We woke up to beautiful sunshine and ready to carry on going places. A quick stop at the Bluebird cafe for breakfast and off on the road again. Our journey started on the Interstate 70 which, for being an Interstate is very scenic and rather pleasant to ride. The first section went through a canyon following a river, then into the plains with the snow capped mountains in the background. Soon we were in the hills again and surrounded by trees and cliffs.
View from I-70
We turned off onto the CR24, a very scenic mountain road winding its way up and down from pass to pass. Along the way we stopped for pictures for the meltwater rivers with the slim chance of seeing a Moose. We arrived in Leadville for a late lunch, Zoe gathered some local information from the visitor centre and we headed to the #1 place to eat in Leadville (according to trip adviser) being a pizzeria. We also made a quick stop at an old saloon which unfortunately didn’t serve food.
The Leadville Saloon, circa 1876
Fed and ready to carry on we took a short drive to Turquoise Lake. Leadville being at close to 3200 meters in altitude the snow is still abundant and many roads are still closed. We saw the lake and quickly found ourselves riding alongside a wall of snow.
The road by Turquoise lake.
From there we headed to the old mines that are scattered all over town. The mines were closed but without much of a fence we went in and had a look around. Most of the mining in the area was for silver, gold, lead, zinc, copper… as we drove down looking for more mines we went from paved to dirt to mud roads and decided to turn around.
Old mining buildings in Leadville
I really wanted to see twin lakes where I expected to find a camp site at a lower altitude for the night along with great views. Again the campsites were closed. In case you plan to visit Colorado in spring, most passes and campsites down open until the last week end of May, being Memorial Day. We took the road towards Aspen which was still closed (hense the detour via I70) and along with views saw a heard of big horn sheep.
Along the road towards Independence Pass/Aspen
With nowhere to camp we headed back up to Leadville where we saw a few motels and hunkered down for the night which would be a cold one as can be expected at over 3000 meters.
TA
Posting order a bit out of tune, not a problem at all, as long as your writing allows to follow your ride.
Can imagine the abandoned mines were intriguing! Always game for a bit of the unknown and mysterious, aren’t you Tanguy?
Photos are really good, but who’s behind the camera? Maybe worth mentioning, no?
Baci and more to follow as I’ve noticed 2 more diary pages