Gold Camp Road Pictography
Headed west form the city of Colorado Springs, Gold Camp Road is an incredibly scenic way to get to the Cripple Creek/Victor area. It takes longer than using US 24 and SH 67, but the views make up for it quickly. Here's my pictorial essay of the "Trip that bankrupts the english language."
Old Stage Road westwards
Heading up Old Stage Road now. We're dealing with some massive altitude gain and some mid-90 degree temps, which is causing the r-dub-mobile to not like life. He'll calm down once the steep grades are over.
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Definitely climbing. We were at that level only a few minutes ago.
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Guns are seen and heard in multiple places along Old Stage Road. This isn't one of those places where the guns should be.
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Just in case you couldn't read the sign from the previous pic, here it is again less than 500 feet up the road.
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Log retaining walls. Who here remembers playing with Lincoln Logs?
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Curving and twisting. At least the massive uphill grades are gone.
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Too bad there isn't a pine tree growing right between those boulders. That would have made one great joke.
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Looking across the canyons (North and South Cheyenne) at where we were quite some time back.
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A little further along, we look towards the closed section of Gold Camp Road.
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Watch out for that pole!
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I have no idea what that thing on the left is.
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We've now gone past the private property into national forest land. Ask me how I know this.
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This helpful sign can be donated to some of the inner cities out east too.
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Sheesh. Even up here in the forest we still have restrictions. Can't get away with anything nowadays, I tell you.
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These signs don't lie. I was listening to a weather forecast here the other day and the forecaster mentioned that he's lived here all his life, and he's never seen it this dry. That's not a good sign.
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More restrictions on shooting, this time on a cut out metal sign.
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One massive Allowed Cloud. You think they're serious about the fire restrictions? (This pic was taken on June 3. By June 23, the restrictions have been tightened even further. Now, there's no fires in established campgrounds, you're only allowed to smoke in your car, and rangers are discouraging the propane-fueled stoves. At this rate, all types of fires will not be allowed by mid-July. Last time conditions were this bad was the year of the Hayman Fire in 2002. That led to the complete closure of the Pike National Forest, including the road we're on now.
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The third sign board shows a map of the forest..
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Cool roadgeek find! A distance marker on a forest road.
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Another reminder of where you can and can't drive. I understand why this sign is here. There's a lot of morons who believe that since they have a 4WD vehicle, they can go anywhere. It's tearing up the land badly.
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This is one smooth dirt road through here.
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A forest road intersection. Old Stage Road stays straight.
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We're officially on FR 368, although everyone calls it Old Stage Road.
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Distance shot happiness.
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The exit to the Broadmoor Stables. Yup, the hotel has its own stables. Amenities you want, amenities you got!
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While this road is in impeccable shape for the majority of its length, there's spots where it needs some help.
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We've now reached Gold Camp Road again. The trucks are on that road.
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Gold Camp Road isn't closed off per se here, but it's obvious nobody drives down it anymore. It's not maintained, and there's a nice dirt mound blocking the road. And this really cool sign still stands guard.
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One of the many ranch/retreats in the area.
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Wide road through valleys. That sums up this stretch of Gold Camp.
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If the road isn't in a valley, it's on a shelf on the side of a hill. It's not too far of a drop down though.
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Approaching the next scenic pulloff and parking for the St. Peter's Dome Trailhead.
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Just how high we are is demonstrated from that parking area. It's pretty much a flat drive all the way to Victor now.
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The lighter green trees are Aspens. In the fall, the leaves turn to a bright yellow color. You can imagine how spectacular that looks. Of course, after experiencing the explosive colors of a New England fall, I prefer the lower elevations over this. It's still wonderful to look at, though.
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Rolling right along.
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Gold Camp skirts around a large, smooth rock outcropping.
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Looking straight up the smooth rock outcropping. I love this shot.
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Looking back at the plains.
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Turning around and looking the opposite direction (west) from the last shot.
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There's plenty of neat rock formations along this route. Here's one example.
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Yet another deep rock cut.
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As I said earlier, Gold Camp Road started as a rail line. When it was converted to a auto route, designers had to figure out how to solve what to do with the railroad trestles and how to get the road to the other side of the valley the trestle spanned. The solution was pretty elegant: fill the trestle with dirt and smooth the top. Here's one example of this.
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Looking east one more time. The mountain with all the towers on it is Cheyenne Mountain. It's seen easily in many of my Colorado Springs shots.
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Still on the trestle, we look at where we were.
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Looking upvalley from the trestle.
- Where to next?
- Page 2
- This trip's Index
- Page 4
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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