A World Of Its Own...Colorado + The Rockies

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
There's sooo much stuff all around, :doh: all those names like Aspen and Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and the historic gold+coal town of Leadville, the old ghost-town of Tincup somewhere right up there in some tucked-away alpine valley....it's hard to make a decision of which way to turn in the mornings.:???::???:


Skipping Aspen and the sealed Independence Pass for two high-altitude gravel passes, the Cottonwood and Cumberland passes, the latter leading from Tincup to Pitkin , gold+shovel-country...


https://goo.gl/maps/FHXR4P2WaXN2


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It's hard to tell if Leadville is hanging on by the skin of its teeth or is "slightly resurging"... it's the former, I guess. Still, there are some glimmers of hope and maybe turning it into a full tourist-town might mean survival.


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Post Box glory....

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Everything in its proper bag, aye?!!!



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Proper bag, yessir!!:eek: If that bag is full, let's buy 'em out of their stock!!
(maybe the town's resurgence is closer than I thought?)W-)


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If it ain't a twin-stacker, it ain't worth having.
The "V8" main-street BBQ joint, sadly closed for breakfast.:(


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There certainly were some Grande-Times around here...



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Not just hanging a shingle on the wall...the local Freemasons sure know how to advertise their stuff.



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And...shit, mate!!....amongst the weed they're growing KLR's here!! :eek::eek: Whoohoo!!:clap:



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Time to keep tacking south, the mountains are calling.



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Another small town, Buena Vista....looks like we just missed the last show at the Drive-Inn. And a proper one it is, there are still a few hundred metal speakers wired to those posts. None of this hi-tech crocodile-clip on the car-antenna B/S


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Time to get off the main roads and up into those mountains...eastern ramp of the Cottonwood Pass.
http://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/3806-cottonwood-pass.html


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Say THAT name with a mouthful of Krispy Kreme Donuts!!!



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Marmot country


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Surprise-meet...and what a beauty!!



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John_Johnny

Long Timer
Another small town, Buena Vista....looks like we just missed the last show at the Drive-Inn. And a proper one it is, there are still a few hundred metal speakers wired to those posts. None of this hi-tech crocodile-clip on the car-antenna B/S

Ahhhh, Drive-In memories. Playing on the swings and slides under the screen. Intermission with choc tops, hamburgers and chips. Driving off with the speaker still in the window. Those cables don't break! Kung Fu movies where the voice didn't match the lips. Alvin Purple (my 1st R rated movie). Trying to sneak in over the fence or in the boot. One night my so called mates wouldn't let me out.
And now my house is exactly where the Drive-In screen was.

I see nothing but blue skies in your pics. Boy oh boy you guys were lucky.:gday:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
I see nothing but blue skies in your pics. Boy oh boy you guys were lucky.:gday:

...and you won't....until the last few hours of the last day.

Folks always ask what's the best travel time for Europe/ US... most stable weather, best temps, least rain, rahrahhh
Reply September/ early Oct... and they buy tickets for June/ July :doh:W-) :bs

Sure, there's no guarantee.... but 9 outta10, it's a winner!!
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Taylor Park Lake ....


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As idyllic as it looks, it's got that pungent smell of "roughneck"-country.
Hunters, fishermen, a fleet of ATV's out the front of the "Trading Post"....
anyone with a 10" long nose full of warts, crazy eyes, wearing a bear-skin rug and limping on his 3-toed feet would be considered "family" up here.:bs :wink:

The "Trading Post"


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We're off to Tincup, the old Gold-Town.... now Ghost-Town-in-the-process-of-conversion-to-Yuppie-Retreat. :eek:
Past the small settlement the gravel gets coarser, the potholes bigger and deeper. But man, the little valley pointing up to Cumberland Pass is like from another planet!!



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A few miles up Cumberland Pass and it's all over for the Kia People-Mover!!
The 4"-6" road-base rockery is way beyond the tyre+ground clearance specs of our Korean SpaceShuttle.
A 10-point turn on the steep, narrow road gets us back to Taylors Park Lake and south to Gunnison, quite a substantial place and local commercial+traffic hub.
 

Williamson

Part of the furniture
Nice stuff there Pete, just keep it coming .......

Ahhhh, Drive-In memories. Playing on the swings and slides under the screen. Intermission with choc tops, hamburgers and chips. Driving off with the speaker still in the window. Those cables don't break! Kung Fu movies where the voice didn't match the lips. Alvin Purple (my 1st R rated movie). Trying to sneak in over the fence or in the boot. One night my so called mates wouldn't let me out.....

Drive-In memories ...... better not go too far on this one, but ......

Last visit to the drive-in was a two family and friends affair at Coburg in the 90's, they had three screens operating concurrently, one or two kids movies, one R rated.

Brother-in-law and I in one car with three of four kids, Helen and sister-in-law in other car with three or four kids. One of the nieces in our car (with head turned, looking out the back window at the R rated screen) says, "Daddy, what is that lady doing to that man? Is she hungry?" ..... or words to that effect.

Come on Pete, let's get back to normal viewing before I tell some drive-in stories I shouldn't.
 
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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Tacking south towards Gunnison, the Taylor River sprouts some fantastic campgrounds....


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Once more, the Interagency Pass comes in handy, for day-use as well as reduced camping fees.


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Near Taylor Canyon




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The hotels.com/expedia/whatever booking for the "Seasons Inn" in Gunnison http://bit.ly/2eFKK7P turns out to be a dead-set match for the Clarkes Junction Pub in NZ (South Island) for the biggest shithole ever encountered. Together with the Commonwealth Hotel at the Orbost roundabout in Gippsland, it makes for a trifecta of flea-hive dumps without equal.
We sure stayed in some trashy, filthy joints in our decades of travels...but the Seasons Inn in Gunnison took the bloody cake, jeezaz!

Thankfully the "manager" played along and refunded the pre-paid $$ to carry across the road for some clean sheets (and great brecky) at the EconoLodge.

An hour later it was all laughs, EXCEPTIONAL tucker (and Mexican FOAMIES!! :drool:) at the El Paraiso Mexican Restaurant in town....loose one, win one :happy::happy:
Order their Mar Y Tierra molcajete dish....it's heaven.


This one is pinched from Google...but it shows the idea of cooking in a big basalt stone bowl.

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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
How do you pick "The Best" out of a mind blowing, daily barrage of impressions??

No idea!

But if there was ONE stand-out day in this Rockies-caper that I'd love to repeat exactly the way it was, it'd be this one.

The Kebler Pass was simply the Rockies at their very BEST! :glu:drool::drool:
Then add the totally unexpected Black Canyon of the Gunnison in the dying light of the day.:eek::eek::slobb:slobb

Both places had been flukes/trip-ups during the planning stages, chance tying them together into one day was something that was just somehow destined to happen. :doh: :lao:lao

A lousy 270k's or so...and what a punch it packed :happy:


https://goo.gl/maps/Vy6PHB1iEq22


Still not too far from Denver...


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They take their boot-scootin' to work here, yeeha!


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Early morning at Crested Butte...another sparkler on the rise :clap:

Crested Butte...~50k' north of Gunnison, major ski area and a little like St. Moritz/ Switzerland... a place where the "Old Money" goes, not the new-age riffraff.



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Hard to catch in a single frame...
Glassed-in atrium/ entrance hall with stumping views serving 2 separate buildings via a connecting "bridge-with-timber-deck"...magnificent piece of work + craftsmanship, magnificent place and location....whowww :glu




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Morning stroll to Long Lake/Meridien Lake...



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A taste of things to come...the mountains are BURNING in Aspen-Gold. :glu



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
The Kebler Pass gravel road is temporarily locked off as a rock-slide is imminent...it'll be open for 30 mins at noon.
We'll be there!!


In the meantime, let's have a quick look around town, try to find some icecreams and check out what the locals are up to in the run-up to the new snow-season....

Water??? How about BEER?!



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Bikes of all sorts are BIG in this town...lots of those pushies with monster-truck-tyres around...:doh:W-)


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I'll stick to what I'm used to....W-):whistle:



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Love those signs...and the gas-meters!



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Time to line up for the Kebler Pass crossing....



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