Thursday, August 7, 2008

Colorado - Part 2

So on our next day's adventures, we headed to Silver Plume, CO to catch the Georgetown Loop Railroad that runs between Sliver Plume and Georgetown. The train was really beautiful. This is the inside of the first car right behind the engine. That silver circle in the middle of the picture is the train's horn. That made that car quite noisy, so we did not sit there for the whole trip.

We did not stop for the silver mine tour, because the kids are just not ready for that yet. But we did get to see lots of waterfalls and beautiful scenery.
This is the Devil's Gate bridge which is not exactly a low bridge, and must be taken very slowly, but the view is breath-taking.
We crossed over Clear Creek at least 5 times. The water level was up quite high, and rushing very fast. This was due to the vast snow pack they experienced over the winter. It was amazing to see all the fast running water and snow in the mountains compared to the drought they are experiencing in Denver.
This was our view of I-70 and Clear Creek looking toward Georgetown from Devil's Gate Bridge.


Then on our way back to Dillon, we took Loveland Pass up to the top of the Continental Divide at a point of elevation of 11.990 feet. Then, my camera battery promptly died!

So we had to go back up the next day. There were beautiful views every way you turned. It was also a very cool 55 degrees up there, so we were in jeans and sweatshirts.

I got to teach my kids about the Tundra, and some of the unique plants that grow up there like these little yellow flowers.At the top, we looked down over the Loveland basin valley.And we were passed by a few hikers with skis on their backs heading up to ski down this glacier. If you click on the picture, it will come up bigger, and you can see the lines created by the previous skiers. Definitely not for the faint of heart, or unacclimatized to the altitude.

It was amazing seeing all the hikers, truckers (several were having difficulties with their breaks on the way down the pass), and bikers training up and down Loveland Pass. Definitely not an easy task to accomplish!