Road Trip to CO - Leadville to Gunnison

The main reason that we headed to Colorado on this trip was so that we could be in Leadville when Dan's brother competed in the Silver Rush 50, a 50-mile endurance run. We spent the previous afternoon walking around town and going on a self-guided mine tour. We had a pre-race meal of pizza and salad and went to bed. In the morning we split up. Dan got up early to be at the race start with Rob and Renee and I slept in and met up with Sally and John to explore Turquoise Lake.

Dan took these photos of the first part of the run. Rob is ready to go.

This run begins at an elevation 10,200' and goes to over 12,000'. The runners have no difficulty getting their heart rates up right away even if they just walk up the first hill.

Rob wore neon green (although we discussed repeatedly whether he was wearing green or yellow--it's sure green in the photos) which was helpful when trying to pick him out on a mountain road.

Personal support is allowed here, unlike in the Ironman last weekend.

While Rob was running, my sister-in-law, Sally, and I went for a walk at Turquoise Lake, just a few miles from Leadville.

Rob was still on the trail...

...and made a shoe change...

...while the spectators' attention was diverted from the runners by a moose who wanted to cross the road.

Sally and I finished our walk and headed back to town.

We walked through a few shops to find some t-shirts and postcards. There was a price tag on this sheep, but even marked down to $2700 it was out of my price range.

We met up with Rob's support crew at the 25-mile turn around.

As usual, I entertained myself with my camera while waiting for Rob to run through.

I don't know what this plant or the bug is.

You don't see a runner in a kilt everyday.

We finally saw Rob coming in. Although he has run this event before, this wasn't his day for it. He wasn't feeling well and had been battling injuries. He had events coming up (including last weekend's Ironman) and thought it was prudent to stop at the 25 miles mark (as if running almost a marathon isn't enough for one day). So we ended the day in Leadville early and left town by mid-afternoon, following Rob and Renee to Buena Vista where we would meet for lunch.

This is Mount Elbert, the highest mountain in Colorado. How do I know that?

This is why we like these map books. We can follow along and identify points of interest. If we have cell service then I can look up more info, but on this trip cell service definitely wasn't reliable. We enjoyed a meal with Rob and Renee before they had to head home, we stocked up on groceries, and we continued on our trip.

Smoke from one of the fires burning in Colorado.

We had decided to find a place to camp somewhere near Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The park encompasses the narrow band of land (and cliffs) along the river below where it has been dammed (from center to upper left in this photo). It was late in the day when we got to the dam that creates Blue Mesa Reservoir (right in photo) and we had to decide what we had time to do. We decided that we would drive the road on the north side of the canyon along the narrow Morrow Point Reservoir (which is not in the park) and enter the park the next day by driving in at the southwest entrance.

The Pinnacles on Blue Mesa Reservoir.

It was a spectacular drive on the road that follows the canyon. There are plenty of places to get out and take a look into the canyon.

We stood high above buzzards circling on the wind currents. That is three buzzards roosting in the center of the photo. I took lots of photos of the spectacular scenery as the sun was getting lower but this post is already over-full of photos.

This photo was taken from the last overlook on this drive--or at least the point where we needed to turn around to go back to the campground we had seen. That is the San Juan Mountains in the distance, which we'd be driving through the next day.

After our shopping trip in Buena Vista we had a hot meal planned, but the camp-stove wouldn't work. Tuna sandwiches for dinner again. Dessert was a deliciously gooey melted giant chocolate kiss.

Road Trip to CO - Moab to Leadville

I'm finally back to my photos of our Road Trip. I left off at the blog post about hiking in Arches National Park on our third day out. After a full day of hiking we headed northwest from Moab on Highway 128 that follows the Colorado River. Just after dark we found the Lower Onion Campsite just above the river. We enjoyed the mosquito-less evening while eating a hasty meal of beans and salad and went to bed planning on an early start the next day.

Here is a view of our camping spot in the morning...

...and the cliffs beyond the river as the sun came up.

The red rock landscape of Moab changed to more typical desert as we headed north to I-70. We spotted our first prairie dogs along this stretch of road...

...followed by pronghorn. Not a desolate road at all if you pay attention.

Our goal was to get to Leadville, CO by noon to meet up with Dan's sister, brother, and their spouses, so we didn't stop much along the way, but I took photos from the truck. I marveled at the engineering of this stretch of highway between Glenwood Springs and Vail.

The eastbound lanes are just above the Colorado River and the westbound lanes are elevated to fit within the canyon walls, sometimes overlapping the lower eastbound roadway.  There is also a paved bike/running path right at the river's edge. 

At this point the highway is at about 8000' elevation. We turned south on Highway 24 that would take us to Leadville at over 10,000'.  As we climbed into the mountains we had to stop at top of one of the switchbacks to take a look.

Farther up we came to the Camp Hale Memorial. This meadow is the site of a U.S. Army training facility built in the 1942 and decommissioned in 1945. According to Wikipedia "Soldiers were trained in mountain climbing, Alpine and Nordic skiing, cold-weather survival as well as various weapons and ordnance. When it was in full operation, approximately 15,000 soldiers were housed there."

This is a view from that meadow looking east up the canyon to Sheep Mountain.

A marmot posed for me while reading the roadside memorial signs...

...and this bee flew into this columbine just as I was taking a photo.

Entering Leadville.

We wandered around the downtown for awhile...

...and then met Sally and John for lunch at the Golden Burro Cafe.

After lunch we took a self-guided tour of the Matchless Mine. "The Mathcless Mine, a historic silver mine purchased in 1879 by H.A.W. Tabor, was estimated to have produced 7.5 million dollars during its peak operating years. Once fabulously wealthy, the silver market crash of 1893 devastated the Matchless Mine and the Tabor Family. Upon Tabor's death his widow, Elizabeth "Baby Doe" Tabor, returned to the Matchless where she remained in isolation for until her death in March of 1935." This is the cabin where "Baby Doe" lived until her death.

Dan is standing in the phone-booth size structure that would lower miners hundreds of feet below ground. We watched a video that shows a 3-D image all the tunnels and shafts below us. I don't remember the stats but the distances are staggering to think about.

After the mine tour we met up with Rob (Dan's brother) and Renee and we all went to the Leadville Cemetery.

My father-in-law's grandparents are buried here and following his death just this spring, this was an meaningful stop for the family. We spent some time here before returning to our motel, eating pizza, and making plans for the early morning start of the Leadville 50--an ultra run that Rob was had entered.

This was our one "civilized night" and I spent a little time trying to catch up with e-mail and thinking that I'd start my blog posts. Nope. We were tired and I wasn't motivated enough to interrupt the vacation!