Colorado 2016 – Page 12 – Not Your Average Engineer

July 27, 2016July 30, 2016

Kingston Peak and Yankee Hill with Jaime and Franziska

I took Jaime and Franziska up for some 4x4ing in my 4runner to show them an enjoyable American pastime. Jaime is studying at TU Delft and Franziska is a friend of Jaime’s from when they were in high school or early college.

We went up over Yankee Hill and then onward to Kingston Peak. The mailbox at the top of the first section of road out of St. Marys Glacier and Alice is in good shape although I couldn’t find the guest log.

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Jaime and me with the truck.

Someone recently replaced the American Flag that always seems to be up there.

My truck looking great as always.

Don’t stop me now (’cause I’m having a good time)
Don’t stop me now (yes I’m having a good time)
I don’t want to stop at all… yeah!

Looking down the shelf road.

Both Jaime and Franziska took turns driving the 4runner and had an absolute BLAST doing it.

Waiting for a truck to get off the shelf road so we can proceed forward.

My truck sure is great!

My beard matches the truck.

Jaime spied me through the windshield. I really should label all of my switches and tidy up those lights…

July 24, 2016July 30, 2016

Old Monarch Pass

We stopped on Old Monarch Pass on the way back to Denver. I think I can summarize the weekend’s adventures for Duane as saying that he LOVED it.

Looking east toward the old mining area below Monarch Pass.

Bye Pacific Ocean drainage! I’ll be back soon.

July 24, 2016July 9, 2020

Tomichi

We came off of Tomichi Pass and stopped at the old Tomichi Cemetery. There are some remarkably old and well-preserved tombstones here. Some remnants of the town remain further below with people still living there. At one point in time, this was a thriving mining area.

This chap was killed in an explosion in 1890. His parents and brother erected this monument to him. Over 100 years later and people still stop to read his short story.

The carving on this stone is really remarkably well-preserved.

Another grave stone. This guy lived a pretty long life for the time period.

Rolling on the edge. That’s where we love to be. @douglasvbphd #toyotausa #4runner #4×4 #offroad #summer #colorado #toyota #rockymountains #wildplaces #offthebeatenpath

A photo posted by The Honey Badger (@thehoneybadger4x4) on Jul 24, 2016 at 4:03pm PDT

We explored the roads through the old Tomichi mining district. Some of these roads are pretty exciting. Coming down toward the townsite of Tomichi, we encountered some interesting shelf roads. These photos don’t do justice to how steep it was and how in a few spots our wheels were rubbing the uphill slope while also grinding on the edge of the downhill slope. There is no room to back up and get out of the way of oncoming traffic here.

Looking back up at the shelf road.

The Honeybadger comes down to play. Further down on the next part of the shelf road, we spotted what looked like an old Chevy K5 Blazer wrecked down the hill. I wouldn’t want to try these roads in the snow.