the grand tour

first night and day2 morn...

so i'm scooped up right on time at the airport, and jeff n i crawled out of denver up i-70 into the mtns to a town i regretted not stopping in on my one and only blast through this state. hard to see stuff when you drive from salt lake city to colorado springs in one day, so i was determined to see if this town was as cool as it looked from the freeway 8 yrs ago. it was. from my research it appears that this town was damn near deserted up into the 60's/70's and is still labeled a semi-ghost town in most descriptions. and it appeared to be the first night, hardly saw more than 20 people in the 2 bars we hit and maybe 3 on the streets. but according to a local, there are close to a 1000 residents, but alot of those are summer residents mostly. i'd guess by the steady stream of cars i saw for rushhour down into denver from here the next morn, the town is maybe 1/3 full in winter. most of the bldgs have been refurbed, but there were still some that hadn't ever been refinished or in process. creepy that night though, place was deserted. the only places we found open were the raven saloon and a place called mother's. we hung in both, and parked in the back behind the raven, made some killer long exposure shots with jeffs camera and tucked in. we froze in the van. i slept maybe 4 hrs, panting the entire time. got up at sundown with serious altitude sickness (multiplied by a hangover) and walked 1 1/2 mile down the highway, wrapped in a blanket like a freezing squaw with rotgut, trying to make it to the bathroom at the gas station. didn't make it, haha. geezus, i'll spare you guys from that miserable part of the tale. spent the rest of the morning walking around the lil burg checking the bldgs and snapping pics.

several hrs later, jeff got up and we headed up to hoosier pass, even more freezing up there: 11,500 ft above sea level. i'm shivering with a throbbing headache and dizzy-n-confused in one of the prettiest places i've ever been, loved it. then we swooped down into san luis valley, but more on that later...

View Larger Map