Sunday, July 13, 2014

Jul 13 – Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway

Today we did an all highway driving trip looping around the the mountains that are just to the east of the campground.

It turned out to be not that exciting a drive. We should have just headed up another dirt road.

As everyday can’t be amazing and this blog is a record of what we did, here are some pictures anyway.

Heading north along the Arkansas River. It is a fairly shallow river with lots of rapids so there are rafting companies everywhere. Jennie is definitely not into that.

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Then into a wide flat valley.

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I had read in someone’s blog that a nice short side trip was the road around Turquoise Lake. Again it was not that great. We only got a few views of the lake itself and it was now cloudy. I am sure the colour would have been deeper in the sun.

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Over a dam.

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We went by this one section where it said that there was no stopping due to falling rocks. All along it the guard rail looked really banged up so some big ones must come down.

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Just before the end we stopped to see a tunnel that feeds the lake from the other side of the mountains.

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Coming back on the north side of the lake you climbed way up but there were even fewer views and for those you had to hike in a short way.

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Onwards northeast on Highway 91.

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To the top of Fremont Pass and a huge molybdenum mine.

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The mine is 70 years old and has really ripped into the mountain.

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We stopped at a display across the road.

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Just a short way down from the pass we stopped at a pullout for lunch.

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It turns out that the valley is filled with tailings from the mine and is currently being rehabilitated.

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The long downhill to I-70.

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A short ride east on the interstate.

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We exited at the town of Frisco and then when through the town of Breckenridge. Both were typical outdoor sports towns that could have been anywhere. Since we are not into mountain biking and the shops are way too expensive for us we didn’t stop.

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We had done a ski trip to Breckenridge in 2008. I remember really liking the skiing. I am going to include some pictures from that trip to fill out this post.

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Looking down on town.

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We had a couple of bitterly cold days.

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We are going to have to go skiing somewhere this winter. I miss it.

Meanwhile back to summer.

We descended into a wide valley for the drive home.

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Back at the RV, I had been complaining that I had not been able to see a good lighting storm. Today I was in luck. While we sat in the sunshine, a big storm with lots of lightning went by to the south of us. Of course I was not lucky enough to get a picture.

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Tomorrow we head back up the dirt roads into the mountains.

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