A ride to Red Rocks Amphitheater and trying to get to the Sleeper House

Temps from mid-40s to high 60s! Sunny with a bit of clouds.

A glorious day for riding after yesterday's rainy weather. I headed out at 0930 to take pictures of Maria at the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Morrison, CO. I headed that way by way of the E-470-C-470 slabs and got there about 40 minutes later. Roads were nice and dry and I made good time with the still light traffic on the slabs.

I gassed up at the Conoco that is located outside of Morrison and took the road to the East entrances to Red Rocks. I took Trading Post road in and here's what one is greeted with as you enter the park area, the amphitheater itself, lying there wedge between two big rock formations.

The Red Rocks Amphitheater

Maria near the Trading Post.

I wandered about the complex seeking nice shots of the many beautiful rock formations in the area. Here's a shot of the Lower North Parking Lot which today was serving as a gathering point for a bunch of kids in their rice boy cars. The sheriff was around so they were behaving themselves.

Lower North Parking Lot

There's a road leading from the North Parking lot to something called the Upper North Lot and the Top Circle Lot. Leading to the Top Circle lot is this tunnel cut or formed in the rock wall.

Entrance to Top Circle Lot.

Here's a shot from the Top Circle Lot of the Rice Boy gathering and the valley below.


I then wandered over towards the South Lot Parking Lot area and got this pretty good shot of what I believe is called Ship Rock. It was after all on Ship Rock road so I think it's a pretty good guess.


The day had warmed up pretty good by now so I stopped at the exit and put away my jacket liner in preparation of taking CO74 towards Evergreen. The road conditions were perfect, the sun was warm on my back and I lost the slow convertible that I trailed behind at Kittredge. I was able to average maybe 40-45 mph on the winding twisting road that remained to Evergreen. I stayed on 74 and ended up at the town of Bergen Park. Here's where the thought struck me to try and find the weird saucer shaped house featured in the Woody Allen flick: Sleeper.

I stopped at the Park and Ride at the intersection of CR 65 and 74 and phoned my loving wife who googled the house and gave me directions towards its general vecinity. It turned it that the house was located in Genesee which was the next town eastwards on US70! So I headed down CR74 again till it met with US70 which I headed East on and took the exit for Genesee Park.

I headed up what turned out to be Genesee Mountain Road and at one curve just before the top of the road I saw the house!

Closeup of the House, weird huh?

I must have spent the next hour then wandering about the area, trying every paved road I could find to try and get to the actual house and hopefully get a picture of Maria next to the house. Alas, it was not to be, finally stopped around 1330 and phoned my wife who googled the house address! Turned out that you had to continue up Genesee Mountain Road a bit more and turn off on a dirt road called Genesee Avenue. I went down this road with some trepidation as there were plenty of signs saying "private drive" and such along the way. I spotted the sign listing the house number that my wife had found and rode on down.

The "road" I went down turned out to be more of a very muddy dirt trail with spots still having some snow. Very slick spots I gotta tell you. I went down this trail for a bit, passing just one house along the way till in the distance I saw to my dismay an iron gate barring any further progress! This iron gate was to be the closest I was going to get to the saucer shaped house, dang it. I had to dismount to turn Maria around on the muddly trail and dissapointedly headed back to the main road. Oh well, at least I did not drop Maria on the muddy trail!

Here's an aerial shot of the house I found on the Web. More like a fajita instead of a saucer!

Another View of the Sleeper House

I got back onto US70 and headed on way, superslabs all the way. The day was now really warm and I kept thinking I should have stored away the jacket liner I had donned back again way back at Bergen Park. Got home around 1430 and washed Maria up from the rain shower on Friday and today's muddy roads. Just over 144 miles of riding today, I might even go out later on this evening since the weather is holding up just fine as I write this.

28MAR07: Followup on Sleeper House

RoadsideAmerica.com has this blurb on the house:
Golden, Colorado - Sculptured House - As seen in "Sleeper"

This is one of Colorado's most famous houses, perched on the mountainside overlooking Interstate 70 near the Genesee exit, looking like a flying saucer about to take off. Construction on it began in 1963 and was at last finished in 2000. It was originally designed by Charles Deaton, an architect who believed "people aren't angular, so why should they live in rectangles?" Having been all around this place I can tell you truthfully there is virtually nothing straight-walled about it! It is curved all around, from its west wing living room and kitchen bar to the master bedroom with curved-door closet at the back of the top. A grand living room is at the front of the top with a magnificent view of both Denver to the east and mountains to the north, In the pedestal, on each level, is a bedroom offering this same view. This house was in Woody Allen's 1973 movie "Sleeper" and I've sampled the Orgasmatron myself (it's the house's circular tube elevator). You can also get up and down by one of the most unique spiral staircases you'll ever see (each step's shaped like a crescent), lounge around in watermelon seed chairs, look at the squiggly design carpet, and more. It's a surprisingly very comfortable house. If you want it, it's yours for $10 million. [Richard J. Gardner, 11/25/2003]

(Sculptured House - As seen in "Sleeper": Golden, CO Directions: On Genesee Mountain, overlooking Interstate 70 at Genesee exit. Hours: Private; open for special events only. )

LINK to slide show of the Sleeper House