Breckenridge Ice Festival

For the first time since I arrived in Denver last October, I headed back up in to the mountains.  An Ice Sculpture Festival hosted in Breckenridge provided the excuse.  I hopped on US-285, which leads southwest out of Denver and pulled over at Kenosha Pass (elev. 10,001 feet) about an hour in to the drive where I scouted out two short trails.  One traced the course of an old railroad grade and another led to a scenic overlook of South Park. Back in the car, I turned on to State Highway 9 to cross Hoosier Pass (elev. 11,539) for the final stretch in to Breckenridge. I recognized the mountains on the left, having hiked up several of the peaks in 2009, including Mount Lincoln, still the highest mountain I've ever conquered.

I got to Breckenridge about 2:00 PM and immediately went to check out the sculptures.  Fifteen teams spent last week carving mammoth cubes of packed snow into various forms.  Judges awarded prizes over the weekend.  The festival leaves the finished products in situ for another week, unless nature intervenes.  Today was a good day to visit because the crowd was thinner and the artworks still in good shape.  In a twist of bitter irony, Team Canada's Ode to NASA, intended to be a representation of the final shuttle launch, was the one sculpture that collapsed prior to judging.

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To kill the final few hours of daylight, I ate a late lunch and then read for about an hour in a small cafe downtown.  I wanted to stick around in order to see sculptures at night.  The festival illuminates them with multi-colored LEDs, which change randomly.  I forgot to bring my tripod, but the lighting was bright enough for me to get quite a few good pictures without it.  I'm glad I stayed.  The nighttime viewing greatly surpassed the daytime experience.  I stayed until my cold nose decided it was time to go.

Kenosha Pass

South Park

Mosquito-Ten Mile Range
(Mount Lincoln on the Left)

Great Expectations - 1st Place Winner

Dancing Screens - 2nd Place
(but, probably my favorite of the bunch)

Ice Sculptures at Night

South Table Mountain

After a late lunch yesterday, I took advantage of the nice weather to hit another trail, one a lot closer to town.   South Table Mountain is just west of Golden about three miles from where I've been staying.  I found the trailhead at the end of a residential street.  It was late enough in the day that most of the hike was in the shadow of the mesa.  It was a fairly easy climb.  The trail was a little muddy and icy, but nothing so much as I encountered over the weekend.  At the top of the Mesa, I encountered a small herd of mule deer.  I also met a strong wind which only intensified as night fell.   By the time I reached the eastern point of the mesa, the sun had set.   I had to back track along a trail after it became clear it wouldn't take me back to my original trailhead, and ended up back at the car right about at twilight.

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Trip Statistics
Length: 2.8 miles
Hike Time: 1 hours 13 minutes
Avg. Speed: 2 MPH
Total Ascent: 350 ft.
Max Elev.: 6,070 ft.

Elevation Profile

Ancient Palms Trail up South Table Mountain

Basalt Top Trail

Lonely Tree on South Table Mountain

Denver from South Table Mountain

North Table Mountain and Rocky Mountain Foothills

Roxborough State Park

Yesterday, I broke from my sedentary pattern of late to visit a state park just beyond the southwestern fringe of the Denver metropolitan area.  The Park, Roxborough, lies along the transition between the high plains and the foothills of the Rockies.  The preeminent features are colorful rock formations created by a succession of ridges; the Dakota, Lyons and Fountain formations.  I arrived early to join a nature walk led by a volunteer guide--I was the only one on the walk. The trail was really icy, but passable.

Having paid the park admission fee, I wasn't quite ready to depart once two-hour guided tour ended. I considered a couple other trails and decided to tackle the longest one in the park, which led up about 1,000 feet to Carpenter Peak.  Mud and snow covered the trail for most of its three-mile length.  I got by with just some old hiking shoes, but envied the other hikers better equipped for the conditions.  The views at the top of the Carpenter Peak made the extra effort worthwhile.  Pine covered slopes of the Rocky Mountains stretched out to the west; Downtown Denver, about twenty miles north-northeast, was clearly visible surrounded by its suburbs; and the contorted, vibrantly-colored rock formations of Roxborough Park were at the base of the mountain.

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Trip Statistics
Length: 9.5 miles
Duration: 5 hours 41 minutes
Min. Elev.: 6,060 feet
Max. Elev.: 7,160 feet
Net Elev. Gain: 1,100 feet


Elevation Profile

Persse Cabin

Fountain Formation

Carpenter Peak Trail

Willow Creek Canyon

View Along Carpenter Peak Trail

Christmas Vacation

To get back to Michigan, I decided to drive. It wasn't as fast as flying or as cheap as the train, but I wasn't in a hurry and wanted to afford myself the flexibility of traveling on my own schedule. It took me two full days to drive each way. The fastest way is to take I-80 pretty much the whole way so of course, I avoided that route. I stayed mostly off the interstates entirely. I didn't make many major stops along the way, but where something intrigued me I didn't hesitate to investigate. These stops are marked on the map below.

On the drive east, I entered Nebraska, the final state I needed to visit all fifty in 2011. I spent altoghether too long in McCook Nebraska. They have a rich history for a rural, Nebraska town, which I enjoyed, but it put me behind the chains for the rest of the day. The next day, I didn't spend too long at any one place, except maybe Eureka, Illinois, home to Reagan's Alma Matre. I ate dinner at a Pizza Hut in town, rather than grab something at a drive through.

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I have lot of good memories from the two weeks I was home. I already blogged about the trip my dad and I made to the Pizza Bowl, which was fun despite the unfortunate outcome. Happily, I when I drove to Ann Arbor to watch the Sugar Bowl with Barry Deatrick, the game's outcome was much better.

On the drive back to Colorado, I didn't do much more than stop for some pictures as opportunities presented themselves. The most notable stop was Lebanon, Kansas, the geographic center of the Lower 48 States. I did spend about an hour at Prairie Dog State Park in Kansas, but by then I was pretty sure I'd make in to Denver at a decent hour.

Trip Statistics
Length: 2,413.2 miles
Total Counties: 122
New Counties: 86
Fuel: 70.7 Gallons
Fuel Economy: 34.1 MPG
Cost: $427.72

Entering my Fiftieth State for the Year.

In the Center of the Lower 48 States

Phillips County, Kansas