Jonesin' for a roadtrip, take 1
So I'm sitting around my home on the night of August 22, and I decide I need to get out of the city. Badly. I decide that bright and early the next morning, or whenever I finally decide to wake up, that is, I'm going for a drive. I decide to go west, but that's about all I know. And, as a treat to all of you, I decided to bring my camera along. One photo log is now up and ready for your viewing pleasure. Many of these photos are sized for a 1024x768 resolution monitor. Those viewing this site at a lower resolution may have problems. You've been warned. Hope you enjoy tagging along on my Sanity Break 2005 tour!
...but still going strong.
We're just about to the summit of Vail Pass. Then my camera starts to run out of batteries. I have a few pics of the east side of the pass, but not as many as I wanted. The east side is much more scenic. The westbound and eastbound lanes have quite a bit of distance between them, and there's a bike trail in the middle. New batteries were obtained in Frisco, which is about 10 minutes from the summit of the pass. Hint to digital camera users: the plain ol' Duracell batteries SUCK in cameras. I was able to get about 20 pics per pair of batteries after Frisco.
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A bicycle trail runs alongside the interstate over Vail Pass. Here, the trail is separated from the eastbound lanes by a temporary fence.
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The summit of Vail Pass. This is the second-highest point on the interstate system. The first highest is about 30 minutes ahead at the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnels.
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The area to the right is exclusively for trucks. Passenger cars have the rest area. Note the exit number: we just climbed just shy of 2000 feet between exits 180 and 190. Wow.
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Descending Vail Pass. The gaps in the trees in the background are the ski runs for Copper Mountain Ski Resort.
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Nearing the bottom of the pass. The BGS in the background is for the CO 91 interchange. 91 takes you back to Leadville. When Vail Pass is closed, the alternate route (if it's open) is to take 91 to US 24 back to 70.
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Just after the 91 interchange, 70 goes through a narrow gulch.
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The gulch is called Officers Gulch. We're at about 9300 feet at this point.
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This gulch is quite narrow, but it's still signed at 65 mph. I always feel like that's too fast.
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Okay. New batteries in the camera and we're ready to go. This is on the Dillon Dam Road in Frisco. Comrade Yamamoto has a snap of what this sign looked like before. I liked the old version better.
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When the weather gets kind of bad, the road gets closed here.
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One of the last remaining graphical falling rocks signs around. Just wish the pic would have come out better.
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When the weather gets really bad, these gates get closed. Comrade's picture above was taken just up the road from here.
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Emerging from the shadows of the rock cuts, we find ourselves on the top of the Dillon Dam. Everything else is about 700 feet down over the left side of the road.
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This reservoir is quite large. It even has marinas on it on the Frisco side. Those are sailboats in the distance.
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Coming down from the dam. US 6 heads straight ahead towards Loveland Pass. Everyone ready for another pass crossing?
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When folded, this sign reads "Watch your speed!" Open, I'm betting it reads "Watch for Ice on Road."
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US 6 is quite wide through here and carries a lot of ski traffic in the winter. That's an arm of the Dillon Reservoir on the right.
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This is the Keystone Ski Resort area. The signs have grooves for replacement words when lots are full.
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Just after Keystone, US 6 drops down to a two lane road again.
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On many of the non-interstate passes, CDOT tells you how long you have until the summit.
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I was slightly amused by this cloud "attached" to the mountain.
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Approaching the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, or A-Basin as it's called 'round these parts.
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A-Basin normally is able to stay open until July 4 every year. They are on the north slopes of the mountains and are at over 10,000 feet.
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We're getting close to timberline again.
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Just ahead is a CDOT maintenance facility. Keeping this pass open in the winter is quite a challenge. Many times it's impossible.
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The driveway to the maintenance shed is just to the right here. Good spot for this, huh?
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US 6 switchbacks up the west side of Loveland Pass quickly.
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Really close to timberline now. My image editor tried to automatically adjust the levels on this snap. Ugh. I couldn't do any better, though.
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Close to the top of the peaks up here.
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Remember, kids: this used to be the only way for interstate traffic to cross the Continental Divide before the tunnels were built on I-70. Can you imagine this road with seriously heavy traffic?
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Kept the road dark here to accentuate what isn't on the other side of that guardrail.
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Westbound trucks have a runaway truck ramp near A-Basin. This sign tells truckers about it. The "Occupied" part flips up to cover the "5 miles ahead" part.
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The summit of Loveland Pass. That stripe in the ground behind the Hill sign is a path leading you up to the summit of the closest mountain. It's about a 500 foot hike.
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The summit marker. We're at 11,992 feet right now. The tunnels on I-70 are at ~11,200 feet.
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Starting to descend Loveland Pass. Great panaromic shot of the mountains around here.
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The closer road is where we'll be shortly on US 6. The grey line a little further back is I-70.
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Trees and rockslides and dropoffs, oh my!
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We were up there, now we're down here.
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Work crews in the middle of a u-turn in the road.
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Closer to I-70 now. US 6 drops straight down (at greater than 6%, too) to meet up with the interstate. We pass by the Loveland Ski Area. There's even a spot where a ski lift goes right over the road. Of course, that pic didn't turn out.
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The junction of US 6 and I-70.
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And back on I-70.
- Where to next?
- Page 7
- This trip's Index
- Page 9
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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