“Pic of the Week”, January 22, 2021: Long’s Peak, Colorado

00 McIntosh Lake (1)

Long’s Peak is a prominent mountain in the Front Range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. A “fourteener” (14,259-feet or 4346 m tall), it is the highest point in Boulder County and Rocky Mountain National Park.  It rises 9,000 feet (2,700 m) above the Great Plains.
Long’s Peak can be prominently seen from Longmont, Colorado,   These photos were taken from the trail around McIntosh Lake, which my wife and I walked with my son and daughter-in-law during a visit this past year.  The views of Long’s Peak are lovely!
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance slideshow)


 

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“Pic of the Week”, January 1, 2021: Kit Carson County Carousel, Colorado

Kit Carson Carousel (4)

Only about 5% of the 2500 wooden carousels carved and crafted in the USA between 1885 and the 1930s still exist, and not all of these are in fine repair.  One of the best preserved examples is the Kit Carson County Carousel, which my wife and I were looking forward to seeing because we’ve always enjoyed carousels and carousel horses.
This carousel was made by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, the sixth (#6) of 74 they made between 1904 and 1933. It was made in 1905 for Elitch Gardens, an amusement park in Denver.  Elitch Gardens upgraded its carousel in 1927 and old #6 was sold and moved to Burlington, where it still resides.
It’s a fully functional three row stationary carousel (the …

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.All Trips / Central USA / Colorado / North America

Homes of Leadville, Colorado

00 Homes in Leadville

A great day-trip destination in the Colorado Rockies is the town of Leadville, at 10,430 feet (3180 m) above sea level the highest incorporated city in North America.  Leadville is a Victorian-era boomtown which in its gold and silver mining heyday was home to 30,000 residents.  Today, less than 10% of that number still lives here, but there’s a lot to see in Leadville that makes it well worth a stop.  Also, all the roads leading to the town make for a beautiful day’s drive.

Overview of Leadville, Colorado

Overview of Leadville, Colorado

70 square blocks of Leadville were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.  We’ve featured some of the buildings from the downtown area in a prior post. Today I’d like to focus on …

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.All Trips / Central USA / Colorado / North America

Colorado Chautauqua National Historic Landmark

03 Colorado_Chautaqua_Dining_Hall. Courtesy Wikimedia and Hustvedt

The Colorado Chautauqua site was established in the late 1890s, when the Texas Board of Regents determined it needed to establish a summer school for teachers in a cool climate.  The Chautauqua Movement was a powerful and popular adult educational and social force at the time.  Boulder was picked as the site because the city fathers offered to supply the land, facilities and public utilities for the Chautauqua.  The presence of the nearby Rocky mountains was icing on the cake, because it was rightfully considered a very healthful environment.  

The Colorado Chautauqua opened on July 4, 1898, with 4,000 people attending. Boulder city leaders and Texas educators had created what was to become an important educational and social summer retreat.  Buildings …

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“Pic of the Week”, September 13, 2019: A Coffee Shop in Nederville, Colorado

01 Nederville, Colorado (4)

Situated in the Rocky Mountains near Golden, Colorado, is the small town of Nederville.  We were driving through the mountains, in need of a caffeine fix, and my son told me he knew of a nice coffee shop in Nederville.  Turns out this coffee shop was situated in several old train cars, an unusual and fun setting.

The java was good and the fresh mini-donuts were terrific!

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.All Trips / Car Culture / Central USA / Colorado / North America

Great Cars along the Highway. Pearl Street, Boulder, Colorado

00 Spotted on the Road, Pearl Street

Pearl Street is the heart of downtown Boulder.  Much of this street is a pedestrian zone, with lots of shops, restaurants and buskers.  It’s a lively place in the evening, filled with people, conversation and music.

During our last visit to Boulder, we wandered to Pearl Street and found one of the most unusual car displays I’ve ever seen.  One vehicle in particular was a tribute to rock and (*I think*) especially to Freddie Mercury of Queen fame (one of my favorite voices in popular music).  Someone had spent hundreds and hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars glitzing up a ‘rock ‘n roll’ car in tribute. 

Pearl Street, Boulder, Colorado

Pearl Street, Boulder, Colorado

Some of the photos below give you a closer look at some of the many …

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“Pic of the Week”, May 31, 2019: LaFayette, Colorado

Lafayette, Colorado (2)

The small Colorado town of Lafayette is mostly a bedroom community for the cities of Denver and Boulder.  Its roots are related to mining and it has a nice collection of restaurants and shops that we visited recently.

Here’s a few of the sights from a stroll around the town:

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.All Trips / Central USA / Colorado / North America

Walking Main Street in Gold Hill, Colorado

01 Gold Hill, CO

There are many mining towns in the Colorado Rockies, one of the most interesting being Gold Hill.  This town is located in the mountains northwest of Boulder at an elevation of 8,300 feet (2530 m).  A scenic drive, most of it on gravel roads, leads you through the transition of the great plains to the foothills, with the grand peaks of the Rockies visible at some distance to the west. 

Gold was discovered by a group of prospectors in a small stream near the town site in January 1859.  This stream was named Gold Run and in March of that year, the first mining district in the Nebraska Territory was created (Colorado had not yet been granted statehood).  The site and …

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