Eastbound out of Winter Park, through Denver, across Colorado and Kansas.
After one trip down to the village for breakfast, the path began winding down through Berthoud Pass. The weekend had come, a festival was planned, and traffic headed into the little mountain town with increasing frequency. Our plans coincided perfectly with everyone else.
A return to the harried civilization at the foot of the front range seemed not quite so pressing. One last chance to enjoy peaceful solitude along the banks of a clear running stream stood more important as the trail turned east towards the chaos of the Interstate.
Denver offered the much anticipated increasing array of chaos until finally arriving in the northern suburbs. A brief visit with comrades from that town found a continuation of a unique style of painting. The recent move to the mountains seemed to have changer the scale of the work though. Some pieces were as much 2 meters long.
Beyond the hustle of Denver, the new sentinels of the prairies dotted an otherwise blissfully empty landscape. It remained the Interstate though. While an undesirable route, it had offered the opportunity to spend the previous day relaxing in Winter Park.
It also enabled a stop at a favorite location in Burlington, just before the jump into Kansas. The Kit Carson Carousel is always a fun treat, if the season is cooperative. One of about 150 remaining wooden carousels carved in the America, it is protected inside a wooden structure, but is not open year round.
Otherwise, this survivor of the last few centuries resides at the Kit Carson County Fairground and regularly spins visitors up to 19 kph. While the animals do not go up and down, this sixth of 74 carousels built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company between 1904 and 1933, is one of the fastest!
The plains across I-70 unfolded at lightening speed, offering few opportunities to really stop and soak in the wide-open landscape. Feed lots, freshly harvested fields and the sun raced by though the remainder of the afternoon. It eventually gave into little more than the lights of passing traffic and home.
This 3,800 kilometre journey comes to a close. The adventure across the Front Range, into the Uinta Basin, and back again witnessed some of the most beautiful landscapes and offered up multiple new opportunities for future excursions.
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Further Reading
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