I forgot to bring some John Denver!

Rangely, CO — My previous visits to Colorado always involved driving from the Denver airport to Loveland, Fort Collins, or Colorado Springs  so you might understand why I never really understood John Denver’s passion for the place.   This trip I came up from New Mexico on 285 into Walsenburg,  a pretty drive, and then took 24 out of Colorado Springs to Aspen.  Wow!

I know many of you reading this blog are familiar with I-24, so you might recognize some of these places.    This first picture was taken west of Ute Pass.  Not a lot of trees here!

West of Ute Pass
West of Ute Pass

 

Fall Colors
Fall Colors

Now, about this time I’ve got a John Denver tune running through my head.  Unfortunately it’s completely wrong.  “Take me home country road” is song about West Virginia!  Oh well!!

I was hesitant to take the road over Independence Pass, because of both the elevation, and the weather.  But having conquered Beartooth Pass I figured what’s another thousand feet?  Except for a few hairpin turns, the road up the east side was pretty easy driving.  The sky ended up being overexposed in these next shots, even when I manually under exposed them by almost two stops.

Road East of Independence Pass
Road East of Independence Pass
East side, Near the top of the pass
East side, Near the top of the pass

Here’s a couple of shots from the top

View from Independence Pass
View from Independence Pass
Made it! 12,095' elevation
Made it! 12,095′ elevation

Despite having a vehicle length restriction of 35′, I think this road is much easier to drive than Beartooth.  The only challenge was on the west side where, in several places, the road was less than two lanes wide. I could have easily scraped the camper along a rock wall like in this next picture.  I was lucky that I never had to pass oncoming traffic in the narrow bits.  In the picture you can see that they simply stop painting a center line when the road gets narrow.  Notice the skid marks?

narrow road

The aspens were amazing on the west side of the pass

aspenTrees
Aspens
More Aspens

I passed through the town of Aspen, and ended up on I-70.  I then turned north at Rifle, CO and eventually found my way onto highway 64.  This road runs along the White river as it wanders for miles through a beautiful river valley.

White River
White River

Looking for a place to stop along the river I stumbled upon this unmarked campground on a small reservoir near Rangely.  I was hoping to find a place like this.  There wasn’t a sign on the road, just a small sign down off the road that said campground open.  I had the entire campground to myself — it was just me, the fish (they were jumping), and a couple of rabbits.  I’m guessing that if there had been a sign, it might have cut into the business of a couple of RV campgrounds a few miles down the road in Rangely.  It only cost $8 to stay here.

Rio Blanco Water Conservancy
Rio Blanco Water Conservancy

 

Miles traveled today: 219
Total Miles Traveled: 4674
Average Miles per day: 234

Next stop:  Utah