1 year anniversary mega-trip
The r-dub site has been online one year as of 5/12/06, and I thought it best to celebrate with another roadtrip. I planned this one out before leaving home, and just kept going until the batteries in my camera were dead and the memory card in my camera almost full. What I was left with was a ton of pictures and a car with an additional 720 miles on it. Okay, maybe this trip was a little too long...
Just can't wait to get on that road again
We're about to head over Berthoud Pass on US 40. We've just encountered a warning that we have a one lane road ahead, so let's see what's up, shall we?
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"Road Work? There's Road Work? Where? I don't see any!"
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Succint. I like it.
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We start the one lane road with a shot of some big boy toys.
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We then see the standard three things inherent in Colorado construction sites: workers standing around watching equipment work, ...
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... workers leaning on shovels watching other workers work (look between the trucks), ...
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... and vast stretches of closed lane where no work is being performed currently. Aahhh, Colorado.
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On the right, you can see where the lanes have already been widened and ahead you can see where the road hasn't been. That's the focus of all this construction.
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Construction has progressed far enough to basically only need to pave the expanded part.
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Coming up on the end of the one lane operations.
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I'm not sure why the passing lane isn't open through here.
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A permanent Road Damage sign. The cracked asphalt just beyond it is what the sign is talking about.
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About to start some big switchbacks.
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The size of the retaining walls is growing. This used to be quite a narrow road through here. And I'm not sure the engineers expected the white stuff on the walls. What is that anyway? Mold? Salt deposits?
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Coming around the first switchback. This part was the hardest to expand. Crews had to build some massive retaining walls. How massive, you might ask? Well...
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... this massive. They're bigger than the HUGE wooden retaining walls from my Colorado 67 Trip.
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Another shot of these walls.
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This roadway has a lot of these: they're used to catch melted plowed snow and filter out all the sand in them. (I think)
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More retaining wall goodness. I like how crews tried to make them visually appealing with the different colored bricks.
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Another slide area. This one must be bad, since there's even a "No Stopping" sign posted here.
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A wee bit o' sign rot.
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One of the snow catch basins. There's wider spots on both sides of this "bridge." Plows push the snow here where it melts then runs to the collection areas.
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Climbing higher.
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Those things on top of that mountain? Ski lift. There's slopes all over the place here.
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Not sure why the colors came out so deep in this pic, but it's still quite nice. This is my second favorite pic of the trip.
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A hint to lowlanders: when your passing lane goes away on a mountain pass, it means one of two things. Either the pass is about to get really narrow, or ...
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... or we're at the top of the pass. I think we've just seen option number two.
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So if you ever hear a pop while traveling in the back country, look up and prepare to run like hell. (HINT: run perpendicular to the slide: you'll never outrun an avalanche, but you may be able to get out of its path)
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I like how all the stickers on the sign don't cover up the message.
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Looks like it's a little breezy on the summits today.
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Starting down. This side of the pass, while steep, is nothing like the other side.
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Another switchback.
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Mini-avalanches! Here's exactly how avalanches get started up here, just usually on a much larger scale.
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Nice retaining wall here. I've seen parts of this wall demolished by rockslides, and I've also not been able to see this wall because it's been under 10 feet of snow.
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Kinda looks like a river of rocks, doesn't it?
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A retention pond to catch the sand from the roads and another switchback.
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Must be off of the pass if the speed limit is rising again.
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Where we were about 5 pictures ago.
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The next town we enter is Winter Park. Winter Park has two separate parts: part of the town (Old Town) is right next to the ski slopes, while the majority of the town is further down the road.
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Entrance to WInter Park Ski Resort. Note the left flag: that's Denver's city flag. Yup, the city of Denver owns a ski resort.
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Typical US 40 between the two halves of Winter Park. This is 4 lanes wide, even though there's no lines to tell us that.
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What we saw in the last pic is a bypass of an old section of 40. Here's that section, converted to one way traffic.
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For all you railfans out there, here you go. This is the west portal to the Moffatt Tunnel, which is the third longest railroad tunnel. I wish I could have gotten a better shot, but this one will do.
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Information sign about the tunnel system. Funny that it doesn't mention the train tunnel.
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Entering Winter Park's new part. This is a typical ski resort town setup.
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Once out of Winter Park, we're in a large flat plain for a while.
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40 flies over the railroad tracks.
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Entering Tabernash. This is just a small town along the way.
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Grand Lake isn't really on US 40. It's on US 34, which ends at 40 just ahead.
- Where to next?
- Page 3
- This trip's Index
- Page 5
Section Links
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the orginizations listed within this site. I'm just a bored roadgeek with way too much time on his hands. All of the picts in this page are mine and mine alone unless otherwise noted. Remember, kids: stealing is bad, mmmm-k? I get quite pissy if things are taken without telling me. I don't like to be pissy. You won't like it either. If you want to link to this page, that's fine. Please shoot me an email beforehand so I can link to your page as well. K? Thanks. --Ryan
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