This was the last day of our trip. We needed to be at the Denver airport at 3:30, which was an hour and a half drive from Estes Park by the fastest route. Instead, we chose a scenic route and gave ourselves six hours.
The Peak to Peak Scenic Byway runs from Estes Park south to Central City. Established over 100 years ago, this is Colorado's first scenic byway. The road passes through a handful of interesting little mountain towns, with constant great views all along the way.
Longs Peak, 14,259 feet
Saint Catherine's Chapel on the Rock is in Allenspark, Colorado, just a few miles south of Estes Park. In 1993, while touring the Denver area, Pope John Paul II visited the chapel and blessed it. Behind the church – and also behind the home in the previous photo – is Longs Peak, the only 14,000-foot-plus mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. Stunning!
Saint Catherine's Chapel on the Rock
Stunning scene
We dithered around most of the day, taking side roads here and there before returning to the scenic byway. One sidetrack took us to Beaver Reservoir, with a distinctive mountain in the background that looks like Yosemite's Half Dome. In Nederland, outside a mining museum, we saw the largest operable steam shovel in the United States.
Beaver Reservoir, Boulder County, Colorado
Outside the Nederland Mining Museum
1923 steam shovel used to dig the Panama Canal
Eventually, we realized we were out of time and any further dithering would have to wait until a later trip. We blazed back to Denver on I-70, with just enough time for one more quick stop before the airport: Hogan Park at Highlands Creek in Aurora. This is a 100-acre park still in the process of being built. We were there to see the odd public art installations. They were interesting...
Tom and "Umi"
Hogan Park at Highlands Creek
Jana and "Broken But Together"
Our flight left an hour and a half late, so we needn't have rushed to the airport, but still, we wanted to turn in the Jeep on time. Once we eventually boarded and the plane finally pushed off from the gate, we were 25th in line for takeoff, which took an additional hour, but eventually we made it home, sometime after 1:00 in the morning on Tuesday. All's well that ends well. It was a great trip!
Total driving miles: 2,032