Day 13: The Rest of Colorado

One of my favorite pictures from the trip, of Echo Lake Park in Colorado

Sunday, August 15

After my final Mariott related breakfast of the trip, I drove Allen to the Denver airport and bid him farewell.  Definitely appreciative that he stuck around as long as he did.  The times wouldn’t have been as good, and the rhymes wouldn’t have been as dope without him. He has now been replaced by the cooler in the passenger seat of the car.  Not as talkative, but a much better provider of Gatorade. 

After 3,000 miles in 12 days the easy part of the trip was over for the Civic, the rest of the itinerary promised more elevation changes and higher daytime temperatures.  I decided there was no point in delaying the inevitable, and put the ole Civic to the test as quickly as possible.  My first stop as a solo traveler was Mount Evans, in the Idaho Springs area of Colorado.  The bottom of the mountain was only around 40 minutes from the airport, but from there the trip slowed down considerably. 

At the peak of Mount Evans

The first portion of the mountain was relatively painless, but once the road forks and you choose to take the path that goes directly to the summit of Mt Evans the drive really can’t be described as anything but terrifying.  That portion of the trip consisted of a 14 mile road up to a final destination of 14,000 feet above sea level.  That would be fine on its own, but the 14 miles were a series of continuous sharp curves and steep inclines, all while driving on a road without any guardrails.  Even that might have been fine on its own if there was even a little room for error, but there was barely enough room for your lane and the lane of oncoming traffic directly next to it without flying off the side of the mountain.  And even that wouldn’t have been so terrible if it wasn’t for the constant barrage of bicyclists that required cars to cut into the oncoming traffic lanes to get around.  While I had to concentrate heavily on staying in my lane without killing myself or a biker, it was easy to get distracted by looking into the distance, where a combination of forests and mountain ranges as far as the eye could see produced the best views of the trip so far.  Eventually I made it to the parking lot near the summit, and hiked the short remaining way to the top.  There I could actually relax and soak in the views for awhile, which literally left me breathless (although that was probably more due to the hiking at such a high altitude).  The temperature was drastically colder on top of the mountain (75 degrees at the bottom, 45 degrees at the top, and a wind chill of 25 at the top).  The drive down was a bit less nerve-wracking, and I made a few stops at scenic points such as Echo Lake Park on the way back.

Colorado National Monument

It was another 4 hours or so of driving from Mt Evans to the Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction, but as far as the interestingness level of the landscape goes, this was by far the best stretch of the 3000+ miles traveled so far.  The Rocky Mountains were really pretty stunning, and there was a lot of variety to the colors and rock formations throughout them.  I-70 also took me by a lot of lakes, ski resorts, canyons, and also followed along the Colorado River for a long stretch.

I made a grocery trip in Grand Junction and then arrived at Colorado National Monument around 6ish.  I drove up the mountain to get to the campgrounds and there were still plenty of campsites available (I hadn’t made reservations here previously).  I picked a site and then walked around a little bit to check out some of the nearby sites off the mountain.  Mt Evans only managed to hold my “Best Views of the Trip” title for around 7 hours before being quickly eclipsed.  The orange mountains jutting out of greener valleys below was a really stunning site, especially while standing at the elevation I was at, and was like nothing I had seen in person before.

After a bit I headed back to set up camp.  The campsite I had originally picked was by itself, but while I had been walking all the ones directly next to mine had suddenly become full of about 20 pre-teen girls who were making a huge racket.  There was literally only a few feet between my cooking area/tent area and theirs.  I could tell this was going to be a very long night.  I immediately regretted my decision to go to UCLA and start this road trip.   While I was sitting there contemplating my next move, the park ranger apparently read my mind and approached me, saying I could switch campsites if I desired.  He explained that they were a Jewish camp group or something, and were quite rambunctious.  He pointed me to a campsite in the back of the area, which actually was larger and had some nice views of the town in the valley below.  I could still hear the girls singing the rest of the night, but at least I maintained some sanity. 

One I had my new spot, I started to set up camp, and I have to say setting up camp by myself is pretty terrible.  I definitely struggled with the tent to the point where I wasn’t sure if I would get it to stand up.  This campground was very different than in Custer.  Much more of a desert feel, and the ground was pretty rocky.  They don’t allow campfires, only charcoal cooking, which was fine b/c I had plenty of coals.  I fired up some steaks with a side of beans for dinner.  I had to be creative with seasoning the steak b/c of the randomness of what was packed in my car, and ended up sprinkling some Italian Seasoning on it and dipping it in Fire sauce from Taco Bell.  Don’t try to steal the recipe, I’ve already had it patented.

Miles traveled today: 371
Miles traveled total: 3,322
States traveled: 11