Red Mountain Pass
Drove up to Aspen yesterday for a meeting on their plans for a small hydroelectric plant. Rode I-70 over the highest pass (Vail Pass) on the country's interstate system. The snow was falling; trucks were stopped on the shoulders; the roadway slippery. Driving past Vail and then Buttermilk and then Aspen, you could see the skiers coming down the slopes. Sweet.
After the meeting and lunch in Carbondale, I drove west and over McClure Pass, through Paonia, then Delta, Montrose to Ridgeway where I spent the night. Red Mountain Pass to Silverton and Durango was closed due to snow and avalanche danger, but it looks like it's open this morning. If not, the road over Lizard Head Pass is open. Ridgeway is a small town, but it has a classic hot springs (Orvis).
When we first moved to Colorado, I was struck by the manner in which people described their road trips not in terms of highway numbers but in terms of the passes over which the roads were built. Now I see why....the passes, not the roads, determine whether or not you will get to your destination. They are the gateways, the openings to new lands.
