Winnebago Voyage: Aspen, Independence Pass, Vail, & Glenwood Canyon

Another day, another 300+ pictures! We started down the same road as yesterday, but stayed on highway 82 through Aspen all the way to route 24. There's a nice 4-lane highway from Glenwood Springs to Aspen, with local bus service all the way. But when we got a mile or two from Aspen, the traffic came to a stop since it's 2-lanes through the town. There's also a congested traffic circle that backs everything up. We couldn't see much of the town since it's heavily tree-lined, but like Telluride, there are lots of quaint houses.

We kept going and climbed over the Independence Pass, which is named for a small town on its west side which is now a ghost town. We stopped at the overlook and could have walked down to see the buildings close-up, but the temperature had dropped to 50 degrees with strong wind, and we were in shorts, so I just took pictures. We climbed to the top of Independence Pass at 12,000'+, and there was snow everywhere! We came down the other side and stopped at Twin Lakes for pictures.

We headed up route 91 through Leadville and Copper Mountain to I-70, which goes through Vail. We got off the interstate to ride through Vail, which is totally different from Aspen and Telluride. All we saw were huge, expensive houses on the golf course or on the side of the mountain, or massive condo buildings. We stopped at a rest stop just outside of Vail, and Baxter got to chase his frisbee.

An unexpected delight was the trip through Glenwood Canyon on I-70. It has four lanes, and in most places, the westbound two lanes are elevated, and the eastbound lanes hug the Colorado River. The canyon has massive rock walls towering over the river, highway, and railroad. I couldn't get good pictures since we were facing the sun, so we turned around and drove the 12 miles back through the canyon, and then came west again.