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One Mile High to Two+ Miles High
Jul. 4th, 2022 08:56 pmColorado Travelog #3
Vail, CO - Saturday, 2 Jul 2022, 10am
On Day 1 of our Colorado roadtrip we left our hotel near Denver Airport just before 9 this morning. [Ed: a few of these blogs are coming out of order.] We've made pretty good time heading up into the mountains. Versus the last time we did this drive, four years ago, the difference today is leaving a few hours earlier. We're beating the traffic.
The drive from "Mile High" Denver to... actually over two miles high at the Eisenhower Tunnel was a pleasant one. The photo above shows the eastern entrance to the tunnel. It sits at elev. 11,158' (3,401 m).
Reaching this tunnel is like crossing the Rubicon... and not only because it's a prohibitively high mountain pass. It marks the conceptual boundary, if not a geographical boundary, between being in Colorado's Front Range with most of its cities, and and Colorado's backcountry. Plus, in a practical sense, it marks a dropoff in traffic slowdowns heading west as trucks and trailers are no longer struggling to climb long slopes.
Vail, CO - Saturday, 2 Jul 2022, 10am
On Day 1 of our Colorado roadtrip we left our hotel near Denver Airport just before 9 this morning. [Ed: a few of these blogs are coming out of order.] We've made pretty good time heading up into the mountains. Versus the last time we did this drive, four years ago, the difference today is leaving a few hours earlier. We're beating the traffic.
The drive from "Mile High" Denver to... actually over two miles high at the Eisenhower Tunnel was a pleasant one. The photo above shows the eastern entrance to the tunnel. It sits at elev. 11,158' (3,401 m).
Reaching this tunnel is like crossing the Rubicon... and not only because it's a prohibitively high mountain pass. It marks the conceptual boundary, if not a geographical boundary, between being in Colorado's Front Range with most of its cities, and and Colorado's backcountry. Plus, in a practical sense, it marks a dropoff in traffic slowdowns heading west as trucks and trailers are no longer struggling to climb long slopes.
