Berthoud Pass — 11,307 Feet

At Sunset Point Campground, Lake Granby, Colorado

The first time I can remember going over Berthoud Pass was in early April 1972, mom, dad, Sandy and I coming from the Kansas City area back home to Sacramento.  Dad, Sandy and I drove our Plymouth Fury 3 out to KC, while mom flew in later in the week.  Sandy and I were on Spring Break, and I think we left on a Friday after dad got off work.  He drove us up over the pass to the Reno area, and handed the keys over to me somewhere past Reno…next thing he knew we were on the Salt Flats headed for Salt Lake City.  “Made good time I see…”, said dad.  Boy, that car handled nice!

  

On the way back home we just happened to have very good early spring weather, and mom suggested that we take I-70, a much prettier route…and then later, US-40 over Berthoud Pass, all the way to I-80 just above Salt Lake City.  That’s what we did…and I cannot remember being at 11,000+ feet before…WOW!  Snow all around, the sky as blue as I could ever imagine…  So I suggested to Marcia that we take the drive to Berthoud Pass, and this past Tuesday, that is what we did.  I did not get a chance to post pictures from that trip before going back into the National Park and over to see where Terry’s ashes were spread up in the Rocky’s, and I decided that post (My Brother-in-Law’s Resting Place…in the Rockies) was more important than the our trip the previous day.

We drove all the way to Berthoud Falls, where we found our future house…boy, it is going to be cold there in the winter!

Coming and going we drove through Winter Park…back in ‘72 about the only thing around was the ski resort…now it is a city of 1,000 people and 2,500 residences.  Gee, you think there are a lot of second homes and rentals in Winter Park???

The best part of the day was Marcia finally getting to see and take pictures of the herd of Pronghorn Antelope that I had gotten pictures of the other day.

Here, the one standing up in the far left of the first picture has decided to lay down too, and she got her just as she started to go down.

And my favorite…every man’s dream…alone surrounded by women.  (OUCH, now why did you hit me Marcia?)

  

As night was coming, the wind had picked up considerably.  I went out to try and get pictures of Osprey flying around…the adults seemed to have been near, but away from the nests…

    

…as at least one young one tried out their wings, but remained glued to the nest.  I really thought it was going to take off…but it did not.  However, the Osprey will all be flying soon…flying south for the winter.  By November, many of the nest will become habitat for the 15 or so Bald Eagles that live in around around Lake Granby, Shadow Mountain Reservoir, and Grand Lake during the winter.  In fact, they close down the area to humans along the Colorado between Lake Granby and Shadow Mountain Reservoir…however, there is a viewing station just outside the closed down area by Shadow Mountain.  Lake Granby is a favorite Ice Fishing place during January and February.  For us…we will be cutting out on Tuesday right after labor day…the lows of 34-36 for the past few nights (not last night, it was only 40) are a bit much…however, it warms up quickly in the morning, and we love the nice 70-80 degree temps during the day.