2019 Summer Road Trip, Day 6

Today was a driving day, going from Leadville to Loveland via Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Central City, and Estes Park.

The day started with a visit to Twin Lakes where I’d hoped to fly the drone. It turned out that the spot I’d chosen required cash in an envelope to park, and I didn’t have the correct change with me. I’d have had to pay more than double the fee to park, so I drove on. In retrospect, I should have paid and flown. Oh well.

From there, it was up and over Independence Pass – also the Continental Divide – to get to Aspen and then on to Glenwood Springs where I picked up I-70 again heading back east. I used the GoPro to get a time-lapse video of the drive from Twin Lakes to Aspen and posted the video here (be sure to read the description available at the link): https://youtu.be/D5K9wOURQdE

I did get out at the top of the pass and walk around for some photography; here are the results:

The car did fine over Independence Pass, but wasn’t thrilled with the next two passes on I-70. It’s just not fun when the hybrid battery depletes and you’re left with just the tiny gasoline engine to struggle the rest of the way to the top! At one point, I was down to 45mph and just couldn’t go any faster. But having the engine shut off for 20+ miles on the other side of the pass was worth every bit of frustration on the uphill side! I ended the day at 57.7mpg for 352 miles 🙂

Sadly, I don’t have any pictures from the rest of the drive, lovely though it was. Central City is fascinating in a touristy sort of way – it’s all been cleaned up and modernized (in an old West kind of way) because of casinos in town. The detour through Estes Park, even though not the fastest way to Loveland, was simply to have the pleasure once again to drive Rt 34 from Estes to Loveland. I really should have done a time lapse of that as well, but if you ever have the chance to travel that way, don’t miss it!