Travel
Colorado
By
Mike McCoy
In Colorado, a cowboy can hardly fling his beaver felt hat Frisbee-style (not
that he would!) without it landing on or near something evocative of the Wild
West. Take Colorado Springs, home to the ProRodeo
Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy.
Situated
adjacent to the national headquarters of the Professional
Rodeo Cowboys Association,
the facility's biggest space houses the Hall of Champions, celebrating legendary
rodeo riders, stock contractors, clowns, and kickin' and buckin' critters.
Come
dinnertime, motor over to the Flying
W Ranch, a working cattle outfit that's
been feeding pilgrims beans and barbecue for half a
century. Your evening outdoors is capped by a family-friendly
performance by the Flying W Wranglers, a group of smooth
Western harmonizers who have more than a dozen albums
to their credit.
From
Colorado Springs, U.S. Highway 24 heads northwest to
Manitou Springs. The Manitou
and Pikes Peak Railway, the world's
highest cog railroad, departs on its nine-mile, three-hour
trip from a depot on Ruxton Avenue. "Cog" refers
to a mechanical marriage between track and wheels that
permits this variety of rail car to climb grades far
steeper than those negotiable by a conventional adhesion
railroad system. The train climbs more than 7,500 feet,
far above timberline, before topping out at the breath-stealing
summit of Pikes Peak at 14,110 feet elevation.
Continuing
west, Florissant Fossil
Beds National Monument's petrified
redwoods and plant and insect fossils bring new meaning
to the phrase "Old West." From there, the
highway crests Wilkerson Pass before dropping into
South Park, one of the most delightfully deserted landscapes
in all of Colorado. In fall, the surrounding mountain
slopes are brushed in bursts of yellow and gold, thanks
to the changing foliage of aspen groves.
From
Buena Vista, a hotbed of rafting activity on the wild
waters of the Arkansas River, a short side trip on
paved county roads leads to the very still, very warm
waters of Mount Princeton
Hot Springs. The cozy, self-contained
resort is perched at the base of the sky-scratching
Collegiate Peaks of the Sawatch Range. Autumn's low
water levels permit you to forsake the main pool and
recline instead in one of several makeshift, stone-encircled
pools fashioned by previous visitors in the bed of
Chalk Creek.
Highway
24 bends north at Buena Vista, following the Arkansas
upstream to Leadville, the loftiest incorporated community
in the U.S. The excellent National
Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, housed
in Leadville's former high school, brings to life the
community's golden-and silvery-past. Leaving Leadville
for the return trip to Colorado Springs, consider tackling
13,186-foot high Mosquito Pass-but only if you've got
four-wheel drive, supported by nerves of steel... or
precious metal.
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