Pogwatigue Perambulations: Foothills Drive

Pogwatigue Perambulations

Pogwatigue: A Pottawatomie word meaning 'running water.' Early settlers chose this word as the original name for my hometown, Niles, Michigan.

Perambulation: roam, stroll, inspection of an area on foot.

My intent for this blog is to catalog my various local, regional, national, and perhaps someday international explorations. Originally, I found the blog a good vehicle to publish Google maps on the internet and all my initial posts have such a map embedded, but I don't limit myself to that genre. Almost all the posts will have a personal, geographic element. For the title, I chose Pogwatigue due to its ties to my roots roots and perambulations as a fancy, alliterative word to describe the content.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Foothills Drive

My first week in Colorado, I focused on finding a place to stay and getting familiar with the area. While driving from place to place, the majestic Rocky Mountains were often in view. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't very well drive off and explore them. I'd been doing that type of thing for three months and it was time get focused on finding a room and then a job. However, my second Sunday in town I succumb to temptation and did enjoy a very, very brief drive up in to the foothills.

I didn't go far--about 100 miles--and stayed pretty much in the car. I was still wearing my church clothes. After lunch, I started to back to my place, but on a whim turned on Morrison Road (CO-8). I intended to find a park in which to sit, read and enjoy the wonderful weather. Instead, I kept driving, passed the highway that rings metro Denver, through the historic town and Morrison and up in to the foothills. Rather than join I-70 after Evergreen, I found a scenic backroad that continued up towards Mount Evans, one of Colorado's 50-plus mountains over 14,000 tall. 11,000 feet is about as high as I could drive this late in the year—the highway to the peak closes on Labor—so I found my way to Idaho Springs, one of Colorado's historic gold rush towns. After walking around the charming downtown, I started on back to Lakewood, taking the more scenic route, US-6, instead of the scenic freeway.

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