Roadtrippin' Colorado Style

If it isn't an elusive CO 67 shield! And his friend Scenic Byway Shield! Haven't seen one of these in about 25 miles! Pretty neat, I tell ya.

Right after US 50, 67 curves around a small runway. These curves are not banked, so it's tough to go over 35. Once you're clear of that, this is what you see for quite some time. Narrow road, no shoulder, and weeds about to overtake the road. This is definitely not high on CDOT's maintenance schedule.

We're still on the old railroad path headed towards Florence. This rock cut is quite old. Just after this cut is a pretty standard bridge over the Arkansas River.

Entering Florence, we're greeted with a Truck Route sign over the 67 shield. I'm assuming that this means trucks are only allowed on the state highway, but there's no sign saying that is the case. The only other state highway I'm familiar with that has this designation is SH 105 just north of Palmer Lake. Of course, that highway is decomissioned about 2 miles after that sign.

Here's something that's becoming more and more rare in Colorado: a button-copy sign. A city boundary sign, at that. The purple sign in the middle is one way Colorado signs its Adopt a Highway sections.

In the middle of Florence, 67 multiplexes with SH 115, which at this point is going east-west, not north-south. This means while traveling South on 67, you're also traveling North on 115. That's called a wrong-way multiplex, boys and girls. Too bad it's not signed that way. We only see the highway signs. 115 ends up curving northward into Cañon City, so when you're at the southern terminus of 115 you're facing north.

After downtown, 67 agains turns southward. Continuing straight on 115 will take you north to Colorado Springs, its northern terminus.

This is the only reason I can see keeping this section of roadway a state highway. The Florence Correctional Facility. This houses the worst of the worst of criminals. Jeff Dahmer, the Unabomber, etc. call this place home. Only thing missing here is the "Don't pick up hitchikers" signs like Texas has. Of course, there is a Super 8 motel just down the road. They could break out of here and go to there for a comfortable night's sleep.

This is the smallest sign in all the land. It says "Florence Mountain Park –>", but I had to slow down a lot to see that. Florence citizens have better eyesight than me, I guess.

I guess CDOT is still maintaining this stretch of highway. This is a brand new bridge. I like how they added the shoulders for the part of road near the bridge. Look up the road a bit. Can you tell where the work area ended?

A nice way of saying "don't tailgate, damnit" I guess. I've noticed Colroado is starting to use these two color signs quite a bit. Normally they are the "Truckers: Engine braking prohibited" type of signs, but this is starting to pop up too.

CDOT hasn't replaced all of the bridges along this route yet. This is what most of them looked like before replacement. That little white sign just to the left of the chevron-style sign is a state inventory marker. Now that's an inventory count I can handle: Bridge K-26-W? Yup, still there.

This is a blast from the past. Red asphalt. In the late 80's CDOT contracted a bunch of resurfacing projects to a local company. They used rock from the Pikes Peak region. Pikes Peak granite has a pinkish color to it, so all the roads they resurfaced did too. This is holding up very well considering it's going on 20 years old.

Approaching Wetmore. This is a dried up shell of a town. Yeah, there's some life here, but not a lot at all. The only thing this town has going for it right now is the fact that a state highway ends in it.

And the final END 67 sign we'll see today. I hope you've enjoyed the trip down 67 with me and my odd sense of humor as your tour guide. We started this trip at 2 in the afternoon, and it's approaching 6pm right now. In all, we have covered 130 miles, traveled over the Front Range, through the Platte River valley, through the Hayman Fire zone, through bedroom communities of Colorado Springs, through a gambling destination, over the tallest state highway bridge, down Phantom Canyon, and passed the roughest and toughest criminals. So what do we have to show for it? Tons of pictures, a new appreciation for the natural beauty of Colorado, and one hell of a sore ass from sitting for four hours. Mission accomplished.