Saturday, January 10, 2009

Biking Glenwood Canyon - 2008

In August, I had to blog on WordPress because Blogger had locked me out. So in "honor" of our current harsh winter weather, I've decided to move some of those warm-weather posts from WordPress to here.

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The Glenwood Canyon Trail travels about 14 miles east from Glenwood Springs through the lovely Glenwood Canyon, alongside the Colorado River and I-70. We parked near the east end and biked the eastern 7 miles round-trip, but since this was our first day at altitude, we satisfied ourselves with the round-trip of 14 miles.



Here's a shot of Ellen on the trail, with the river on the left and the elevated I-90 on the right.



The next day, we biked round-trip on the western section. Here's a shot exemplifying the drop-dead scenery of this canyon...



... and this shot shows the four modes of transportation through the canyon -- a freight train on the opposite bank of the Colorado River, rafters on the water, Ellen and I on the bike path, and behind us is Interstate 70.



Dozens of rafters and some whitewater kayakers were frolicking down the river today, enjoying the 80 degree sunny day...



This I-70 segment received the 1993 "Civil Engineering Achievement" Award. Its planning, design, and construction required 22 years, $500 million dollars, and an amazing tribute came from an adversary-conservationist who acknowledged after its completion that it was "A prototype for future highways in environmentally sensitive terrain." This Interstate does not conquer the canyon, it blends into the canyon. For more photos of this lower section of the trail, see my post from last year.

We also rafted the canyon as seen here.


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