Glennwood Springs, Carbondale and Aspen- A wistful journey down 'Memory Lane'

Tom at Hay's Creek Falls on the way to Carbondale

Next stop on our adventure is a trip down memory lane for Tom: Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Aspen.  

 

We headed north to Delta and picked up Highway 133 over the Ragged and Redstone mountains and right into Carbondale.  Our spot for the next few nights was the Gateway RV park, right at the intersection of 133 and 82.  While it is just below the highway, it’s also just above the Roaring Fork river. 

Our site at Gateway RV park looking at Sopris Mountain.

 Our site looked down onto the boat launch and fishing area.  It was also adjacent to the bike trail, one of many that we’ve seen.  I did a short ride on it while Tom was doing a bird walk. 

Tom birding on the bike path bridge below our site.

 Unfortunately, I started from the town of Carbondale, and it was all downhill back to camp!

 

During the 40’s, 50’s and into the 60’s, Tom’s grandfather owned a large portion of the Roaring Fork Valley where he had sheep and cattle.  When Tom was in his late teens and early 20’s he was a park ranger at the Maroon Bells wilderness area.  He was eager to show me all the places that he remembered when he was a little boy, and young man.  We are all aware of development everywhere, and Glenwood Springs and Aspen are no different.  We were able to identify the gate that had once led to the entrance to the ranch, but it’s now full of large estate homes, and of course, what used to be a small country road is now a 4- lane   highway.  A trip to the historical museum was interesting, but the story of Tom’s grandfather is not old enough, yet.  The displays and info were mostly 100 years or older.  

 

One of Tom’s favorite ‘go-to’ movies is Tombstone with Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday.  We learned his gravesite was high on the hill overlooking Glenwood Springs.  

In earlier travels in Arizona, we’d stumbled upon the grave of Johnny Ringo, so a trek up the hill to pay respects to Doc were in order.

 

Aspen was similar in that it was quite unrecognizable! We wandered the town looking for Tom’s old ‘haunts and hangouts’ and most are no longer there. 

Aspen's Town park

It was also very glitzy and chi-chi, and mostly closed until Memorial Day weekend, the day we were leaving the area.  

The biggest disappointment was not being able to get to see the Maroon Bells.  Due to all the visitors to certain high traffic locations in the nation, reservation systems have been put into place.  We didn’t realize this, and were unable to get a parking pass to get there, and the shuttle bus to get there hasn’t started up for the summer season.  We’ll just have to plan a bit more ahead and visit again.  

 

We did a second day up to the Aspen area and headed to Ashcroft, a ghost town south of Aspen on the south side of Aspen mountain.  

A small lake at Pine Creek Campground, a 4x4 road above Ashcroft

The remaining buildings of ghost town Ashcroft

It’s in a pretty valley and was originally built to be a ski area.  

Crystal clear waters of the creek at Ashcroft 

There are a few buildings left and a good picnic area.  It also happened to be about ½ a mile from a birding hot spot! 

Setting sun on a series of beaver ponds

 A tailgate picnic and birdwatching were our late afternoon activity.  The original plan was to wait for dark to listen for owls, but we headed back down just at twilight.  Within 30 minutes, we’d spotted 2 beavers on the side of a pond, a large bull elk with a fine set of new antlers, a red fox looking for and finding a meal, and a small herd of white tail deer. 

The responsible beavers out for dinner.

 

Soft colors of fading light

 

Budding willows and aspens

Setting sun makes the Aspens glow.

 

A fun evening! Next stop Steamboat Springs.