Colorado Calling!

Gradient is the elixir of life! I love the mountains! Michigan only has little bumps, I am sorry!

I finally made it up out of Denver with the Saturday morning ski crowd. That is a mean rush hour. I am glad it was not a powder day, that gets even more cannibalistic. There were several accidents and slow downs but I made it. Coming out of the Eisenhower Tunnel is always amazing! You then get a long downhill immediately after. As I previously mentioned this takes you through the Summit County area with all of the ski areas.

At the CO91 exit, I turned south past Copper Mountain. This road leads up over Fremont Pass toward Leadville. Fremont Pass is about 11,600 feet and had a lot of snow up there. The road is great, twisty with high rock walls and many fir trees. The chair lift at the top is for sight seeing. The wind was screaming!

Just on the south side of Fremont Pass is the headwaters of the Arkansas River. Perhaps I should have brought the fly rod as there were many people out fishing today.

The high mountain town of Leadville is at almost 10,500 feet. Originally a mining town, it is delightfully Victorian in its appearance.

After Leadville the road stays south until I hit US50, heading West again toward Gunnison. As you make your way down this section there are many high peaks off to the right, some reaching over 14,000 feet. Mt. Shavano is among these peaks.


The next stop was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This is an amazing spot as it seems so out of place. The park road climbs steeply up for 5 miles to gain the rim of the canyon. Until getting in the park there is no clue what is about to unfold. This canyon is actually deeper then it is wide at some spots. At the Chasm View it is only about 1100 feet wide but over 1,820 feet deep. It is hard to get photos of the canyon due to the shadows.

A road runs along the rim of the canyon going south to reach the high point in the park. There are many turnouts with short hikes to the rim for views down into the canyon. At times you can hear the river in the bottom but cannot see it.

Along one trail there are some interpretive signs that explain some of the high plateau flora and fauna. One that really amazed me is the Service Berry. This plant also grows in Michigan and is one of our earliest flowering trees. On the high plateau near the canyon it is a stunted bush about 4 feet high.
The drive from the canyon to Grand Junction was easy with mostly two lane 65 mph roads. It was about 60 degrees F here today at Grand Junction. My plan is to stay here tonight and see if I can ride in the Colorado National Monument tomorrow.

Homage to the Duke

On across Iowa!

I decided to pay homage to the Duke! John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa a little southeast of DesMoines. His birth house is available for tours and view of items from his life. I decided the drive by would be enough.

Surrounding Winterset is a number of well preserved and restored covered bridges. I think they are from the turn of the century. A real attraction for these bridges is the movie "The Bridges of Madison County". This is based on a fictional book of the same name. The story is of a woman, Francesca, who came to the US as a war bride from Italy, and meets a National Geographic photographer that is on assignment to document the covered bridges.


The land around Winterset is rolling farmland. One of the movie sets that can be found driving from the Interstate is the one used as Francesca's farm house.

The house is well guarded by a barbed wire fence and large notice of electronic monitoring.

The day then consisted of heading West as the traffic and roads allowed. The weather was great except for a steady north wind at about 15-20 knots. I had to dial in about a 15 degree turn to the steering wheel to keep the car straight.

That proved good for the wind farms that were seen along the highway. Two large ones were seen starting in Adair, Iowa.

Each of these farms had at least a hundred turbines cranking out the electricity.

The next state I80 traverses is Nebraska. It is long and flat. Over 400 miles mostly traveling along the Platte River. The most extraordinary thing I saw was the, literally, millions of Sand Hill Cranes migrating north. I was not able to get any decent shots of the birds other then the long distance from the rest area.

The day ended with the sun setting over the Colorado high plain before the rise of the Front Range. I spent the night at a delightful WalMart in Fort Morgen. There were many other travelers including semi tractor trailers, RV's and others in their cars. The only problem encountered was the temperature fell to 10 degrees F due to the clear sky. I had a pleasant night in my down sleeping bag, but the inside of the car was quite frosted over in the morning and my water bottle was froze solid.

The last stretch into Denver was awesome watching the sun come up behind me lighting up the fog and the mountains.

The drama began as I headed up I70 into the mountains. Just after the first incline and before Golden, Colorado, a Hummer managed to nail a Honda Accord and stop traffic for about 45 minutes. After this was cleared up traffic was backed up just before a short tunnel. After the tunnel away we go. My plan had been to go over Loveland Pass instead of the Eisenhower Tunnel but I thought the warnings and the high wind I could see blowing snow off the tops of the mountains indicated using the tunnel.

Coming out of the tunnel is always exciting as you are now in the middle of the area that is home to Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin, Copper, Vail, and Eagle's Nest Wilderness. Several 14,000 foot mountains are just to the north of the highway.

That's all for now, I will get some shots of the mountains in the next update. The plan is to head south near Cooper and go on to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, up toward Grand Junction to perhaps ride in the Colorado National Monument.

The Trip is GO!

After much anticipation, the trip is finally go!

The Subaru was loaded up last night with all my stuff. Herself cut off all excess hair from my head. The weather checked one last time.

I made it out the door at about 4:40am edt. Traveling in the early hours has always been easy for me, a cup of coffee and NPR, just cruising.

Made Chicago before rush hour began. Paid my $0.60 toll and kept on cruising. The sun came up on a mostly cloudy day that keeps getting chillier. The temperature is now 30 degrees F. That's ok because I am not outside in it.

Saw my first large wind farm some where near Ottawa, Illinois. It appeared to be about 50 good size machines on the south side of the interstate.

I was crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa just as Herself called to check up on me. She beat me to the punch by about a minute, I was going to call as soon as I made it into Iowa.

I stopped at the rest area about 3 miles inside Iowa for a break. Iowa is cool they have wireless internet in the rest areas, hence I figured I better do my first update.

I am hoping the nasty weather farther West stays south of I80. Then all will be well.

Better head in to the rest room. Next update probably in Nebraska.