Craig's big road trip

Day 17 - Glenwood Springs to Idaho Springs
Home
The starting point
Day 1 - Seattle to Yakima
Day 2 - Yakima to Bend
Day 3 - Bend to Mt. Shasta
Day 4 - Mt. Shasta to Oakdale
Day 5 - Oakdale to Tehachapi
Yosemite National Park
Day 6 - Tehachapi to Las Vegas
Day 7-10 in Las Vegas
Day 11 - Las Vegas to Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon N.P.
Day 12 - Grand Canyon to Kayenta
Day 13 - Monument Valley
Day 14 - Kayenta to Telluride
Day 15 - Telluride
Day 16 - Telluride to Glenwood Springs
Day 17 - Glenwood Springs to Idaho Springs
Day 18 - Idaho Springs to Golden
Day 19 - Golden to Amarillo
Day 20 - Amarillo to Tyler
Day 21 - Tyler to Lake Charles
Day 22 - Lake Charles to Waveland
Day 24 - Waveland to Pensacola
Day 25 - Pensacola to Gainesville
Day 26 - Gainesville to Titusville
Day 27 - Kennedy Space Center
Day 28 - Titusville to Clearwater
The finishing point

Thursday April 17, 2003.
 
Under an overcast sky I drove back down highway 133 but then veered off onto highway 82 to Aspen and Snowmass, reputedly the alpine playground and hide-away for billionaires and celebrities.
 
Aspen shopping centre offers every expensive brand name and designer label shop you can imagine.  It's the first town in over 2,000 miles of driving where I had to pay for parking in the street.  And it's the first place I ever parked where I could pay the parking meter with a credit card.
 
I stayed for lunch in Aspen and enjoyed some window shopping, occasionally walking past a trendy cafe with outdoor seating where rich-looking men in designer casual clothes spoke conspicuously loudly about what sounded like big business.
 
The ski slopes and ski lift are still active in Aspen, unlike Telluride where the ski season finished two weeks ago. 
 
I drove up to Snowmass Village, but found almost nothing there but a few shops and a lot of expensive houses so I decided to move on towards Denver, and according to my map I could continue east along highway 82 and enjoy some more back roads before rejoining the main interstate highway 70.
 
East of Aspen on highway 82 was certainly lovely scenery, with no traffic.  I enjoyed having the road to myself for a few miles until I realised why there was no traffic -- the road was closed.   I didn't see any sign about it  - I must have missed it.  I had no choice but to retrace my route all the way back to Glenwood Springs and then turn east again towards Denver on the main highway 70.
 
By the time I got back to Glenwood Springs it was 4:00pm and 150 miles to Denver, so I decided to just stay on the main interstate highway 70 and get as far as I could towards Denver before it got dark.  I swooshed past the Vail ski resort, which looked quite nice from the highway and then crested the Vail Pass at 10,600 feet above sea level.   It was after 7:00pm and getting dark when I saw the exit for Idaho Springs.  So here I am for the night, in the mining town where Colorado's first gold strike was made.  It'll be an easy run down to Denver in the morning.  I feel good to have left the ski resorts behind me before the Easter long weekend crowds squeezed me out.

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