Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Woke up to a rather bleak morning on the 22nd, but we had big plans. Jumped in the car and headed off for Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, right on the outskirts of Colorado Springs and slightly up the hill into the base of the Rockies. Got there nice and early and went in. Started off at the giraffe area, got to stroke a giraffe on the nose which was weird because their fur goes the opposite way to say a horse's. If you wanted you could buy some giraffe crackers (presumably not actually made from giraffe?) and feed them. They have massive tongues though so it looked like quite a messy option.

Here's a look at the giraffe pen from further up the hill. That's Colorado Springs stretching on forever in the distance there.

We passed some meercats doing what meercats do best: dig. They had quite a cool wee exhibit with piles of dirt to play in and a heat lamp to huddle under (guess they don't get snow in Africa). As we watched one decided th...

Winter Park to Colorado Springs

Woke up early enough on the 21st to get our free "continental" breakfast… but continental breakfast here in the US means bagels, pastries and coffee; in other words a very American breakfast, and not at all European! But as I woke up I head a strange tinkling sound on the window outside, so thinking it might be rain I pulled the curtains and was greeted by a winter wonderland; it was snow-hailing outside! I say snow-hailing because it was hail shaped, but coming down in flurries like snow. So we got our breakfast and watched the snow outside.

Packed up and loaded up the car; by now there was a good inch of fresh snow (it was proper-snowing now) on top of the mud on our car.

So I wiped off all the snow from the windows and tried to drive off, but only got half way up the block before I had to pull in and clear everything again. The lack of rear-window wiper was very frustrating as I couldn't see anything behind me at all...

Eagle to Winter Park

Woke up on the 20th, had a shower after working out yet another American plumbing system, and headed off up the road for Glenwood Canyon; well i thought I was going that way but went the wrong way instead. Soon was on the Interstate and heading for Glenwood Canyon. The first bit of the drive is boring, until one reaches Dotsero (a railway junction and nothing more), when suddenly the highway splits and starts weaving up and down, dashes through tunnels, over bridges; the scenery is amazing and the highway actually compliments it.

Took the exit at Hanging Lake to see the amazing bridge/tunnel there. The railway line crosses under the road right next to the cliff face, and presumably there wasn't room for a bridge pier before the tunnel, so the bridge over the Colorado River quite literally turns into a tunnel mid span.

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Leadville to Eagle

Woke bright and early on the 19th; actually we got woken up bright and early by the bikies leaving from the motel. Seems Leadville rises early. Was very brisk out, a cool –1°C was the overnight low! Made an important phone call to reserve some seats on the Leadville and Colorado Southern Fall Photographers Special. Had only found out about it the evening before after arriving in Leadville so my timing was immaculate. Was told they would start boarding the train at 9:30am and depart at 10, so at 9:29:59am I drove past the depot looking for a park. Even at this stage the lines were amazing! Apparently the train seats 260 people and I doubted that in a town of 2600 there would be 260 people on their train, but boy was I wrong! Got a seat right up the front on the open carriage, right behind the loco. Loco was a trusty old EMD GP9; similar in many ways to our DA/DC class. The seat was freezing cold; even by the time out 10am departure rolled around my bum was still freezing...

Aspen to Leadville

Woke up early on the 18th, after a fairly broken sleep (probably too worried about porcupines and bears!) and packed up camp. Headed back up the road to East Portal; sounds fancy but really it's just the eastern parking lot of Maroon Bells forest park. Went for a walk up there, more amazing scenery. The aspens were really starting to come into colour.

After that we hit the road, back through Aspen and it's road works, then out onto highway 82 and over Independence Pass. What a drive! What a pass. It's only open during the summer, and closes pretty much as soon as first big snow of winter hits. Here we are driving up one of the narrow sections, barely wide enough for two vehicles (vee-hickles as they say) to pass. And here in the States, roads this narrow are as rare as $2 bills.

 

Glenwood Springs to Aspen

Firmly in Colorado now, and boy has Fall hit here! The aspens are turning more and more golden with every passing minute. We decided to head up the hill to Aspen, home of the rich and famous. Before that though I had some scoping to do on the other side of the river; had seen something I had to investigate. Eventually got over there (Glenwood Springs have roadworks in all the most inconvenient places) and found this:

Was fairly excited to see an old Chicago and North Western loco at the front of the LUGO (laid up, good order) queue. These locos are all locos which are in good order, but are stored pending a rise in the economy. Also saw a few ex Southern Pacific locos there too which was good. Then it was back on the road to Aspen…

Was an ok drive, basically just highway that jumps between 35 and 65mph often with no pattern or warning. The further up the mountain we went, the fancier the houses. I was confused as to why...