Colorado One Night Stands: Leadville

Today we left Ouray with stops in Montrose for gas and groceries. East from Montrose, the scenery turns pastoral - farms and ranches with mountains on the horizon. The highway heads east through Gunnison, past Blue Mesa reservoir, the turnoff for Lake City, and over Monarch Pass - elevation 11,312 feet - and that is in the RV!! We towed the Jeep part way up Monarch Pass, but even with our Banks PowerPack the motorhome was gasping for air at that elevation and so we pulled over and un-hooked the Jeep for the last 1/3 of the climb - a steady 7% grade for several miles. On the way down the other side, we tested the Jeep's tow braking system on the long downgrade, too! Monarch Pass is the kind of summit you expect when crossing the "Great Divide."

Before the pass, there were several miles of road construction, and the pilot car got away from us. It was all gravel, and there was quite a bit of heavy equipment working that we had to drive right along side of. The speed limit was 35, but we couldn't go that fast as they stopped us at the bottom of a hill - I've never seen a pilot car that lost its trailing cars before! We did the best we could, but before the end of the construction zone we had our windshield cracked by a rock, even going as slow as we did. People always worry about cracking their windshields when they go to Alaska, but more people crack them in the lower 48, I think! Well, we got it done early, so now we don't have to worry about doing it in Alaska - ha.

The crack didn't show up right away, so we didn't know we had it until we got into Buena Vista, when it all of a sudden showed up about a foot and a half long. Buena Vista is a nice town, alongside the Arkansas River, where there is quite a bit of rafting, and surrounded by all the "college" peaks - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.

Leadville is really a neat little town! We only stayed one night, but someday we'll come back and do some more exploring in that area. We stayed at the Sugar Loafin' RV Park just outside of town. They were having an ice cream social when we pulled up! It was a nice place and the sunset was incredible. Leadville is over 10,000 feet in elevation, and so we had the alpine Belding's Ground Squirrels popping their little heads up all over, driving all the poodles mad. Well, one dog walker I met was having a hard time getting her pooch to get "down to business" on their walks because all it could think about was chasing those squirrels - ha. The vegetation, cool air, and scenery made Devin ask, "Where are we? Is this Alaska?"

Not yet!

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