CO Road-trip 2012: Day 4

On the first day of October, we headed east out of Gunnison on our way to Estes Park. We followed US-50 through the Sawatch Mountains and over Monarch Pass (11,312'). Stopping at the little shop at the pass, B bought some really tasty popcorn while I let Penny out and walked around a little. We made our way east down the mountains and turned north onto US-285 near Salida. There were nice views of the Sawatch Range to the west as we drove north. A little ways south of Buena Vista we turned onto Chalk Creek Road to check out a waterfall. At this intersection, there appears to be a pretty significant fault that rises probably over 200' and runs from the road to the eastern slopes of Mt Princeton. Chalk Creek flows at its base. The views of the 14ers Mt Princeton and Mt Antero (renowned for its gems) from the Chalk Creek Road are great and there was a little bit of fall color.We drove past Mt Princeton Hot Springs and then pulled into the trailhead for Agnes Vaille Falls. We let Penny out and took the short trail up to the waterfall. The 75' waterfall was at low flow but still pretty. We spent a little bit of time taking some pics and enjoying it to ourselves. After our short hike we got back into the car and drove back onto US-285. At Buena Vista we stayed right and followed US-285 northeast before stopping for lunch in Fairplay. From there, we followed CO-9 north toward Breckenridge. We crossed over Hoosier Pass (11,542') where there is a decent view of North Star Mountain and the 14ers Mt Lincoln and Mt Bross. In Breckenridge, we stopped to walk around a little and got some ice cream from a Cold Stone. It was actually kind of cold there, but the ice cream still tasted great- we had almost forgotten how good the cake batter flavor is. After we walked around a little more (to stay warm), we got back into the car and continued north on CO-9.We hooked onto I-70 and followed it east until we took US-6 to CO-119, which we followed to Nederland. At Nederland, we turned onto CO-72 and continued north before turning onto CO-7. All along this route were little sections of fall colors and some particularly colorful spots near the road. We approached Estes Park from the south and took Marys Lake Road to CO-66. The view of the Front Range from Marys Lake was particularly nice. The YMCA of the Rockies lies immediately east of Rocky Mountain National Park and sits on a huge piece of land. B checked into her conference as Penny and I walked around the open field and baseball field near the parking lot. The views of the surrounding mountains were fantastic. Once B found us, we drove to our cabin (Pine Cabin) and unloaded our stuff. Our mileage for the day totaled 282. For the rest of the night we relaxed and watched a couple of episodes of Dexter on our laptop. Unfortunately, it would not be the most restful night as the curvy roads and we think something in the water at Agnes Vaille Falls caught up with Penny...