Colorado Trip June 2002Part 1: Georgetown and Marble On day one (Monday), due to
some scheduling conflicts, we didn't leave
until around noon but got through most of Nebraska. Not very
interesting - nobody needs pictures of Nebraska!  Day two (Tuesday) took
us to Georgetown, Colorado. We had time to take a drive up the Guanella
Pass Road (picture at left is one view of town from part way up) and do
some "warm up" walking along the trail. Not strenuous but it was at an
elevation of 11,669 ft! We got reacquainted with some of the
alpine
vegetation. Had dinner at the Prague Cafe which was the main
reason for picking Georgetown as a stopping place! Great food.
If you survive the trip up there, it's just a short walk to the top and the scenery is remarkable. Here (below) are some sample views of the river and the large chunks of marble just lying around! We also continually saw wonderful natural rock gardens (left) all around the area. It is incredible how plants can seemingly grow out of the sides of rocks! Since there is nowhere to eat in Marble, we drove back up to Redstone and had dinner at the Redstone Inn. Mid-June is really still pre-season around here and we found that many places were just open on weekends, or limited hours.
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The
third day brought us closer to fires that were raging throughout the
state that summer. The Glenwood Springs fire was at least partially
contained and they had
reopened the highway two days earlier but we could certainly smell the
smoke. We drove south along the Crystal River, stopping
several times to play in the water and along the banks!
We had lunch in Redstone Park (picture at right). Can
anybody guess where the town gets it name? 
I wrote in my journal
that night that Redstone reminded me of Talkeetna, Alaska. A couple
days later we were having dinner there and John mentioned the same
thing. One of the waitresses heard us and said she was from
Fairbanks
and that she agreed! It's a small town, apparently
lots of artists around - many galleries and shops; tourism is the main
industry. We observed that it was a neat and nicely kept
town; we were told later there are town "rules"
even down to the colors you can paint your house! 
We
ended up that afternoon in Marble (which reminded me a bit of Gold
Hill).
The Inn at Raspberry Ridge is the B&B we stayed at - beautiful
area, wonderful house, nice people. Marble is the home
of the Yule Creek Marble Quarry - the source of the marble for the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Hunks of surplus or
imperfect pieces of marble, large and small, were all over
the place. Probably the only place in the world
where marble is used as rip-rap! 
That
afternoon was one of our first "adventures."
We drove up the old quarry road. Well, it's only "sort of" a road! We
eventually did quite a bit of this, but for this
first one, I literally had to close my eyes at one point. There's a
sheer drop off, it's only one vehicle wide, the surface
is loose gravel and there are blind curves. This picture isn't actually
the quarry road (I was too nervous then to even hold the camera steady,
but I got more used to it as the week went on) however, it will give
you an idea of what
I'm talking about! I pointed at the road in case you couldn't even tell
it was there!! 
Thursday started with
a terrific breakfast (the very best part of B&B's) and then we
spend most of the day hiking and
exploring. Walked down behind the Inn to the river and climbed the
banks making our way towards town. We passed through what is
known as the "sculptors' yard" - there are workshops during the summer
on sculpting with marble and
this is their work area. Large chunks plus all the trimmings lie
around. We ended up at the old Marble Mill.
Originally it was over 1500 feet long - several walls, columns and
foundations still standing. All made of marble, of course! 
Following
that, we
collected fruit and sandwiches we had from the day before
and set off up "Daniel's Hill." I tried to take this picture looking at
John
down the hill to illustrate the steepness but somehow the
depth got lost. You'll just have to believe me that it was VERY
steep! By the way,
this was when we still believed that "jeep trail" meant we shouldn't
drive on it. That notion
gradually faded and we later found ourselves driving on some pretty
marginal roads looking a lot like this but
sometimes with huge hunks of rocks in them. Fortunately we came home
with the oil pan and exhaust
system still intact! [Addendum: we did, however, have to replace the
transmission not long after this trip!] At the end of this hike
was Lizard Lake (below left) - a
lovely place to sit and enjoy the tranquility
while we had our lunch!
After that exertion
we headed
for Lost Lake (right) which was over a couple of mountain passes. It
had the distinct advantage, however, that we could
We did walk