Horsethief Park Hike (1)

One of my favorite areas to hike is Horsethief Park, on the back of Pikes Peak. It's an hour from the house so it's not one I go to that often; these photos are from last summer. Right where it starts is an old railroad tunnel, which was then used for the road with traffic lights since it was one lane, and is now abandoned and closed off.

The trail winds uphill through beautiful forest.

I love the long shadows cast by the tall trees.

In one place there's a beaver pond next to the trail.

This trail ends up at a pretty waterfall.

Of course I had my dogs with me, and silly Laika got completely tangled in her leash. She doesn't usually do that! I've got another set of photos from this hike that I'll post in a few days.

Our World Tuesday

Keystone

We just got back from a weekend at the Keystone Ski Resort. Although I didn't ski, I had a fun time with the family and got lots of photos to share. I'll start with several random ones, but there are much better shots to come. First is the view off the deck of the condo in which we stayed.

I was amused at the unit number of the condo. One of my favorite rock bands is called Rush, and they've got a famous album called 2112. So, while it may not make sense to most of my readers, here's the door of our unit.

I liked the way the sunlight was playing on the cables of these lifts high up the mountain.

And finally, I found the following pedestrian tunnel under the highway interesting.

There's more to come, including jagged mountains and a sleigh ride. In the meantime, you never know what you'll see at My World Tuesday.

Tunnel Vision

We're getting into the time of year when it's harder to get good photos for Skywatch Friday - for the next few months it's usually cloudless blue, or occasionally simple gray when snow is falling. I was hoping to get photos of last nights snow before I went to work this morning, but the clouds stuck around and the flat light would have made any photos boring. So I'm reaching into my archives from late last year for these.

 That photo was taken walking into this tunnel, on Gold Camp Road just above Colorado Springs.

Enjoy lots more skies from around the world at Skywatch Friday.

Little Ike Tunnel

Back in 1991, Colorado voters legalized limited-stakes gambling in three towns, one of which is Cripple Creek, on the other side of Pikes Peak from Colorado Springs. There is one major road in and out of town (State Highway 67), and it went through an old railroad tunnel (known as the Little Ike Tunnel), only wide enough for one lane, with a traffic light at either end so only one direction could go at a time.

You can imagine the fun with tour buses full of gamblers and lines of cars trying to get through. Anyway, in 1993 some structural issues were found with the tunnel and it was closed. The road was rebuilt around the tunnel and is now wide enough for one lane in each direction, so traffic flow is much better. Since then the tunnel has continued to deteriorate, as can be seen in the above photograph taken last weekend while I was hiking in the area. (The tunnel is closed by gates at either end so it's not possible to get inside.)

Visit the always-entertaining My World Tuesday page to see other peoples' worlds from around the globe.

Thank you to everyone who comments - I read every comment, even when they're on an old post. To catch up on a couple of recent questions from those comments:

1. I did not see anyone jumping or swimming around Firehole Falls, it looked very dangerous.

2. I most definitely do not chase tornadoes. I've seen an occasional funnel cloud but don't feel the need to go near them. Maybe I'll capture one on my camera one day but I haven't yet done so.

3. Socks is a Pomeranian.

My World Tuesday - Eisenhower / Johnson Tunnel

I apologize if you commented on my blog and I haven't visited your blog lately - I was out of town this weekend with visiting family. I'm looking forward to making my rounds soon.

For this My World Tuesday entry, I thought I'd share a little about the Eisenhower and Johnson tunnels, two tunnels under the continental divide which carry Interstate 70 - if you drive from Denver to most of the ski areas you'll pass through them. The Eisenhower tunnel carries the westbound lanes, and the Johnson tunnel the eastbound lanes, but they are side-by-side and basically identical. At a maximum elevation of 11,158 ft (3.4 km) above sea level, they are the highest vehicular tunnels in the United States, and some of the highest in the world. They are approximately 1.7 miles (2.7 km) long. These pictures were taken driving eastbound on Saturday (by my stepdaughter Jennifer, so my driving was not distracted!)

Here we're about the enter the tunnel on a snowy afternoon.

Here's a picture inside the tunnel.

And finally we're about to exit and start the long, long downhill to Denver.

Of all the things in Colorado to post, the inside of a tunnel may be one of the least interesting, but it's a small part of my world from the weekend. For other peoples' worlds, visit the My World home page.