A real OMG road

On Thursday, Julia and I went for a drive, and what a drive! We traversed, for the first time, the road up to the summit of Mount Evans, probably the most-well-known of Colorado's 14ers: the mountains which top 14,000 ft above sea level. It is the most well-known because it is the centerpiece of the spectacular view of the Rockies from Denver. The panoramic view above is from the summit.

It is not the tallest mountain in Colorado, nor the most majestic or celebrated--Pike's Peak 70 miles south earns the artistic vote, and one of the Collegiate Peaks well west of Denver, and not visible from here, is the tallest in Colorado. But, you know how it works: the one you can see beats out the one you have only heard about.

We did not realize, when we paid our ten bucks to gain entry when we reached the National Forest Service gate at the foot of the road, that it is a full 14 miles from there--starting from an elevated location, well over 9,000 ft--to the summit. As Julia pointed out approximately eleventy-two times, the road should be better-maintained if they were going to ask for ten bucks for our little, ecologically considerate vehicle to climb to the end of the road. Okay...so an Odyssey may not be little, but it is no SUV.

It is also true that Julia had no idea (well, to be honest, neither did I) what practically heart-stopping parts of this road one must travel before you get to the top of the mountain.

This video, shot by Julia as we descended from the top of the mountain, is accompanied by Peter Eldridge, long-time family friend and Grammy winner in his role with New York Voices. Peter got the gig because the wind noise is really hard to ignore in the audio we recorded as the video was shot. The pertinent part of the audio was Julia's illustrating the "help me, Jesus" hand hold which she points out about halfway into this snippet. When in doubt, worship at the altar of the "help me, Jesus!" bar, just above the door frame.



(PS -- notice the little red warning cones which flash past several times during the video? Those indicated spots where the asphalt was eroded enough that GASP one needed to watch out for teeny little three-foot holes which ended 500 feet down if one was inattentive)