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Central Colorado
Car Touring
Car touring
is a great way to see the Central Rockies. You will discover old mining
camps, frontier towns, scenic mountain lakes, crystal-clear streams, flower-filled
meadows, majestic mountains, and much, much more. Almost any road traveled
in Central Colorado will have fantastic scenery for you to enjoy. A number
of routes take you off the beaten path into regions missed when driving
the main highways. Included are day trips that are within one days drive
or less from most Central Colorado towns. Driving times when given
are approximate and exclude sightseeing. While car touring be sure to
stop in the towns along the way. Each town has its own unique history,
interesting sites, and things to do. Check the town listing for attractions
in each community.
Scenic &
Historic Car Tours
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Bachelor
Historic Loop
This 17-mile route begins
in Creede, Colorado. It takes visitors through Creede's historic
silver mining district and past two ghost town sites. The tour begins
at the kiosk at the fork of East and West Willow Creek in the canyon
north of Creede and ends at the kiosk on State Hwy 149 in Creede.
Guide books can be purchased at the Chamber of Commerce or at the
kiosk at the south end of Creede. The guide book is a comprehensive
narrative of Creede; the last great silver mining boom town in Colorado.
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Boreas
Pass
This scenic tour covers about
30 miles and begins in Fairplay, Colorado. The road to the top of
11,481 foot Boreas Pass follows the route once taken by the narrow
gauge Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad which ran until the
early 1930's. At the top of Boreas Pass, you will find the ruins
of the town of Boreas Station.
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Chalk
Creek Canyon
This popular drive begins in
Buena Vista, Colorado and covers 55 miles round trip, and should
take about 2-1/4 hours diving time. Chalk Creek Canyon has a lively,
colorful mining and railroad history. Included are views of
the Chalk Cliffs--an unusual geologic formation, Agnes Veil Falls,
trout filled Chalk Lake, 14ers--Mt. Antero (14,269 ft.) and Mt.
Princeton (14,197 ft.), Cascades Canyon, the old mining town of
Alpine, an old narrow gauge railroad right-of-way, historic St.
Elmo--once a mining and railroad center, ghost towns--Romley and
Hancock, and the famous Alpine Tunnel.
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Clear
Creek Canyon/Vicksburg/Winfield
This drive begins in Buena Vista,
Colorado and covers 65 miles round trip, and should take about 2
hours driving time. You will visit
two well-known ghost towns Vicksburg and Winfield, and get impressive
views of four Colorado 14ers--Oxford (14,153 ft.), Belford (14,197
ft.), Missouri (14,067 ft.), and Huron (14,003 ft.). A number of
choice picnic spots are along this scenic route.
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Cottonwood
Pass
This drive over the Continental
Divide begins in Buena Vista, Colorado. It covers 36 miles round-
trip, and should take about 2 hours driving time. Cottonwood Pass
at 12,126 feet is one of the highest passes in the U.S. over the
Continental Divide. Cottonwood
Pass is scenic and takes you through an area with many points of
interest, including a possible side trip to Cottonwood Lake. Be
sure to take your camera and binoculars. This trip provides an opportunity
to see some of Colorado's wildlife. Bighorn sheep, deer, and mountain
goats are sometimes seen along this road.
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Frontier
Pathway Scenic Byway
This drive near the Colorado
towns of Canon City and Westcliffe. It covers about 103 miles, the
driving time is about 3.5 hours. Hardscrabble Canyon, the pristine
Wet Mountain Valley, sharp mesas and hogbacks flanking the Arkansas
River highlight this unspoiled historic and scenic route. Homesteads
and vintage ranches, some dating back to the 1840's, romantic stage-stop
ruins, and abandoned trading posts form living "memories of
the past." View the entire 100-mile length of the Sangre de
Cristo Range which has seven peaks over 14,000 feet, and 39 peaks
over 13,000 feet.
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Georgia
Pass
This drive covers 21 miles and
begins in Fairplay, Colorado. Georgia Pass (11,585 ft.) is located
on the Continental Divide and provides travelers with spectacular
views of South Park. This road was one of the first transportation
routes to the Breckenridge area during the region's gold discovery
era.
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Ghost
Towns, Mines & Mining Camps
Tours to Colorado's ghost towns and
mining camps are a top priority for vacationers. The
region has numerous abandoned ghost towns, mining camps, and
historic mountain homesteads, remnants of the original Colorado
settlers, who came to the region to mine gold and silver.
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Gold
Belt Tour Scenic Byway
In the early 1890s the mining
towns of Colorado enjoyed the greatest gold boom the state has ever
known. This historic tour covers a 131-mile scenic loop, and should
take about 5 hours driving time. The circuit tours historic Cripple
Creek, Florence, McCourt, Adelaide, Wilbur, Victor, and other former
gold camps. The roads are narrow and rugged in places - one stretch
of the Shelf Road clings to a canyon wall 200 feet above the stream
bed - but the payoff comes in the outstanding scenery: majestic
Pikes Peak, the unspoiled Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area, spectacular
Royal Gorge, and miles of high-country beauty. Two significant fossil
areas - Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and the Garden
Park Dinosaur Fossil Area - lie along the route.
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Golden
Loop Historic Parkway Driving Tour and Trails
A self-guided 17 mile driving tour of the
Cripple Creek and Victor mining district. Tour guide booklets are
50 cents and are available at Victor businesses and the Cripple
Creek Welcome Center. A self-guided hiking, biking, horseback trail
starts in Vindicator Valley near Victor and winds 2-plus miles through
historic mining artifacts.
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Highway
Of The Fourteeners
This scenic tour of Colorado's famous
Fourteeners starts just south of Buena Vista, Colorado, covers 19
miles one-way, and should take about 30 minutes. One of the best known
scenic drives in the Rockies is this section of U.S. Hwy 24 called
the Highway of the Fourteeners, because it passes a total of
ten 14,000-foot peaks. There is no other stretch of highway in the
U.S. where you will see this many of the highest peaks together. There
are many different views for camera shots and the big peaks are constantly
changing mood and color with the seasons, various times of day, lighting,
and cloud conditions.
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Silver
Thread Scenic Byway
The colorful old mining camps of
the Silver Thread offer history, scenic beauty, and a heavy dose of
authenticity. The heights around Creede and Lake City remain strewn
with abandoned mining structures, most of them accessible via rugged
backcountry roads. Between the two towns, State Hwy 149 shadows the
upper reaches of the Rio Grande, serving up a bounty of natural wonders
- sparkling North Clear Creek Falls, the Slumgullion earth slide,
and the shark-like fin of Uncompahgre Peak. These mountains can be
unforgiving: In 1848 explorer John C. Fremont lost a third of his
men - and a quarter of a century later the infamous Alfred Packer
cannibalized his companions - in two ill-fated winter expeditions.
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Los
Caminos Antiguos Scenic Byway
This historic byway covers 129 miles
and takes about 3 hours one way. Explore
the rich culture and traditions of some of Colorado's oldest communities
and the panoramic views of the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountain
ranges, the high, fertile San Luis Valley, The Great Sand Dunes National
Monument, state and federal parks and wildlife areas. Los Caminos
Antiguos take you to Colorado's oldest surviving community (San Luis,
1851), the oldest church (Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Conejos), and
one of its first military posts (Fort Garland).
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Top
Of The Rockies Scenic Byway
This 75-mile tour takes about 2 hours
15 minutes driving time. With
altitudes seldom dipping below 9,000 feet, this byway is worthy of
its name. It crosses the 10,424-foot Tennessee Pass enroute to the
historic mining town of Leadville, the highest incorporated community
in the U.S. Ghost towns attest to the state's rich mining heritage.
The route crosses the Continental Divide twice and traces the Arkansas
River nearly to its source in the vicinity of Fremont Pass. The byway
provides access to one of the largest concentrations of Congressionally
designated Rare II Wilderness in the nation. |
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