Enjoying the Mountains

Main Street, Frisco

I guess I am half mountain girl and half water bird since I am happiest when I am in the water, (warm water!) hiking or riding somewhere in the hills. I find nothing more peaceful than waking up in the mornings and seeing the green verdant hills spread protectively all around, even if they are a great distance away. I suppose that's why I don't go to places like Florida and Barbados more than I have to, as I find the flatness in those places so unattractive. But some people love that type of landscape, so as I always say, to each his own.

So why am I off on that tangent today, one might ask?  Its because I have just returned after spending the entire day in some of the most beautiful mountains in the world, the Rocky mountains.


You know, the first time I visited Colorado, about 25 years ago, I went to Vail (in the summer of course) and was overwhelmed by how picturesque it was. It had the look of a typical Swiss village, only more beautiful. I have visited the state probably four or five times since then, but never had an opportunity to go back until yesterday.

In fact, since I came here in April, I have been telling my daughter Michele that I have to go back to Vail to see if it is really as beautiful as I had remembered.

In the meantime an old school friend, Ingrid, who I had just remade contact with, told me that I must go to Breckenridge as she thinks it s the most beautiful place in  the world!

Of course these are all ski resorts in the winter. My daughter skis at Keystone as she says its close to Denver, cheap and has night skiing. According to local lore, the upper middle class ski in Vail and the really wealthy and celebrities go to Aspen, all in Colorado.

So off we went, taking I 70 which goes all the way to California and of course I am the driver, since I hate having other people drive me. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking all the way with the snow covered mountains in the background and pine covered hills and mountains in front. Some of the pines appear to be brown or purple and this I understand is because they had an outbreak of the "pine beetle infestation" which killed a  number of the pines. The dead ones are not at all unattractive (at least from a distance) and from what I learnt from the tour guide last week, they are chopped down to be used for fence posts and cutting boards. But not being a natural scientist that is out of my league so enjoying the scenery is just up my street.

On the way, we drive through the 1.7 mile long Eisenhower tunnel which marks the Continental divide and which is at an elevation of over 11,000 feet. (The Continental Divide, according to the  National Atlas of the USA, ".............also called the Great Divide, is a natural boundary line separating waters that flow into the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico from those that flow into the Pacific Ocean. It runs north-south from Alaska to northwestern South America. In the conterminous United States, it follows the crest of the Rocky Mountains."

From then on it was a steep decline and I saw something I have never noticed before anywhere else, that is signs reading "Runaway Truck Ramp. These are ramps built on the side of the road and going up a mountain so that if a truck's brake fails as they start the descent from the Tunnel, they go up the ramp  to stop instead of crashing into barriers or do whatever truck drivers normally do when they were in trouble. I counted four of these strategically placed.


As soon as we saw the exit to Breckenridge, I turned off as I really needed to compare that area with Vail. We had not done any research before leaving home so were taken by surprise by the pleasant historic village of Frisco on the way. Here they have a walking history museum as well as well preserved buildings from the 

                                              One of the historic displays at Frisco

days when mining was king in the Rockies. Not only is Frisco today a leading resort because of its history, it also is popular among skiers in the winter time. 

Dillon Lake

On the way to Breckenridge, we passed Dillon lake, a huge man made lake in  the valley. The interesting thing about that lake is that the original town of Dillon is submerged by It. This was because of a decision taken in the 60's by the authorities to dam the Blue River to meet the rising needs of the residents of Denver and other growing areas, hence the original town had to be flooded and the residents relocated. 

Breckenridge is quite a pretty town at an elevation of 9,600 feet but at the peak it goes up to over 12, 000 feet. It was extremely busy this time of year as people travelled from all over to enjoy the climate, the spring flowers and the general ambiance. And was the police ready for us for I actually saw a speed trap on the way there, something that I have always comented is extremely rare in Colorado.


We spent a long time browsing through the shops and drinking in the beauty. Here they have a number of bike trails along the most scenic routes and hundreds of people were doing their tours on two wheels.


From there we returned to Frisco to pick up back the highway.  The town of Vail  has an elevation of  over 10,000 feet and there were spots where the same snow covered mountains that one usually saw from Denver, were actually parallel to the road as we drove along and the interesting thing is that although  the peaks were snow covered, even I who normally freeze as at 70 degrees, had no complaints for it felt very pleasant, both while we were diving and as we strolled in the mountains.

Just above this altitude however the mountains are actually barren as no trees can grow because of the inappropriate environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures or lack of moisture). But we only observed these quite a distance away.

Vail has a ski museum displaying an interesting history about how the village was developed by Austrian and /Swiss immigrants, hence the Alpine look. Interestingly too we learnt how that area played a critical role in World War 2, something I had never considered . This is how they tell it at the museum. "From 1941 to 1944, the members of the 10th spent most of their time training at Camp Hale, built in 1942 and located in Pando Valley. Carrying up to 90-pound rucksacks of gear, members of the 10th covered 20 to 24 miles per day on skis, used snow huts and learned to snowshoe, skin with skis and navigate every type of terrain on skis. Soldiers learned wilderness skills from rock climbing schools and how to handle rough terrain.'

Statue of a soldier from 10th Mountain Troop

Anyway, the town remains as picturesque and clean as I remembered. What they have now added is a small extension called Lionshead where it seems residential  and resort development is booming and we were lucky enough to run into an art exhibition there.


The surprise of the day however was as we drove out of Vail, we came on to a street with many flags of the world raised high and guess which flag was present? Jamaica  of course!  Pity we did not stop to take  a picture of it.


Vail certainly not disappoint at all.

For more photographs, go to; https://profiles.google.com/114828585796685227607/photos

Ski runs at Vail