Terrain & Route Map, Tuesday July 3rd – Rifle, CO to Goodland, KS
Part 1 – Glenwood Canyon
For the first time in over a week, we awoke to cool air. And by cool, I mean the low 70s. Today we really hit the ‘mountains’, taking Interstate 70 through the Glenwood Canyon, and then over the Eisenhower Pass, the highest part of the entire US Interstate system – 11,800 feet. Rifle was clear and cool, and it felt nice to breath relatively clean, smoke-free air for a chance. We got started, and within a few miles, entered the Glenwood Canyon.
I-70’s Glenwood Canyon project was one of the last parts of the US interstate system to be finished, and it is one of those “engineering marvels” that you read about. Environmental concerns along the somewhat untouched river made building your standard mountain highway (dynamite, earth moving, tunnels, etc) out of the picture. After much thought and work, it was decided that the roadway, about 18 miles of four-lane interstate, would be built on piers following the riverbank, thereby causing the least amount of environmental disruption, but costing seven times as much as a standard roadbed, and taking at least three times as long to build. So that’s what it came down to – 15 miles of swooping, elevated roadway that ran right though pristine wilderness and hardly even made a mess. We stopped at the first of several turnoffs and read about the project, and then I went down to the river bank and grabbed Melissa a couple pounds of river rock for back home. Then it was back on the highway. This stretch of road is almost unique in the country for its’ design and implementation. Along with the iconic Pacific Coast Highway and perhaps just a few others, this stretch of US highway must be driven to be believed. All too soon we got spit out of the other side of the canyon, and began slowly making our way through the hills.
Once out of the Canyon, the scenery changed to what I was expecting out of Colorado. I-70 either ran along the sides of ridges, or followed the valley floors between ridges of high forested hills, not jagged peaks or rocky summits, but well-forested slopes that appealed more to the skier than the alpinist. Large cattle and livestock ranches spread off in both directions, Within an hour or so, we came upon the little town of Eagle, where we stopped for gas. The place looked cute and charming, so we decided to walk around a bit and take in the sights. I got some pics of the river running through it. There was a little Museum with artifacts of the Old West, and a general store full of souvenirs. After we took in the sights, we all moseyed on back to the old buckboard.
Part 2 – The Eagle Flies on Tuesday
Back on I-70, we motored east through the mountains towards Denver. We were gradually climbing, but so slowly as to be almost unnoticeable. Farms and fields on either side. The scenery was interesting, but not spectacular, and I took a few shots of Interstate exit signs, just so I’d be able to identify where we were when it came time to process these pictures. High ridges of forested mountains flanked on both sides when we weren’t passing by little towns, various small ski areas and so on. About ten miles after we passed the advertised turnoff for Aspen, Hal said, “I wanted to go see Aspen. I have a buddy who lives there.” I swear upon all that’s holy, that is the absolute first time he ever said the word ‘Aspen’ in our presence. And he waited until we’d passed the last exit for it. So we compromised, and decided to exit and tour Vail instead. It was a couple of dozen miles ahead of us, after a bit of a long, but slow climb for several miles. Vail of course is a famous ski resort town, and provided a welcome little walk in the fresh air.
Part 4 – Colorful Vail:
We hit Vail at just about noon, and parked the buggy near the convention center. We toured the place, it was nice and bright and clean and full of expensive touristy shops with outdoor gear and arts and crafts, brightly painted condos and such. I’m sure it looked totally different in the ski season, but it was kind of cool to see it in 80′ heat and sunshine instead. We spent a couple of hours there walking around, and then headed back out. We were in the White River National Forest. Lots of pine trees.
Part 5 – A long, slow climb to the Eisenhower Tunnel
Leaving Vail, there was a slow climb and over the rest of the Vail Pass trail, then we leveled off for a couple of dozen miles, passing more signs of ski resorts and the big Dillon Reservoir and a more pine trees and forested slopes, and then the long slog up towards the Eisenhower started. We just put a brick on the accelerator and sat back, until we hit the tunnel and the bright lights in side. Of course once out the other end, it was all down hill. I noted that we’d hit the highest point on Interstate 80, up in Laramie at the beginning of the week, and now were were tagging the highest point on the entire Interstate system. Since we’ve been on Interstates at what was more or less sea level, we’d had the whole positive range.
The Eisenhower Tunnel : 11,800 feet above sea level
The run DOWN wasn’t as exciting as I thought it might be in an old RV with suspect brakes. I was driving, and I just let the RV roll downhill without pickingup to much speed. We ran into some rainstorms around Idaho Springs 20 miles or so past the tunnel, and stopped for gas. The price was astronomical, so I think we only put about 30 gallons in. Then it was looping around, down and down and down until we came out of the hills for the last time just above Denver. A lot of people think Denver is “in” the mountains, but it’s really not – it’s right on the edge. It may be the “mile high city”, but 10 miles east of it is about 60 feet above sea level. It was cloudy and rainy and about 3 in the afternoon and we didn’t take a whole lot of pictures on that run. Then we dropped into the flatlands, past Limon, grabbed some gas at the Tomahawk Plaza, and started across into Kansas. We were losing sunlight quickly, as it set behind us in the mountains now.
We were back into the windy plains, though. A fierce left-to-right crosswind would be with us now, all the way to around Charleston, West Virginia. Somewhere out there, on a flat prairie plain, the wind got under the awning again and this time she started flapping with a horrible racket. Hal pulled over onto the shoulder, and I climbed up on the roof with a box cutter. I sawed through the fabric as near to the rail as I could, and finally watched the tattered piece of cloth go sailing off over the Kansas countryside. Good riddance. We found a KOA in Goodland, Kansas about 10 miles east of the border, and settled in for the night. Tomorrow would be Independence Day and probably our hottest day yet, across Kansas and into Missouri.
Day 12 – 382 Miles, 2 states