Summer 2021, Day 17

This was absolutely my shortest driving day of the trip, on a day when I’m not staying in the same hotel again. But it included two mountain passes, so there was plenty of interest.

I started heading up a pass almost immediately after leaving Steamboat Springs and the views were impressive, but the entire route to the top was under construction and single-lane traffic, so there wasn’t a good place to pull over.

Once over the top, I travelled a long ways through more-or-less level terrain, averaging about 8,400′ of elevation. As I got closer to my initial destination of Fort Collins, I had this view of the mountains that FC was directly on the other side of. Naturally, the route itself was not a direct one! I’d guess these peaks are around the 12,000′ level.

Once I reached 9,000′ feet and before I’d started a serious climb, I got a much better view. The pass was to the left of the mountains in this photo.

The pass itself was close to 10,300′ high and had an endless downhill grade on the other side, contributing to an overall 62.9mpg for the car for today’s drive. Photos were required!

It wasn’t just rocks and trees, though – this route runs along the Cache de Poudre (pronounced “Poo-der”) River, an idyllic mountain stream.

These aren’t even some of the more scenic views; they’re just where I happened to stop.

Once I parked in downtown Fort Collins – which is a fascinating and bustling hot spot of shopping and restaurants – I was in a new-ish parking garage. It took until I was walking back to my car later to even notice these lights:

Every parking lot in the country should install these!! The green light over a spot automatically turns red when a vehicle parks there, allowing a driver to quickly scan down a row and spot any open spaces 🙂

While checking into my hotel in Greeley – a vastly different experience from the hellhole that was Steamboat Springs – someone came in looking for a room without a reservation. He was told that the hotel is sold out – there’s a large rodeo in Cheyenne WY – over an hour away!! – and at least 20 of the hotel’s rooms have people who are here for that rodeo. Wow.

Tomorrow will be another long drive and I’ll lose an hour to boot. I’ll be spending far too much of the day in Nebraska again, ending in Sioux City IA.