Colorado Spring and Summer 2014 – Page 3 – Not Your Average Engineer

August 2, 2014August 24, 2014

Casa Bonita

After hearing of the Colorado cultural institution known as Casa Bonita, Heather and I finally decided that we finally needed to go see what this place was all about. Matt, a longtime resident of Colorado before college and now back in the state once more, joined us to walk us through our first Casa Bonita experience.

Walking in the door, we encountered a huge line that was rapidly moving forward. We had just entered the cafeteria-style Mexican food line.

A food menu. There are all of about a half dozen options total. I chose the chicken deluxe dinner.

Heading up to the registers where we order our food before going to the cafeteria window.

The window where the food is handed out up ahead.

“Mexican” food waiting to go onto cafeteria trays.

Matt and I getting excited to be seated with our food trays. We kept asking every restaurant employee we met to be seated next to the waterfall. Yes, for those of you who don’t know, this gargantuan, cavernous restaurant has a 30 foot waterfall in the middle of it complete with 14 foot deep diving pool. Why? I have no idea.

Heather and I with our food and the waterfall and diving pool behind us. We got some of the absolute best seats in the entire restaurant. It pays to be persistent when asking to be seated next to the waterfall.

Yes, that’s a legit waterfall inside a restaurant. Supposedly it resembles Acapulco. The guy being spotlighted in the upper center-left is one of the entertainers for the restaurant. There are about four people who put on what amounts to dinner theater targeted at the 5-13 year old crowd. They’re actually pretty entertaining.

A birthday cliff dive special.

Another view of the waterfall from our table.

Back flip into the lagoon.

And a back flip twist!

Plastic palm trees covered in little lights line the second story railing. People flock over to watch the cliff divers. Yes, there are cliff divers.

Fire juggling and cliff diving!

More tables and diners. There are tables and diners EVERYWHERE here.

Slow motion cliff diving.

Slow motion back flip.

Another slow motion back flip for the birthday party.

One of the cliff divers talking to people in the little grass hut. I think they were a birthday party. Lots of Coloradans come to Casa Bonita for a birthday party at least once in their lives.

A forest of fake plastic palm trees!

The Golden Idol show. The dinner theater is pretty entertaining at Casa Bonita.

More cliff diving.

Double jumps!

The Pirate Show. A good bit of dinner theater.

A cliff diver doing his thing.

The Wild West Show.

Behind the waterfall with a cliff diver climbing up to the top.

Looking out at the two stories worth of diners gathered around the railings by the lagoon to watch the cliff divers.

Down on the lower level looking up at the waterfall.

No trip to Casa Bonita is complete without going into Black Bart’s Cave.

OooOOOooo scary!

Going through the mouth of a big snake!

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Casa Bonita lit up at night.

Casa Bonita is in a half-abandoned strip mall along Colfax Avenue. What a strange restaurant.

August 1, 2014August 24, 2014

Amos Lee at Red Rocks

We went to Red Rocks for a unique concert where Amos Lee played with the Denver Symphony.

Red Rocks is always such a pretty place.

Denver in the distance.

July 19, 2014July 9, 2020

Corona Pass Road

Before heading back over the mountains to Golden, Heather and I decided to take a drive up Corona Pass Road. The tourist information office in Winter Park told us that the road is passable in a 2WD sedan. We figured it would be no problem in my lowered Subaru Forester XT. There is even a sign close to the sign pictured above that states the route is passable in a 2WD passenger car. After driving the road, I have significant doubts about being able to get a sedan up to the top of the pass.

The road follows the old rail bed of the Hill Route of the Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific Railway.

The lower couple miles are pretty mellow.

Fireweed along the road.

Some logging has gone on in the lower parts of the timber stands.

Going through an old rail cut.

Up and around a tight switchback onto a cutoff road that bypasses a partially collapsed train tressel.

This portion of the road becomes much rougher and I had to carefully pick my way around all the loose rocks that were big enough to damage the undercarriage of my Forester. For reference, I have between 4 and 5 inches of ground clearance with the WRX suspension that’s attached to the car.

Picking my way through a tricky section. If I had a higher clearance Subaru (like the newer ones with 9.5 inches of ground clearance), it wouldn’t be any problem.

Big mountains start to loom close.

The old trestle comes into view. The road routes around the trestle now. Maybe someday the trestle will be repaired and cars will travel over it once more.

We found a whisp of snow on the side of the road.

The going got much tougher on the last charge up to the other side of the trestle.

Heading up the worst piece of road.

Almost to the top of the roughest stretch of road on the entire route.

My subaru at the trestle pullout.

It’s a neat old trestle.

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An old water source for the railroad.

A pipe comes out from the little impoundment dam.

Looking back at the trestle.

Almost to treeline.

Little mountain lakes.

Another really rough stretch of road that is very difficult for passenger cars to choose the correct path.

Going over another really rough section of the road.

We saw a marmot on the side of the road eating fresh grass.

On top of Rollins Pass. The railroad workers called it Corona Pass and before that it was known as Boulder Pass.

Wilderness area and the continental divide trail.

Looking down the east side of Rollins Pass. Due to some very interesting local politics between Grand County, Gilpin County, and Boulder County, the full route over Rollins Pass has been closed since 1990. There is no end in sight to the political stalemate. This website seems to be a decent source on explaining what the residents of Gilpin and Grand Counties think. Here is a recent news article about the troubles. I suspect it will be a long time before the situation is resolved. There is an old wagon road that is closed by the Forest Service but parallels the rail bed that it appears Jeeps regularly traverse with sufficient ground clearance and equipment to get around the blockage down to the tunnel. At the tunnel, there might be a way around the blockade there if you read local Jeep forums. Legally though it appears there will not be a motorized way across Rollins Pass anytime soon. It’s a real shame. The route would be an excellent compliment with the road through Rocky Mountain National Park.

An old structure fallen down at the top of the pass.

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Looking east toward Rollinsville.

The Continental Divide Trail.

An old foundation. There was once a hotel at the top of the pass.

STA_7011 - STS_7029 Looking a bit more north into a beautiful alpine basin.

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A pretty little alpine lake fed by snow.

Many trails to many places.

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The blockade at the Boulder County line.

Trains used to roll through here.

Big mountains to the west as we started back down the road.

A little alpine lake.

Fields full of mountain wildflowers.

Another alpine lake.

The trestle far in the distance.

Back at the trestle and almost to the worst part of the road. After this photo, we put the camera away and focused on driving down the worst parts of the road. If you’ve got a high clearance vehicle, it’s a fun place to go check out. If you’re in a 2WD sedan, you need to have good confidence in your driving abilities and you really need to not mind scraping rocks against the underside of your car to get up and down Corona Pass Road.