I-70 in Western Colorado (Spring 2013)

Written by ceddammit

I have long contended that U.S. Interstate Highway 70 through western Colorado is the most scenic length of Interstate in the country. I finally set out to prove it in the Spring of 2013, after having lived in Colorado for nearly 22 years. During one of my frequent (at the time) trips to the western end of Colorado, I made several stops along the way to photograph the scenery that sits right alongside I-70. And I don’t mean the broader I-70 “corridor”; all of the pics below were taken from rest areas, frontage roads, and hike/bike trails that parallel the Interstate. None of these shots were more than a mile from I-70 itself.

I didn’t take many photos on the outbound (westbound) portion of the trip, as I was in a bit of a hurry; it was a Friday evening and people with booze were waiting for me. In fact, these next two waterfall photos appear to be the only shots I took on the way out. Only the lowest of these falls can be seen from the Interstate itself, and it’s very easy to miss. It’s only visible for a few seconds as you go by at Interstate speeds, and this stretch (between the Georgetown and Silver Plume exits) demands that you pay attention to traffic – it is very steep, and slow-moving trucks often cause traffic to suddenly bunch up in this area.

I continued on to Fruita and spent Saturday mountain biking with friends. I have no photos from Saturday, as I do NOT take my camera with me when I go mountain biking. This is largely due to the fact that I had crashed the bejeezus out of my mountain bike two years prior. I headed back east along I-70 after lunch on Sunday, intent on photographing as much of the interstate’s scenery as I could on the way home. The next few pictures were taken somewhere between Palisade and De Beque…

Amtrak train
NOT the Interstate speed limit
Another shot of the Amtrak train. I rode Amtrak through here on a trip from the San Francisco Bay Area back to Denver in September 2007. There is some great scenery along this trip, some of which can only be seen by rail. I highly recommend this trip!

We have now reached the exit for the town of De Beque. For now, we’ll follow the frontage road, which was U.S. Highway 6 before the Interstate was built.

Interstate 70 and Old U.S. 6 crossing the Colorado River
This is the Old De Beque Bridge, originally part of U.S. Highway 6.
The new Trump Plaza hotel
The Colorado River was unusually full on this Spring day, and this bridge is broken.
The sign on the right warns of impending cutlery.
Common style of railroad bridge on this old line
This is the house I’m looking to buy.

Continuing east along I-70, the red (and I mean RED, not the rust-colored soils and rocks that are called “red” elsewhere) foothills are a sign that we are nearing the city of Glenwood Springs.

First of appearance of the red foothills of Glenwood Springs; not very red yet.
Now the rocks are beginning to show their true blood red color.
Another home I was considering purchasing…
…and look at the view from this house!

At this point, daylight was beginning to wane, so I stopped stopping for photos, until I got to Vail…

At the east end of the town of Vail, the Interstate begins climbing to Vail Pass.
One of the many small streams that fall into Vail during Spring snowmelt

After the hype of the opening paragraph, it must be disappointing to learn that I left a large portion of the drive unphotographed. To make it worse, the remaining portions are very different in appearance from the arid western parts I’ve shown you today; in fact, it was dark by the time I got to the most scenic stretch of it all. Perhaps I’ll be able to photograph it on my next trip to Colorado…which will begin next week. That’s right, I will be filing “real-time” Trip Reports from Colorado for nearly two weeks, so there will be no ThrowBack Thursday posts for the next two Thursdays. Farewell for now, and don’t take any wooden nickels! Though to be honest, I have no idea why you shouldn’t.

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