After breakfast, Jack and Hadley made friends with some of the local wildlife...the hotel statuary.
Then, we walked around downtown Aspen in the daylight. It really is a beautiful place!
This picture has some of the ski slopes in the background. Having never snow skied before, I can't imagine careening down those at full speed. I would like to give it a try, though. We would really like to return to Aspen some day. Less than 24 hours is not long enough to experience this lovely town.
Before we packed back up in the car for the drive to Denver, we did find a playground in downtown Aspen to let the younger two run off some energy.
There were two different routes to get from Aspen to Denver -- one was primarily interstate driving, and the other was the Independence Pass, which is only open in the summer months due to the high altitudes and curvy roads. We chose the second option, as it looked like it crossed over the Continental Divide. We had no idea how incredible this drive would be, which led to the title of this post. Around every turn we would yell, "Wow, kids! Look at that!" I attempted to take pictures from the car window as we continued to climb up and up.
We finally made it above the tree line to the Continental Divide at an elevation of 12,095 feet. There were patches of snow on the ground in some places. Once again, jackets would have come in handy, but we managed without them.
We walked down a trail to get a better view of the surrounding Rocky Mountains.
We spent a few minutes just looking at the view and trying to take it all in before we headed back to the car. The air was definitely thin up there. It was strange how the altitude affected us in different ways and at different places. I was the first one to feel the effects of the altitude on this trip at Mesa Verde. I experienced headaches and slight shortness of breath at the Far View Lodge. The altitude affected Sidney the most in Aspen. Dan felt the effects the most at Independence Pass, and it hit Lyndon in Denver. The younger two never really seemed to be affected. Dan and I had always heard about sports teams not playing as well in high altitudes when they are used to being closer to sea level. I never really put much stock in it before, but now I do! I see why Olympic athletes spend time training in Colorado. If you are in your peak shape here, you can dominate anywhere!
The rest of the drive to Denver was...something. We drove through the interesting town of Leadville, CO. It is the highest incorporated city in the US at 10,152 feet. It has quite a colorful history, which is worth googling, including being the home of the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". They have burro races the first weekend in August each year. We spent a few minutes trying to locate t-shirts with the slogan "Get your Ass over the Pass" to no avail. Apparently, they only sell them the day of the race. They are missing out on a golden opportunity to capitalize on that race all year long.
The remainder of the drive to Denver was not quite as fun. We soon made it back to the Interstate only to sit in traffic for several hours. A drive that should have taken just over an hour took about 2.5 hours. Apparently, the two lanes of the Interstate (and the mile long tunnel through the mountains) just doesn't have the capacity to handle the high volume of traffic heading back into Denver on Sunday afternoons in the Summer. I read that this was typical traffic multiple places AFTER we were already sitting in traffic. Oh, well. Now we know. Once we arrived in Denver, Dan dropped us at the hotel, and he and Lyndon returned the trusty rental car to the Airport. We will be hoofing it around Denver for the next several days.
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