A Redleg's Rides : A ride to Georgetown, CO

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

A ride to Georgetown, CO - Then and Now

Another gloriously sunny and warm winter day here in Colorado. Today's ride was to Georgetown, CO. It's located along the I-70 Super Slab, a few miles west of Idaho Springs. On my Ural Sidecar, it took me just shy of two hours to get there from the southeast side of the Denver Metro area.

I left at 9:20 AM, taking US285 as usual to cut across Denver, heading north on Kipling to Morrison Rd which I took west to the town of Morrison. From there it was a short ride up CO93, past Red Rocks Park, to its junction just past I-70 with US40. I like to take US40 west into the mountains as its only a two lane paved road where traffic is much less frantic than the traffic on I-70!

There is a brief sprint on I-70 between Buffalo Overlook near Genesee Park and the exit for CO74 at Bergen Park. From Bergen Park you can then pick up US40 once again and cruise your way down some steep and twisty turns to where US6 and I-70 junctions. Today, I was exploring county roads that act as frontage roads alongside the frenetic traffic on I-70.

The county rd from the exit for the Central City Parkway didn't work out, as the city of Idaho Springs has fenced off the road at its outskirst! So you have to get back on I-70, sprint to Idaho Springs and then once you exit into the town, cruise through town at 30mph until you get to the western edge of Idaho Springs. It is here you can pick up Stanley Rd aka County Road 312.

As you near Dumont, you have to go under I-70, and get on County Rd 308. CR308 will take you through the small settlement of Lawson where you pick up Alvarado Rd or CR306. Alvarado becomes dirt pretty quickly, it's a bit bumpy but doable on two wheels if you are careful. Once you get to the lake that is part of Georgetown, the road becomes paved again.

I wandered around a bit, looking for the Old Georgetown Road, turns out its next to the I-70 highway exit! The dirt road, which apparently used to be the main road to Georgetown back in the day, is now rock strewn and not very well maintained. It reminded me of the rougher sections of the Alpine Loop in Southwestern Colorado, but on steroids! Natasha was bouncing all over at times, had to go really slow as some of the exposed rocks were pretty large.

Maybe a mile in, I ran into a gate. Points beyond were for "wildlife study" and authorized vehicles so that's as far as I got on Old Georgetown Road! Apparently, it used to stretch all the way back towards the town of Empire and was accessible via Empire Pass. Oh well.

As I headed back towards Georgetown, I noticed about halfway that the handle to my sidecar's trunk had come loose and the trunk lid was loose from all the bouncing around on the rocks. So I stopped to secure the lid and noticed some Bighorn Sheep grazing a little distance up the hill from me!

The viewing of the Bighorn Sheep is one of the attractions that Georgetown is known for, and I can see. They were pretty close to me and didn't seem to wary of me though they did keep an eye on me and Natasha.

Back in Georgetown, I set about finding the old buildings which I'd found while searching the Denver Public Library's archive of Old West photographs. So, here we go, Georgetown's landmarks today and how they used to look Note: Sorry but in order to comply with copyrights, you have to click the link provided.

The Hotel de Paris, built circa 1890

Click here for a photo from the Denver Public Library

If the link doesn't work, go here and search "Historic Images" for CHS.X4557