the big three-oh tour
The date: July 3, 1976. The place: Northwest Community Hospital in Rolling Meadows, IL. The event: r-dub's entrance to this world of ours. Flashing forward thirty years, we find r-dub wandering yet again, enjoying not only his birthday but a rare day off from work as well. He's heading to the southwest part of the state, heretofor unconquered by him. Let's tag along, shall we?
Getting high on Wolf Creek Pass.
Back into the mountains we go. We're ascending Wolf Creek Pass now. Let's see what's up here, shall we?
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Entering Mineral County. This is as far west as I have been on this road. The last time I was out here, crews had Wolf Creek Pass closed for rock blasting.
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Cool rock walls.
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I think we're about to lose those wide shoulders.
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No, seriously! The road narrows!
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Curving up the pass on a narrower road. I guess the blinking light sign wasn't lying.
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Spending Independence weekend fly fishing. Nice.
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The chain-up area for the pass.
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The upper closure point of Wolf Creek Pass.
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Summit distance sign. Also, note how close the car in front of us was to the truck. This is natural in Colorado.
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Still climbing. I thought part of this pass was recently reconstructed?
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I love this pic.
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We're now at the edge of the reconstruction point. Not having been on this road before, I don't know if it's any better or not. I know that I helped pay for it, though.
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I hope the fabric isn't a permanent installation. Looks kinda tacky.
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I think this is where a lot of the rock blasting was taking place. They did a great job here.
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This is a first for me. I've never seen a forest road junction posted before.
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Extra guardrail happenings. I'm assumming this is to stop wayward motorcyclists from going under the guardrail?
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One of the reconstruction projects was to install a tunnel to eliminate a tight curve. This would be that tunnel.
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And here's that tight curve the tunnel replaced.
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Just after the tunnel we see that the staging area for the construction crews is still here even though construction is complete.
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We're still climbing towards the summit of the pass, by the way.
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This whole area just has some breathtaking views.
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Hellow Mr. Dancing Arrow! Fancy meeting you here!
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CDOT staff member truck surfing.
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Wot's this? A snowshed? Cool.
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Good thing to heavily advertise this since the snowshed covers a tight curve.
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The snowshed in all its glory.
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From the inside. I think this is the first time any inside shot turned out well enough for me to not to have to doctor it up.
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By the way, we are still climbing. There's some tight curves to come still.
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Wolf Creek Ski Area lives off to the left of the highway. I've seen times where this area has a 135+ inch base with more snow flying. That's pretty.
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We're still climbing, but I think that's about to change. This is also the only shot of the summit that came out. It's there where the road flattens.
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11?!? Wow. I guess trucks speeding would be a bad thing, but 11?
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Another in a long sign parade for the truckers.
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And down we go!
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Plenty of advanced warning for the truckers.
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Another FR junction. Hmmm. This junction plate is brown. I guess that means the first one was an oops!
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Except on heavy truck traffic days, you're always passing. Also, here's a shot of how the irrigation drains work on the pass. Look below and behind the sign.
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A friendly reminder for the truckers.
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Yup. Still descending.
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Approaching the first runaway truck ramp.
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At the ramp exit.
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At the ramp base.
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I was wondering how long we'd be able to keep a second downhill lane.
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That's one beefy rock catch wall.
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Interesting advanced warning sign.
- Where to next?
- Page 3
- This trip's Index
- Page 5
Section Links
- Trip Index
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
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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