Towns: Central City, Estes Park, Boulder, Denver

See the Photos

Today was amazing. We got a bit of a late start, but were out in time to enjoy brunch at Johnny’s Diner. It was a cool place. From there, Chip took us by the Denver University campus before heading out of town on our day’s adventure. We didn’t stop for photos, but the campus was gorgeous with its huge brick & copper buildings.

Oh, before I get too far, I should mention what happened about 5am this morning. There was a bum fight outside of Chip’s apartment (he claims it to be a rare event :). Now, I was so tired, that I thought this happened over the span of the entire night but turns out I was just falling asleep for like 1 minute, not hours in-between the honking & yelling. As we were all discussing it the next morning, it turns out Adam & I were having the same personal debates…“Should I call the cops? Crap, I don’t know their number. 911 seems excessive…oh gosh, the car full of stuff is right outside. I hope it’s okay. Phew, thank goodness I broke a Mini rule and pulled all the way up in the space…” All I saw from my window were 3 guys speeding away in a really loud Honda. Apparently, Adam & Chip were able to see the full action earlier with the pushing & shoving. Luckily, we had no repeat occurrences the rest of the trip. It made for a nice story that morning though. Mornings can be awkward without stories to break the ice.

Anyway…as we followed 70 out of Denver, the mountains appeared ahead of us. It was a breathtaking first glimpse and the scenic drive continued and became more amazing as we drove along. We took the exit to Central City, an old mining town now whose income is now derived from tourists and gambling. I ignored the fact that I was falling in to a tourist trap as we maneuvered the back streets and explored the little town. We found some charming spots.

After wearing out the sidewalks, we got back on the road and landed in Estes Park, a tourist trap targeted more towards families which meant ice cream. I had some mint chocolate chip. It was yum. We didn’t stay long, as we were losing daylight time to make it up to see the continental divide. Due to some bad weather in previous days, we still weren’t able to make it all the way up. The road was gated shut at “Rainbow Curve”. We walked a bit beyond the gate for some views, but in looking back at the map, we were a few miles from getting on up to the top. The view was still amazing. We just couldn’t get over it. It didn’t seem it should be possible to have driven up to a view like we say. It’s hard to imagine there were people traveling by horse & buggy through this area. We were up there for a really long time. The elevation was near 11,000 ft. We had passed a “2 miles above sea level” sign a bit earlier. It was brisk and slightly windy but the view down on horseshoe valley sort of kept us distracted.

I think a mix of cold and exhaustion finally spurred us to head down. We stopped at another outlook on the way down, which had large rocks to climb up for a view. We were there with a large middle-eastern/asian family. I note this because the younger guys in the family thought it was a good idea to try to stand on top of the minivan at the same time. I didn’t watch out of fear, but I saw the start of it as they straddled the roof, trying to keep it from caving in. I heard one of them yell, “Trust me. It will hold.” Famous last words indeed :) Somehow they managed not to hurt themselves or the van heh. I got some fantastic photos of Adam at this spot. One of them will surely end up as his facebook photo.

We left the park but before we made it too far out of Estes Park, we were greeted by some elk roaming through the town, so we were the first in a trend of vehicles to pull off the side of the road and stalk them. I got within a few feet of a large bull. They are massive but beautiful animals. We drove towards Boulder and saw several gigantic boulders and understood the name. We drove past the University of Colorado. It had interesting architecture which echoed the mountains behind it with its slanted tops. We eventually found our way back to Denver. Chip took us for a spin around the downtown area. We were all anxious to get to dinner so we didn’t stop, so you’ll just have to trust me that the area was amazing. The architecture of the art museum, union station, and others were like nothing I’d ever seen. It was even more beautiful at night. We passed to the other side of town to the Washington Park area, which reminded us a lot of Broad Ripple, to the point that Adam was able to trick himself in to thinking we were there when walking back to the car. We ate at this great place, Pearl Street Grill. We sat outside on a dimly lit patio with large trees growing up through the middle. The food was amazing. I ordered the pot roast and I think they gave me like a half pound of it. It was insane but delicious.

We came back to Chip’s afterwards and watched some TV, resting up after a long day. Tomorrow we’ll hit the road to SLC.