Phantom Canyon Road, Colorado

Phantom Canyon Road, Colorado



One of the scariest, most beautiful, and certainly memorable drives I took on

the 14,000 mile USA road trip.

This tiny ribbon of dirt and gravel winds along stunning cliff sides above the

Phantom Canyon from Canon City to Cripple Creek, CO.

Enjoy the images, and let me apologize for their smaller size. Really disheartening

that

I somehow lost the original files, I believe due to the Asus netbook crashing on me.

Lucky for me Facebook hosted some of the images so I was able to save them to

share.

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A Fox In Colorado Tells Me Goodbye

Little Fox Gives Me A Backward Glance, Then Vanishes
Just before we crossed the border into Utah this little fox trotted across the road, gave us a glance back and seemed to say "Hmph, leave Colorado? I think not"!Smart fox!To see more photos of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and out journey into Utah visit the Facebook albums.

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The Old Gold Road From Canon City To Cripple Creek, Colorado

Why Are There Claw Marks On The Steering Wheel?
This pretty windmill on a beautiful mountain lane of ranches and flowers led to a one-lane, rut-filled dirt road clinging o the side of a cliff hundreds of feet above a canyon floor and a rushing little river. Scary, makes you drive real close to the rock face. Until another car approcahes and wants to pass. Hopefully one of you have a pullout to make use of. Hopefully you will not have to back up to a pull out. Hopefull when the local ranch hand in the large pickup truck whizzes by he won't bump you off of the cliff!For the rest of the images see my Facebook album.

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Whitewater Rafting The Arkansas River

Just Make Sure To Get Out Before The Raging Royal Gorge
SSure it was Bighorn Sheep Canyon, an introductory stretch of whitewater on the Arkansas River near Canon City, CO, but for us it was a huge new experience, a great accomplishment, and a fun day to remember.Raft Masters supplies the gear, guide, boat, everything. I remembered the sunscreen, camera, all the dea=tails except the camera battery. Oops!Lucky for me the hotel was only five minutes away so I swiftly retrieved the battery and was able to take some images. Warning, on a raging river just when you think the best pix might be happening you are paddling and clinging to the raft. This excellent shot was taken by Raft Masters from the shore. For the rest of mine check out the Facebook album.

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Royal Gorge. 1,053 Foot High Suspension Bridge.

Say Goodbye To The Ground, Say Hello To The Sky
The title above is the billboard motto of the Roayl Gorge Bridge, but at 1,053 feet above the river it might be better if it read 'Say Hello To Dizzy Spells'.We visited right about closing in the evening as the sun set on the canyon wall horizon. Most tourists had already drifted back to hotel and restaurant and we pretty much had the entire site to ourselves.You not only can walk across, you can drive across. The roadbed seems to be 3 inch thick boards on metal I-beams. Seeing the river through the cracks as you walk is definitely disconcerting.Lexi did not enjoy the swaying sensation or height but wanted to ride the bungee cord contraption that throws you out over the canyon. Go figure.The funniest thing that has happened so far was when I took a shortcut off of I-70 to Empire, CO. The graqvel roadbed was like a washpan and as we drove we hit a major series of ruts. We all looked up just in time to see one of the Scion's hubcaps roll away faster than the car. I slowed to retrieve the hubcap but an oncoming car, having no place to swerve or turn, ran over the hubcap and it exploded into dozens of pieces. Our jaws hung slack, waiting for the other car to stop. Instead he sped off in a cloud of dust and we burst into laughter. To see more Royal Gorge pix visit my Facebook album.

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The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

No Ax Wielding Jack Nicholson. How Disappointing!
We spent the night in Estes Park, CO and went up to the grand Stanley Hotel. This is the place Kubrick filmed much of 'The Shining'. Beautiful and creepy. We had to sneak in by telling the guard at the gate I was there about a reservation. Then we sneaked upstairs past the "Registered Guests Only" sign, right up to the infamous room 217 where the woman's corpse qas found. Two little girls were staying there, their parents nowhere in sight. I asked if they knew a movie had been filmed in their room. They said yes but seemed unimpressed. Perhaps they really were the two creepy little ghost girls from the film? Visit my Facebook for the complete album.

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Rocky Mountain 360 Degree Surrounded By Mountains

Surrounded By 12,000'+ Mountain Peaks
Awesome mountains surround us in a high valley between Gunnison and Leadville. Cool video!

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Across The Top Of The Rocky Mountains

Higher And Higher And Higher We Climbed
We took an amazing ride through the Rocky Mountains, capping it off with a drive over Trail Ridge Road, the highest through road in the world. Here I am jumping for joy at the Continental Divde at Cotttonwood Pass. For lots more pix see the Facebook album.

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Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas

In West Texas, They Grow Caddies At Cadillac Ranch!

Today, under the incredibly big sky of West Texas, we visited the world famous
'Cadillac Ranch', the art project sponsered by Stanley Marsh 3.Along Interstate 40 just west of Amarillo you will find 10 old Cadillacs buried head first in a row. For whatever reasons these objects have become a famous art display and has been featured in a jazillion movies, music videos, magazines, etc.

The cars are supposed to be buried at the same angle as the sides of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. When I asked about the location of the cars a local good ol' boy said "We got us an eccentric billionaire oilman out here"! I already knew Marsh had a rep for eccentricity, even going by Marsh 3 rather than III, as in the third. He claims that is pretentious.

Lexi climbed atop one of the cars for a cool shot. Yes, it is allowed, and you can add your own spray painting tags. Best of all, it is free! The most amazing thing I saw and missed getting on film was a young man, either extremely talented as a gymnast or insane, who stood atop the car and suddenly did an amazing 360 degree flip off the side, landing perfectly on his feet! I was actually astounded by that.

Deanna, Lexi and Alan atop the Cadillac Ranch!Hopefully I can find tgime to post more images of the amazing things we did today as it is late and time is short. We also rode a twisting, narrow road to the top of Capulin Volcano, a dormant volcano in New Mexico. As we entered the park a powerful thunderstorm blew in, lightning, wind, rain. This made the drive even more scary. The ranger warned about lightning at the peak but failed to mention the tight lanes and hairpin curves with absolutely no railing between you and a thousand foot drop. Insane.

Of course we tagged the cars in an appropriate fashion.At the end of this long day we find ourselves in Pueblo, Colorado. We intended to stop much sooner but had to go to over 20 hotels to find an overpriced room on the fly. A NICE room, except for the teens running up and down the hall until midnight.Tomorrow we shall ride the top of the Rocky Mountains and try to make it to the Rocky Mountain National Park, perhaps the Sand Dunes National Monument.

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