We shared dinner Wednesday night with our friends Brian and Kristina. Being working people, they only had a brief time in the evening to visit with us, so we met them at Taco Party, a downtown Grand Junction, "upscale taco joint" (doesn't sound right, does it?). A dozen tacos, soft drinks and two orders of guacamole later, we convinced the server to the our picture!
Brian has too much time on his hands! He has lifted, wheeled and tired, and push barred his Dodge to the point that law enforcement officers often do a double take. As they should, since his latest claim to fame is an almost 900 mile trip, completed in 15 hours without a break except for gas!
Leaving Palisade on Thursday morning, we were treated to a trip through Colorado's, and probably America's, most beautiful canyon road: the Glenwood Canyon Highway. I70, between the town of Glenwood Springs and Dotsero follows the Colorado River through a narrow canyon twelve and a half miles long. This crown jewel of the interstate system was held up for decades because of environmental concerns, but eventually a plan was developed to cantilever large portions of the highway above the river. It has become one of the most beautiful stretches of highway in the country, and, without a doubt one of the most highly acclaimed engineering feats as well.
Eventually, we began to get into red rock formations, and we thought we had it made through the Rockies.
But, off in the distance....
Eagle, Beaver Creek, Vail, Copper Mountain, and Brekenridge. All with ski-able snow on the 6th of May!
Just east of Frisco, I70 enters the Eisenhower Tunnel under Loveland Pass. The 1.693 mile long tunnel passes beneath the Continental Divide at an average elevation of 11,178 feet above sea level and is listed as one of the highest vehicular traffic tunnels in the world. It was completed in March of 1973 at a cost of 108 million dollars, roughly 675 million today. It provides a faster and safer alternative to US6, the "Old Road".
Just before arrival at our destination, we passed a partially frozen lake near the town of Silverthorne.
Turning off of I70 at exit 243 got us on the Central City Parkway. In about eight miles we pulled into site 9 at the Denver West/Central City KOA. It's a nice site and overlooks the towns of Central City and Blackhawk. This site has a concrete pad, fire pit, grill, and table.
We can look out the front window down into Central City.
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