US Travelogue Part 4 - Colorado

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Million Dollar Highway. It's very easy to remember, right? There are several theories about the origin of the name, but the most prominent one is that it cost too much money to build. They say it cost an enormous amount at the time because they had to carve it out of the cliffs.
Since it's a winding road without guardrails, they said it's dangerous and requires extra caution, so I prepared myself mentally before setting off, but well... unless it turns into an icy road in the middle of winter, I don't find it particularly dangerous. I mean, if you fall off a cliff, you'll die, but as my husband says, you'll die falling from anywhere high... rather than that, the scenery is worth a million dollars (they say this is actually one of the origins of the name).


The autumn leaves are in full bloom right now. We aren't the type of people who go out of our way just to see the foliage, but it is beautiful. Even the autumn colors in the States are on a massive scale. Most of them look like birch trees.






As you drive along, you see several ruined houses; apparently, this entire area used to be a very prosperous gold and silver mining town. To transport the mined ore, one of the pioneers first carved out a wagon road through the rugged canyon, which is said to be the origin of the current Million Dollar Highway. "Show me the money~~" The driving force of capitalism... regardless of whether one likes it or not, it seems that the desire for wealth is ultimately what brings innovation and develops this world.
After finishing our sightseeing early in the morning, we head out for a drive through Glenwood Canyon in the afternoon. Because the terrain itself is so rugged and construction took decades to minimize environmental damage, it is said to be a place with symbolic significance, like a masterpiece of modern civil engineering. There are sections where the Colorado River runs right alongside, and while the Colorado River I saw at Dead Horse Point two days ago was green, here it is a reddish muddy color, perhaps due to recent rain. To my disappointment, my husband said this might be the true essence of the Colorado River. The canyon begins ahead... we enter it. Ah... the scale is overwhelming. You can barely see the sky. They say if a single rock falls here, it takes hours just to detour around it. ㅎ;;




The next day is Maroon Bells, a symbol of Colorado and a frequent Windows wallpaper. Honestly, I feel like the Canadian Rockies are several levels above this kind of scenery, but since we've come all this way, we have to see it... What a worldly creature I am, obsessing over such symbolism..




Access here is by reservation only. If you want to go by car, you have to arrive by 8:00 AM, but it seems most people, like us, use the shuttle bus because they lose out in the reservation competition. They say you should go early in the morning when the wind is calm to see the reflection of Maroon Bells in the lake, so we booked the 7:00 AM shuttle, but when we arrived, they had lines set up and wouldn't let us go inside, making it hard to take a proper photo of the reflection.
Even though we knew it would be cold and dressed accordingly, it was so cold that my teeth were chattering. As the sun rose higher and the shadows cast on the mountains cleared, the colors of the landscape came alive, and we finally felt like we could breathe again. Something I realized during this trip is that while people say sunset and sunrise are the most beautiful, for ordinary older people like us who aren't professional photographers, the best time is when the sun is properly hanging in the sky.
But just as impressive as the scenery was the parking fee at the lot where we took the shuttle bus. Almost 50,000 won for 3 hours... Hahaha... Let's just consider it a donation for our mental health..
After passing through Independence Pass and other areas, we head toward Denver for our flight the next day. On the way, we get our fill of autumn foliage once again.

On the way, we encountered a family of mountain goats, not deer.





On the way, my husband and I discovered that the different things we knew about the name "Denver" were actually one and the same. I thought it was just a place name somewhere in the US, and my husband knew it as the name of the singer John Denver, but after searching, it turns out that even though the singer wasn't from Denver, he fell in love with the great nature of Colorado and chose Denver as his stage name. We keep driving while listening to his representative song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
As we get closer to Denver, we experience our first serious traffic jam of this trip. I wondered why a "rural" city would be this congested, but it turns out it's because it's one of the fastest-growing regions in the US, and the infrastructure can't keep up with the population growth. We moved toward the airport via the outskirts without crossing through the city center, and the skyline visible in the distance looks clean and cute. My husband, who is subtly... no, overtly picky, is showing a sudden fondness for this city.