On the vergeWe took off today around 8:30a for a trip through the nearby mountain area to look at the changing aspen. The local TV news always makes a big deal about when they are changing and where. This weekend was to be good in Aspen and Vail. You know what? I really don't want to have anything to do with either of those towns, especially Aspen.
So we headed up through the local gambling towns to run past Nevadaville. This time through the town all seven business sites were up for sale. Sad because the area is quite pretty, enormously historical (lots of mines along the gulch) but so little travelled. For our purposes today it had one of the better aspen stands with color. Sadly, there are no pullouts along the road to stop for pictures. During the trip we saw no drop-dead glorious stands of the trees. We did see trees in all states of change, from a beautiful translucent green to denuded, sometimes in stands on the same hillside. We figure full color should reach the areas we travelled in another week, so maybe another trip is in order.
We continued north on CO 119 to Nederland where we stopped for lunch at a new-looking brewery/restaurant, the Wild Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery. The food, chicken sandwich with fries and a red ale for Fran, a ribs sampler and potato salad side with an IPA for me, was quite good as was the beer.
Long's Peak, on left
Estes Cone w/ aspen near the top
From there we headed north on CO 72, then north on CO 7 into Estes Park where we hoped to catch a glimpse of the ever present elk. The town's main intersection turned out to be exactly what I expected, a cluster f*** with more cars joining by the minute. And for all the trumpeting (ahem) we saw no elk.
From there we drove down US 36 along the Big Thompson River. Just outside Estes we saw any number of inviting motel/cabin setups which look like they'd be a hoot to stay in. And for what it's worth the river was filthy with fly fishermen for several miles below the Estes Lake dam.
2 comments:
1.Courious? . . . . what’s the problem with towns of Aspen and Vail?
2. As a beer connoisseur why didn’t you get the Brew Pub’s house beers?
1. Partly the expense and partly the outright snobbery exhibited by the denizens of the towns. Aspen is much worse than Vail, perhaps due to Vail's higher pupulation density and ease of access. For that, all Aspen will get from me is exhaust as I pass through.
2. The beers I mentioned were the brewery's products. The red ale was excellent. The IPA was good, but not as good as what I get down the street at the Dry Dock. I'm drawn to IPAs, maybe because they remind me of that Geoff produced back in the day -- his was so bitter I couldn't handle even a sip well. These days, I love hoppy ales.
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