Peak to Peak highway

This is now my, umm, 6th or 7th week in Colorado and I realized that I have yet to drive in the gorgeous Rockies just next to me. The biggest reason is that I wasn't feeling quite confident in getting up there without studded tires. Even though it might be just lovely outside here in the foot of the mountains, it can get quite ugly once you get up high.



People tell me that March is the snowiest month of the year up here but so far it's been anything but. Looking at the 7 day forecast, it shows the highs at 20+ C (~70 F) for every single day and the lows stay way above freezing as well. Therefore on Saturday I decided to give it a go and set my target to Nederland where I turned north to the Peak to Peak highway towards Estes Park.

The way from Boulder to Nederland is a constant uphill, climbing around 1000m within a very short distance along a narrow and very bendy road following the Boulder Canyon until you hit the Barker reservoir and the dam that keeps it all together. The views are absolutely breathtaking but behind the wheel you are pretty much forced to ignore all that in order to keep the car on the road. The Barker dam doesn't look that impressive but if it ever breaks, you definitely don't want to be down in Boulder.

The edge of the dam seen from across the frozen reservoir

Along the way there were still snowy spots although the road was totally clean

A church in not too shabby a setting

Lake Estes and the highway that splits it in two

Between the pine(?) trees in the middle you can see the snow-capped peak of what I guess is Mt. Meeker

I recorded the drive on Mytracks using the GPS on my Android phone:

Total distance: 176.97 km (110.0 mi)
Total time: 3:03:24
Moving time: 2:41:13
Average speed: 57.90 km/h (36.0 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 65.86 km/h (40.9 mi/h)
Max speed: 119.70 km/h (74.4 mi/h)
Min elevation: 1585 m (5201 ft)
Max elevation: 2828 m (9278 ft)
Elevation gain: 2580 m (8464 ft)
Max grade: 11 %
Min grade: -10 %