Part 1 is the trip up to Leadville and the train ride.
Part 2 is the circuitous route we took back from Leadville, through Breckenridge and over Boreas Pass. This is a ten minute video, in hi-def. It took from 10:32 a.m. to 4:06 p.m. to upload. There has got to be a better way.
We left the house at 5:30 a.m. and got back at 6:00 p.m.. Twelve and a half hours of aspen drives, by train and by car, was a little excessive, I will admit. But this was the weekend for it. I had heard about the stuffed bears at the Hungry Bear Diner in Woodland Park, but I'd thought this meant, you know, taxonomy stuff, heads and full dead bear bodies everywhere. As you can see from the video, not so much. It's a funky little place, to be sure. The mugs are mostly ones you can pick up at garage sales for a nickel a piece, and between the bears, there are lots of those hanging on the walls, too. Mom got one with flowers on it. Dad got some financial planner's advertisement. Serendipitously, of the three mugs I was handed the thick diner one with "The Hungry Bear" printed on it, (along with six local business ads). I went home with one for $3, too. After fueling up, we ran through some really cool fog, past buffalo, pronghorn, and hot air balloons fueling up, too, before arriving at Leadville, the highest city in North America, to ride the rails along the old line that runs above the Arkansas River Valley to see the aspens from above. The open rail car, in the warm sunshine, and the crisp air made for a lovely trip. We arrived back at 12:30 and hit the road for Breckenridge, which is, one of those "scenic routes" that doubles the time it takes to get back where you started. A whole lot of other people had the same idea, which on the pass road means you back up to let the other side get through in a number of places. It also means you are up close and personal with the aspen groves that do so well in the thin air.
Aspens are amazing trees. Their colonies spring from a single seed that grows its root system deep underground, so deeply that they are not killed by forest fires. The trunks of the trees spring up from this system and spread a few feet each year. When you see the sides of mountains turn golden, you know you are looking at a stand that has been here far, far longer than any human, gazing over these beautiful mountainsides. The oldest colony is thought to have survived 80,000 years.
A few favorite pictures from the day:
At the train station
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