Independence Pass
For some reason high energy physicists like to have meetings in the Rockie Mountains. I have attended the 2001 Snowmass workshop and several Fermilab Program Advisory Committee meetings which are held in Aspen in June. I have never before taken Independence Pass to get to Aspen or Snowmass. On the first trip the weather was bad, and I was advised that the pass is not something to drive in bad weather. For the next couple of trips, I just took the same route as before out of habit. When I arrived in Denver today, I decided that this time I would try Independence Pass.
The route involves taking I-70 to Minturn where you get off and take US-24 East. On a map it looks like it goes south but the signs say east. After you get past Leadville you turn onto Colorado 82 which goes through Independence Pass and onto Aspen and Glenwood Springs. The route does not suffer from an excess of signs. After I passed through Minturn I must have gone 10 miles before I saw a sign confirming that I was on US-24 as I wanted to be. After I passed through Leadville, I saw a sign saying the Independence Pass (CO-82) was open, so I knew I was still going the right way. The turn onto CO-82 is not well marked. There is one sign about 1/2 mile before the turn. There really are not a lot of roads out here, so I guess that the state assumes that no one will make a wrong turn.
As I approached the beginning of the serious climbing I saw a bicyclist coming toward me. As I started the serious climbing, I realized that the only way he could have got on that road was to have come over the pass. I then saw three more bicyclists coming down hill. The road is narrow and the edge drops away precipitously. I was shocked to see someone who was coming downhill passing another car. I had to almost completely stop to avoid getting hit.
At the top I got out, checked out the view, and took a few pictures. The sign said that I was at 12,095 feet. I think that is the second highest that I have been outside an airplane. I visited Mont Blanc when I was in Europe working on my thesis experiment. I do not remember exactly how high up I was but it sure was hard to breathe.
I headed down, and the drive was actually harder than on the way up. The edge of the road did not seem to drop away quite as dramatically, but the trip down was quite long and the road quite narrow. There were two places where the double yellow line dividing the opposing lanes of traffic disappeared, and the road was just barley wide enough for two cars to pass. Eventually the road leveled out, broadened, and the speed limit went up. Then, with very little warning I drove into Aspen after a drive of 209 miles.