Colorado Adventure 2009

Foreward: I took a ton of photos on this trip, so this thread is going to become very picture heavy. You are warned if you are on a slow connection I will be updating this thread as I have a chance to go through the photos. Enjoy!

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I arrived back home yesterday after spending the last nine days exploring the backroads of Colorado. My original plan was to head out by myself, but it turned out that Amanda had a few vacation days she needed to take before the end of the month, so she ended up joining me for the first four days, and then again for the last two. Since she was with me for the first four days, we decided to make our base camp at Chalk Creek Campground in Nathrop. Our first day was spent driving from Grand Junction to Nathrop on a couple of different trails with a little pavement in between.....which ended up taking most of the daylight hours, even with an early start to the day.


Day 1: Grand Junction to Taylor Park


We started out by taking Kebler Pass over to Crested Butte. This is a nice easy road that offers some great views of the West Elk Mountains. I've driven this road a number of times, so we flew through it pretty quickly.

I did stop for an early morning photo


....and at the pass


After topping off my gas tank in Crested Butte, it was off to Taylor Park by way of the Reno Divide / Italian Creek trail.





Once we reached the Reno Divide (I opted to skip the 'old' Reno Divide section this trip and will save that for another time), we started our way down along Italian Creek towards Taylor Park.

To be continued...

Beautiful pics as always. You really know how to put your time off to use.:drool:

Another nice trip report of Colorado from you, keep up the fun travels and trip reports for all of us to enjoy.
Thanks!

were there places you could see to pull off and make camp? what was the traffic like?

Scott

Bugetexpedition said:

were there places you could see to pull off and make camp? what was the traffic like?

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Plenty of places to camp along the trails. During the week traffic was light, but there was a little more on the weekends

Day 1: Taylor Park to Leadville

After arriving in Taylor Park, we could have easily driven over Cottonwood Pass and have been in Nathrop pretty quickly, but my goals were a little more ambitious for that first day Instead we headed north towards Aspen via Taylor Pass.





This was the most difficult section on the trail.






Climbing up to the pass

Great views from the top




Headed down towards Aspen




Before heading to Aspen, we took the short side trip up Little Annie and Midnight Mine Roads. These were just easy roads through a residential area, but there were some nice views to be had.

After topping off my gas tank in Aspen, we headed even further north to Basalt where we hopped on Frying Pan Road past the Ruedi Reservoir and on to Hangerman Pass.













To be continued...

Awesome! Thanks for posting. Keep it coming.

Thanks Randy, Nice to see some differnt trails, rather than the most popular ones.

KSJeep said:

Thanks Randy, Nice to see some differnt trails, rather than the most popular ones.

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Actually, I did run a bunch of popular trails this trip....but only ones that I have not run before.

Day 1: Mosquito Pass

After reaching Leadville via Hangerman Pass, there was still some daylight yet, and I felt like making the trek over Mosquito Pass....so we headed east on 7th St. and made our way towards the 13,185 foot pass.

Passed some old mining ruins along the way to the pass.









Headed towards Mosquito Pass.




Rocky switchback.


Narrower road near the top.

I liked the reflection in my windshield in this photo.


The mandatory photo of the sign.


Headed down towards Alma Junction.


Shadows growing long.


The sun hidden behind the mountain


A familiar name on old mining equipment at the North London Mill






Once we reached alma Junction, we hopped on the pavement and made our way to Nathrop. Surprisingly we made it to Chalk Creek Campground and got our tent and campsite setup just before it got completely dark out. It was a long first day, but we enjoyed it.

Day 2, to be continued...