Colorado Peak to Peak - Day 1

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Peak to Peak, Colorado Day 1 - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - Monument, CO to Nederland, CO

After our morning walk and doing a few last minute chores at home, we left the house at 9:45 for a Fall Peak to Peak road trip.

The weather was beautiful at 70 degrees and with bright blue skies. There was a light dusting of snow on Pikes Peak, our Golden Eagles were soaring in the thermals over Elephant Rock, and just up the road, the buffalo were grazing peacefully in the fields of Greenland Ranch. Our scrub oak is just starting to turn golden brown at our altitude of 7400 feet.

Our route took us on always-congested I-25 north to C-470. On I-70 we climbed west to Exit 243 to Central City. These Denver foothills are sprinkled with huge beautiful homes with a few “For Sale” signs, a sign of the times!

At Idaho Springs, we got on the Central City Parkway. Originally, this was the site of the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859. Now this new four-lane highway takes tourists and gamblers along Clear Creek to seek their fortunes in the Central City and Black Hawk casinos.

These two cities were once booming mining camps. We stopped to take a few photos in Central City where many of the old miners’ and merchants’ homes have been restored. The huge casinos are the main attraction but there were hardly any people here today.

From Central City, we traveled on CO-119, a recently well-paved 2-lane road. There were a few fly fishermen along the streams on the way to Nederland. This community is the site of the annual Frozen Dead Guy Days, which occurs every year in early March. It commemorates an early attempt to use cryonics to preserve a grandfather of a city resident until science progressed to where he could be brought back.

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Picture 1 - Route Map - Colorado Rocky Mountains
Picture 2 - Entrance to Central City and Black Hawk
Picture 3 - Vic and S2000 in Black Hawk
Picture 4 - Peak to Peak Highway Sign
Picture 5 - Colorado Rocky Mountains in HDR
Comments for Colorado Peak to Peak - Day 1


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Jesper Poulsen
September 19, 2008 - 12:02:47 PM
Awesome HDR picture, which gives an incredible feeling of depth. What is this peak to peak trip?