Finally!!! I kept delaying the inevitable moment when I had to do something with all those photos we took back then. I never really felt like it, there are just too many but here they are. At least the first 3 days worth (out of 14).

Just a recap though…
It was the last week in February and the first week in March of this year when my brother and I flew Delta Airlines over to Denver (from Venice via New York and Cincinnati) for two weeks of driving and skiing whererever we felt like at the moment. We arrived one day late for the NBA All Star game

For the first few days we stayed at our cousin’s house in Westminster (just north of Denver) and they also gave us a car to drive around. It was a Mazda Protege (similar to Mazda 3 series)with 1.6 liter engine and 4-speed automatic transmission.
I know, not a pretty combination at first (small engines on US markets are severely underpowered) but after a few days in our hands that thing could take on just about anything on the road. It’s only a matter of smart driving.

Day 1

First day was spent driving around Denver so I had a chance to remember some of the things I saw when I was there the last time in 2001. Denver itself hasn’t changed that much and it’s still very confusing to drive around. Everything looks the same, every street, every house, every shopping mall, everything… and since only the streets are marked with sequential numbers unlike the avenues it’s not that difficult to get lost. Especially at night.
You always know how far north or south you are but you can be 50km east or west of your desired location and most people wouldn’t notice the difference. You remember the names after a while but it can still be confusing at times.

We met up with Sabina Kohler for lunch. She’s a former employee at the US embassy in Ljubljana who married one the marines at the embassy and moved to Denver with him. She took us on a tour of Cunningham Fire and Rescue station in Aurora where she’s got a desk job. The guys were pretty cool, showing us all the equipment and stuff but they wouldn’t let us use the slide.

Day 2 ~200km

Our second day was spent on the slopes of Arapahoe Basin ski area. I think it was the highest we went to with a summit elevation of 3967m (Jackson Hole might have been higher though).
It’s one of the smaller areas close to Denver (it only takes about an hour to get there) and frankly it doesn’t have much to offer for experienced skiers especially if they close the off piste areas due to fictional avalanche danger (with the small amount of snow they had it would be a miracle if one actually occured).
There were only a handful of people there since it was in the middle of the week and the weather wasn’t exactly decent.

We had quite a lot of difficulties adjusting to the altitude which is no wonder. We were there for only a day and had no chance to aclimatize properly. Whenever we had to work to get anywhere or on the bumps heavy breathing quickly followed

On the way back over the Loveland pass (Continental Divide, elevation 3655m) I decided to cut some corners and followed two other likeminded skiers down through the forrest while my brother drove the car down to the base. It was a nice run with plenty of powder to rip through (at least 1m of fresh powder) but I’d preffer if there were less trees in the way so I could carve down rather than constantly think about avoiding obstacles.

As a side note… it amazes me how people in the Colorado just don’t know how to drive when there’s snow on the road. All kinds of vehicles from minivans to heavy duty 4×4 pickup trucks with proper tires were sliding all over the road uncontrollably. We had summer tires on and had absolutely no problems getting over the pass. Practice makes perfect

Just before the rockies end and the plains begin there’s an exit that takes you up Lookout Mt. and the scenic by-way. We stopped at Buffalo Bill’s grave and enjoyed the view over the Table Mountains, Golden, Colorado School of Mining and Coors Brewery below with Denver further away concealed in haze. I really recommend that scenic by-way. It’s a nice drive down the mountain.

Day 3 ~ 400+ km

Day three started with lousy weather so we decided to skip skiing at Winterpark/Mary Jane and drive south to Colorado Springs. Traffic wasn’t that bad in downtown Denver even though it was rush hour.
We basically drove through the US Airforce Academy, there was nothing going on (unlike the big parade to end the school year we saw the last time) so we continued to the Garden of the Gods with some interesting sandstone scupltures. The park itself is very small so it doesn’t take a lot of time to hike through it.
The next stop (after driving all over west Colorado Springs and a couple of state parks to find our way out) was at Manitou Springs a few kilometers south to see the Manitou Cliff Dwellings of the Anasazi tribe. They were the ancient ones living in the area before the Apache, Comanche and others.
It’s a very commercial place with the parking lot right underneath the cliffs and many modern add ons so it’s difficult to take a photo without disturbing elements. I’m not sorry we went though.

Driving back north towards Denver we missed the exit to see if  Hooters were really worth all the hype and since we were a bit late for dinner we didn’t bother to turn around. We assumed we’d get another chance some other day (but sadly none came) so…

We decided the Interstate 25 wasn’t interesting enough to see it again so we took some road east that led us into the Black Forrest. It turned out to be a great alternative. We soon came to where the tarmac ended and gravel roads continued in every direction.
It was a complete navigational nightmare since many roads that weren’t even on the map turned out to be a dead end (after at least 15min of driving!) but what can you do? At least we had a chance to take turns in being towed along the ditches beside the road that were covered with a sheet of ice. Sliding on ice at 30km/h while holding on to the car is an interesting experience I recommend to anyone

Eventually, with some help from a local postman (that himself had several detailed maps in his car to find his way around), we found our way out of the maze and onto a paved road leading north (highway 83).

Suddenly we found ourselves on a bridge over a canyon and it turned out to be Castlewood Canyon State Park. We didn’t even notice it on the map before It was about to close in 40min, we were the only visitors in the entire park so we were jogging at a fast pace through most of the loop trail to see it all and come back in time. It was a nice workout to substitute skiing, although I wished I’d had more time to adjust to the altitude (Denver itself is at 1600m). The entire loop was between 5 and 10km long and I realised I should run more often when I came back.

Other than the standard rush hour traffic jams it was a pretty uneventful drive back through Denver.

to be continued….