Travel Day

We finally got out of Golden not too far behind what we were aiming for. The Honda scooter Randy bought from his brother was easily strapped down on the pull-out tray behind. The weather was clear (even sunny at times), warm, and little winds once we got past the front range (foot-hills).

The drive was beautiful--getting glimpses of snowy peaks ahead of us, then eventually being among the high mountains. It was fun passing a number of ski resorts that are right along the freeway. One of the places literally skis down over top of the long Eisenhower Tunnel! Reminded me of one of the ski runs in Chile which did a similar thing (although that road was NOT a full interstate!) Vail looked like a hoity-toity town with mega mansions everywhere---definitely NOT a place we ever plan to visit! (Now I'm curious what Aspen is like...but we don't plan to go out of the way to see.)

It was strange to see the mountains changing as we passed over the continental divide...much drier and rockier, eventually looking far more like high desert than the mountains we have seen so far.

Glenwood Canyon is GORGEOUS...and that is before the aspen trees are even leafy! We had never heard of it before...but I-70 runs right through its 16 mile length. According to my aunt, it used to narrow down to a one lane road each direction, beside the Colorado "River" (looks far more like a CREEK along here!), with the train tracks immediately on the other side of the water and canyon walls sheer to both the railroad tracks and the road. Because it is supposed to be an INTERSTATE freeway...it is now a double decker roadway through the canyon, with each direction getting two lanes (sometime close beside each other like in this photo, sometimes westbound on TOP of eastbound!!!) Pretty amazing!