Woody Creek Tavern former hangout of “Gonzo Writer” Hunter S. Thompson in the unincorporated town of Woody Creek, CO.  I think I just might have to read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

We arrived home safe and sound late Saturday afternoon after my week long teaching stint at Anderson Ranch Arts Center last week.  We took our time driving home and I have a few more pictures to share before moving on and posting some images of new art work.  I hope to hit the studio tomorrow (temps are supposed to drop into the 80′s for the rest of the week) and am allowing myself a day to do nothing before getting busy again.

We decided to venture into Basalt, which is about a 30 minute drive from Aspen, for dinner and drove through Woody Creek on the way home.  We probably should have dined at Woody Creek Tavern instead of the place we choose in Basalt – I won’t divulge the name of the overpriced noisy restaurant we did dine at on Friday night.  We wanted to drive further away from Aspen/Snowmass to see where the real people lived – you know the working class population.  Most have to commute some distance to find a reasonably priced place to live.

Woody Creek is itself mostly a trailer park with the Tavern in the middle.  It’s an unassuming place made famous by Hunter S. Thompson.  Surrounding Woody Creek is populated with ranches and larger homes.

Aspen Airport

We drove past the Aspen Airport on our way to Snowmass when we arrived and I was astounded by the number of private/corporate jets parked on the tarmac for at least a 1 mile stretch.  There was even covered parking for private aircraft on the airport grounds.  I always knew that there is a lot of money in Aspen, but seeing all those jets lined up was eye opening.  Commercial airlines also serve the area as well including United, Frontier and Delta.

Ron and Jasmine at the Grottos, 9 miles outside Aspen

We didn’t get any hiking in while we were in Snowmass – other than my daily walk to and from the Ranch.  Unlike many Americans, my family doesn’t have cable TV at home.  We watch network or borrow movies from the library.  It helps us do other things together like playing games, reading etc.  Our condo in Snowmass had 2 TVs – and included cable.  I’m reminded of that little book by Stan and Jan Berenstain, called Too Much TV.  My husband and daughter each attached themselves to a remote and soaked up as much cable tv as they could handle in a 6 day time frame.  Truth be told is that both of them were slightly under the weather when we first got to Snowmass, so I cut them some slack.

Anyway, on the way out of town, I insisted that we do a little sightseeing.  We stopped at the Grottos, just 9 miles outside of Aspen on highway 82 which travels over Independence Pass into Leadville.  It’s an amazingly beautiful drive.  The Grottos is an easy .25 hike from the trail head and ends at a large grouping of house sized boulders where we found ice caves and a roaring waterfall.

If you look closely, you can just make out a shelf of ice inside the cave which is about a 15-20 feet climb down the rocks .  The humongous boulders, are thought to be glacial erratics and are quite a sight to see.

The waterfall at the Grottos

My daughter and I didn’t have the right kind of shoes on to do much climbing or exploring while we were at the Grottos.  In fact, she became very nervous and wouldn’t even venture close to the edge.  It turns out she was right to be worried.  I ended up slipping ever so slightly – the rocks close to the water were covered by a fine dust.  I quickly returned to a safe distance.  A ranger asked us to be careful and relayed a terrible story to us.  Three days before we visited the grottos, a woman slipped and fell into the waterfall, her husband jumped in after her and ended up hitting his head, and was taken down 3 falls by the current where he eventually became lodged under a boulder and died while his kids, wife and friends watched in horror.  What a terrible way to end a vacation – they were visiting from Miami, FL.  I sometimes forget that while beautiful, nature can be deadly too.

Descent from Independence Pass

The area between Leadville and Aspen is surrounded by fourteeners.  I suggested to my family that we should start hiking more with a goal of climbing a 14er some day.  My daughter just gave me that look of disgust and replied, “Mom – I couldn’t even do the Grottos trail at .25 miles!”  We definitely need to become more active and in the back of my mind, I was thinking, “Too much TV!”

Downtown Leadville, CO during Boom Days August 1 & 2

Leadville, CO has a colorful and storied past from the early days of mining where gold and silver mines produced millions of dollars worth of precious metals to the town’s bust when paper money was introduced and the price of silver crashed.  Famous residents and visitors included Doc Holliday, The Younger Gang, the Earps and then the Horace and Baby Doe Tabor, the Boettchers, the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”, the Dows, and the Guggenheims.  It became the 2nd largest city in Colorado during its heyday. Later, molybdenum, a metal used in high strength steel alloys was mined and the mining operations sustained the town until it experienced another bust in the 80′s.

I just read somewhere that the price and demand for molybdenum is up again and the mine is operating. The cost to the town is that it’s rather run down. Many of the original Victorian buildings are in disrepair and the town in surrounded by trailer parks that are themselves run down. What this means is that it’s one of the few truly affordable mountain towns in Colorado and houses a lot of the seasonal workers that commute to the resort towns, like Aspen, Vail, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge etc. Truthfully, the whole town is not run down, and it felt like there’s a momentum to polish up the town and to attract the tourists who mostly drive through to get to their destinations.

Tricked out Bike in Leadville

When we drove back home through Leadville, the town was celebrating Boom Days, where historic main street is closed to all but foot traffic and the town remembers its heritage.  We missed the parade, the burro races, test of mining skills, but did get a taste of the festivities for the hour we were in town.  We caught Latina singer, Jenna, on the main stage in the afternoon which was fun.

About 15-20 custom cars were on display which was quite unexpected – this one was my favorite!

Visiting Leadville at the end of our trip was such a fantastic juxtaposition to the towns of Aspen and Snowmass, which seemed hermetically sealed in contrast.  I thought it was a great way to end the trip and to ease back into our urban life in Denver.

Glad to be back,

~Cynthia