Colorado Trip – Day 3

Gold Belt Tour Scenic and Historic Byway , Twin Lakes and Independence Pass

Our journey continued after a quick coffee break and we drove along the Gold Belt Tour Scenic and Historic Byway located in Fremont and Teller counties. We passed by number of massive ranches of which only the prominent front gates were visible but no limiting boundaries. And then came the scenes I had never seen in my life before, there were horses running and grazing in numbers like cows and goats. I just couldn’t believe my eyes, such beauties out in open running parallel to us beyond fences with just the Arkansas River flowing between us. Their toned bodies in action under their shimmering hides were like some movie scene.

The Arkansas River did not have too much water because of the summer but there was enough to stand up to knees in water and fish. We made a quick stop, stepped into water did some photos and drove further into the lands. There were acres and acres of fenced farmlands with cattle grazing. The traffic wasn’t much, for few miles there were farms on either side of the road, mountain view in the front and empty endless road ahead of us. I had so much of soaking in to do.

Through the Rocky Mountains, we passed by another correction facility, I guess when these areas weren’t so inhabited and were less of a tourist attraction, the government must have chosen these rocky barren mountains for building such institutions in faraway areas. That was the only unpleasant seen for the rest of the trip because everything, every view and every inch was breathtaking.

We took a left diversion (as directed) from the main highway to drive to Aspen. As we entered the diversion within 5 minutes, we were met by the bluest water bodies on earth, they appeared bluer than the sky itself. Unbelievably turquoise water bodies were the Twin Lakes as it has a sleek piece of landmass separating them. There campers all around it with people swimming, boating, fishing, yachting, surfing the spirit of long weekend was at full display. We were in a hurry to reach Aspen before dark and there was another two hours of drive left. We decide to stop by it while returning and kept driving. We drove through the ups and downs of the mountain roads and the valley was simply scenic, I mean the whole of it. Every corner picturesque. We stopped at several places to photograph valleys, springs, mountains and us too. This was the valley and henceforth began the ascend and again we had mountain roads with no guardrails at most of the places, sharp blind turns and lanes getting narrower but one thing I was sure of was the expert behind the wheels so this time I chose not to be scared and enjoy the depths as much as the heights and my eyes were wide open into the beauty of the nature. As we kept going higher the valley appeared yellow and the mountains around, darker shade of green. We saw heard of mountain goats on way and stopped quickly to click them and to my delight they looked right into my camera and cheese!!!

We made it to the top on the mountain, the Independence Pass. It was originally known as Hunter Pass and is located at 12,095 ft on the Continental Divide in the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains. The pass is midway between Aspen and Twin Lakes. The sun got softer and we brought down the hood of our convertible and drove further into the beauty unmatched, we could see different mountain peaks from there, the top had natural flower beds and small water bodies and as we drove the clean cool breeze swept across my face and hair. It was like those ideal paintings we made at school in drawing class. Husband dearest binge photographed the place and I bombed few . It was about sunset, we enjoyed it thoroughly and decided to visit it at sunrise while on our way back. We still had almost an hour of drive left and ahead was the descend towards Aspen.