Rainbow Road – Not Your Average Engineer

July 31, 2016September 5, 2017

Sherwin Lake, Chinn’s Lake, Fall River Reservoir, and Loch Lomond Before the Storm

Heather and I went up to see some water today. Our first stop was Sherwin Lake off of Fall River Road.

Looking down onto Chinn’s Lake below.

Sherwin Lake really is a pretty little place.

Down at Chinn’s Lake near the old miner’s cabin that gets partially submerged by the lake every day.

Looking north along the dam at Chinn’s Lake.

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Not much of this cabin is left.

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Looking out toward the general direction of Denver from Fall River Reservoir dam.

Fall River Reservoir is also very pretty.

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We got up to Loch Lomond right as the clouds opened up and it started dumping buckets. We tried to wait it out but there were too many black clouds and there was too much rain.

On the way back down to St. Mary’s and Alice, it felt just like home in the Pacific Northwest!

June 19, 2016June 21, 2016

Chinns Lake, Fall River Reservoir, and Yankee Hill

Heather and I loaded up the Toyota 4runner (it still needs a good name…) and headed up to the Fall River Road area to look for somewhere nice to make dinner. We went up the road toward Chinns Lake and almost got to the lake itself before running into a big wall of snow. After turning around, we headed back down to another spur of the road that goes to Fall River Reservoir. It was a wonderful place to cook dinner.

Making some sausages on the grill next to the spillway below the dam.

Now we’re cooking!

Not a bad place for dinner.

Looking around the dam and end of the road from a rock above our little dinner spot.

After the sun set behind the mountain, it got a bit chillier. We packed up and got ready to head down the hill.

Instead of going straight back to Golden, we took a detour through Alice and St Mary’s Glacier to go up and over Yankee Hill. We got up to the top of the first hill climb just after the sun had sunk behind the mountains.

Looking in the general direction of Kingston Peak.

Big mountains on the continental divide in the distance.

My truck sure does look great!

I think that’s Mount Evans on the left.

The nearly full moon rising over the plains.

Up on top of Yankee Hill.

Looking south. This would be a great place to camp!

LET THERE BE LIGHT! The light bar on my roof is amazingly bright.

Airing up the truck after a great evening of 4x4ing. These long early summer evenings are great!

May 25, 2015

Up Around Central City With the Toyota

I took the 4runner out for a spin today. From Idaho Springs, I took Oh My God Road up to Central City and then around through Central City to Nevadaville.

The continental divide was sparkly and white today.

Beautiful day today.

Going down Hamlin Gulch Road. It got a little tippy at one point. A Grand Cherokee with a bunch of kids were coming up in that section. They were trying pretty hard to roll the thing down the hill. Hopefully they made it up the hill without incident…

Down the trail toward Fall River Road.

I went up Rainbow Road following a Wrangler. We only made it three or four miles before the snow became too deep.

Heading back down Rainbow Road.

I think that’s Parry Peak. Looking back up Rainbow Road.

Out on Forest Road 175 before it turns into Yankee Hill Road.

Side spur off of Forest Road 175.

Up at the top of a hill. That’s Mount Evans in the distance.

On Yankee Hill Road. Way out in the distance is Denver. Yankee Hill Road became impassable toward the summit due to snow. Maybe in another few weeks the road will be open all the way over to Saint Mary’s Glacier.

Back home after a great day out on the trails.