Colorado 2014; Through Wednesday August 27, 2014

We left home last Friday afternoon for the drive up to Raleigh and our overnight stay with Matt & Kelly. We had a good drive except for passing through a very heavy rainstorm just south of Raleigh. 

Saturday morning Matt and Kelly took us to the airport and by mid-afternoon we were in Denver at our hotel! We had a change of planes in Dallas and just arrived into Denver before a big thunderstorm hit the airport. Jill managed to get some interesting shots from the aeroplanes along the way.

Crop circles, not alien ones!

Our hotel in Denver is about a 10 minute drive from the airport and our room has a view of downtown Denver and the mountains beyond.

Denver with the Rockies in the background

Sunday we drove out to Parker, CO to visit with Pat Cowan an old neighbour from Ocean Ridge who moved out to Colorado about 8 years ago. We had a great time catching up on news and after lunch Pat took us to Castlewood Canyon State Park where we had a nice walk and had the opportunity for some photos!

Then it was back to Pat's for a quick cuppa before driving back to the airport to pick up Phil and Lynne. That accomplished we got them settled into the hotel for the night and Jill and I went out for a quick bite.

Monday we set off on our Colorado road trip! Our destination today was Breckenridge, but we had decided to take a more scenic route there than hopping on I70 so detoured via Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

At Estes Park we had lunch before tackling the Trail Ridge Road, one of the highest roads in North America, at times we were over 12500' above sea level, we got some amazing views, though we didn't spend long taking photos as it was cold and the wind was howling!

The road down below

Volcanic Cliffs

Then down to Grand Lake, Granby, and Parshall and then onto Breckenridge where we will spend 3 nights before moving on.

We are now settled into our 2 bedroom townhome at the Mountain Thunder Resort. It's our home for the the next three nights. After unpacking we took a little drive into Breckenridge and found a great pizza place for dinner, Giampetro's Pizza.

Tuesday morning we went for a walk around Breckenridge, it's a very nice place and we're glad that we decided to settle here for a few days. All of the towns in this area were settled in the mid 1800's as gold and silver were discovered in the area. The ravages of that mining are still evident as you drive around.

Tuesday afternoon we drove to Eagle so that we could get Phil added as a driver, that's the location of the nearest Budget Rental Cars! Then on the way back we stopped of at Vail. We had not realised that Vail is a modern town, only founded in 1962 and devoted entirely to winter sports. It has an almost European Alpine feel to it and very different to Breckenridge where the history of the town exudes everywhere. 

Wednesday we set of to explore Leadville and its mining history. On the way we passed the townsite of Climax, so called by the railway engineers as they crested the Freemont Pass when they built a railway from Vail to Leadville. It is the site of one of the world's largest Molybdenum mines. The mountain has been eaten away by the open cast mining!

Climax in more ways than one!

The Climax Molybdenum Mine

Leadville has clearly seen better days, it just needs some $'s to spruce it up, but it has a world class mining museum that we enjoyed touring.

A Victorian House

Oldest continuously operating hotel in Colorado

Snowy mountain vistas

Overnight accommodation?

Then the drive back to Breckenridge via Buena Vista and Fairplay. We could see snow falling on the high peaks and in fact many of them were snow covered from an overnight snowfall. 

Snow falling with the Arkansas River in the foreground

Storm's a coming!

We managed to avoid any weather and got back to Breckenridge safely over the Hoosier Pass where we stopped to take a few photos as we crossed the Continental Divide.

Phil draining into the Atlantic and Lynne the Pacific!