Gotta get me a 4WD one of these days.
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Coming up on some serious recreating. These guys were on dirt bikes and in 4WD's with oversized tires, they had mountain bikes in the back of one truck, and there were kyaks strapped into one of the trucks, too. Combine that with the obligatory cooler of chilled fermented barley beverages and the golden retrievers wandering around, and you have a great time, Colorado Style.
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Guess what? I think we're about to go through another rock cut.
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Now this is a cool sign. They don't make them like this anymore, that's fer sure.
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Well, there used to be a cattle guard here. It's under the gravel somewhere now.
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Interesting that there's this much water next to the road. There hasn't been a good rainstorm in a while, so this must all be snowmelt. Don't let this fool you, though. It's still incredibly dry out here.
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Smooth rocks for a cut.
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Another turnoff. Again, the r-dub-mobile wouldn't have stood a chance.
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Going over another trestle. Curved one at that. Note how Teller County doesn't care if you drive off the edge. There's no reflectors to guide you here, like there are in El Paso County.
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Yeah, another rock cut, but this one's HUGE.
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Nice shot.
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Okay, with this cut, we'll play "Let's photograph the entire thing!" Ready?
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Entering the cut.
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In the middle of the cut. I'm keeping a wary eye to the sides. Care to guess why?
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And we're spit out onto a filled trestle. Wasn't that a fun game?
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Looking to the left at a not-too-shabby view.
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OK, remember what I said about that last HUGE rock cut? I take it back.
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I was feeling very insignificant driving through this.
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So it was about here where I realized I was moving slow enough that I could actually hold the camera out the window and take the shots without any risk of any damage to the camera. I figured this would lead to better shots than shooting through tinted glass.
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Of course, old habits die hard. See if you can tell where the camera was in relation to the windshield for the rest of the trip.
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So remember when I said this was an old railroad line? Here's proof.
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Bumper level checking out the railroad ties and the direction we came from.
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Looking to the left at the passing mountains.
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All this washboarding has jarred the r-dub-mobile enough to start knocking things loose. There goes my trusty altimiter!
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We're starting to head into pockets of private property. That's a driveway we see ahead.
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Where that driveway goes is over a hill to some home I wouldn't mind owning.
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Cliff on the right, valley on the left, narrow road in between. Nice.
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Looking at that valley that was on the left in the previous pic.
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R-r-r-r-r-roads have r-r-r-r-r-r-ridges.
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No s-it, sherlock.
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"This is a boring movie with a wooden plot." "Run off the road!" "If a tree falls on the r-dub-mobile, would anyone care?" (Get the joke?)
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Check out that valley. That's cool.
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Another one of those not-too-terribly-useful cattle guards. And what's that beyond the not-a-cattle guard?
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Why it's a tunnel sign advertising a pretty low clearance. You'll have to turn the page to see Mr. Tunnel.
- Where to next?
- Page 3
- This trip's Index
- Page 5
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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