DRIVE (Day 11 - part 2)

De Beque Canyon ... and its roller dam

A roller dam is a designed to mitigate erosion. The Grand Valley Diversion Dam is a 14-foot high, 546-foot long concrete roller dam with six gates. Built between 1913 and 1916, it was the first and largest of its kind to be installed in the US. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The tunnel through Beavertail Mountain

Glenwood Canyon .... and the Colorado River

A train ... and one of its many tunnels

Vail ski slopes ... and snowboarding halfpipe

Copper Mountain ski area

The Eisenhower Tunnel (officially the Eisenhower–Johnson Memorial Tunnel) is a dual-bore, four-lane tunnel that crosses the Continental Divide at 11,158 feet under Loveland Pass. The westbound bore is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower (the president for whom the Interstate system is also named) and the eastbound bore is named for Edwin C. Johnson (a senator who lobbied for an Interstate Highway to be built across Colorado).

The lower part of the Loveland ski area

Down from the mountains and on our final stretch...

The Dakota Hogbacks, just north of Golden

In geology, a hogback is a long, narrow ridge of hills with a narrow crest and equally steep slopes on either side. The Dakota Hogback runs along the eastern side of Rocky Mountains, from southern Wyoming into northern New Mexico. Its name comes from the Dakota Formation, the sandstone that underlies it. It was formed some 50 million years ago, when the modern Rockies were created.

The ruins of an old mine shaft

Almost to Boulder just as the sun sets!

Our total trip distance

return