Day 9: Estes Park, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO - 208 miles
This was supposed to be a short day to Steamboat. My park pass was for 1:00 again and I figured we'd mess around the area and head through the park again and down the back side. Since we did that yesterday, I changed the route. Man, was that ever a fabulous choice. I did, however, have to waste another 2 bucks by not using the entry ticket since we weren't going back in to the park. Good thing I won all that money in the slot machine at Deadwood.
We left Estes Park heading west back down Hwy 34. What a glorious sunny morning.
Just west of Loveland we turned north on to Buckhorn Road and wound around some hilly farm/ranch country for 25 miles until we hit Hwy 14 and headed west. A quick stop at a comfort station and off we went.
If you are ever near Hwy 14 in Colorado at the end of September, do all you can to find it and drive it. Seriously.
The next 131 miles to Steamboat Springs were some of the most fabulous road miles I have ever been on in my life. And I have been on some fabulous road miles before. Yesterday was really something, but today has just as much visual delight and there are NO cars. They are all down on I-70. The road picks up the Cache la Poudre River as it carves it's way through a rugged rocky canyon. There are no places to pull off. Dammit! Eventually you pass into lush mountain forests (albeit with some fire damage here and there) as you are now on the north side of Rocky Mountain National Park. The Aspens are everywhere.
And then we came around a corner face to face with an explosion of color - with a parking lot!!!
Where we came from
You can see the fire devastation
Where we are going. Great stop this was.
The road continues on (the actual road is wide and smooth and a joy to drive) through the forest and eventually rises to a final pass before heading down out of the mountains. A tinge of sadness hits me. (I shouldn't have been worried.)
We were now on our way to Walden in search of lunch. Even though we had descended into farm country again the scenery was still fabulous.
Tiny town of Walden for lunch
We jump onto Hwy 14 headed south and the countryside is ranchy, but the hills turn golden.
We eventually tie back in to Hwy 40 and climb back through a wonderful conifer mountain range dotted with glorious clumps of golden Aspens. Again, no turn-offs. We crest the pass and begin descending into the Steamboat Springs valley and this happens.
My wife actually decided to take a couple of pics here because the view was so breathtaking. She doesn't take many. The first 2 are hers. Man......she nailed it.
Got into Steamboat Springs and it started raining. The Springs has grown into a large resort area with lots of lodging and some fabulous houses, obviously dominated by their ski resort. They have produced more Olympians than any other area. Ski mountain in the background
Ducked into their art museum. The current showing was local artists. Someone else likes Aspens, I see.
Street life. Steamboat Mountain in background
Mainstreet is filled with a lot of nice shops. Boots, anyone?
Had dinner at the Steamboat Grand Hotel. They even had a pumpkin tree.
Got back to the hotel late. All the parking was taken. So I parked here. Not in a slot.
They said I couldn't do that. I had to go to the lot across the street. The pitch black, unpaved lot across the street. It would be OK. I couldn't exactly see where I should even go. It would be ok....they said, snippely. Stop whining.