Drive to Glenwood Springs, CO ~

 Both of us were looking forward to a trip back to Colorado.  (My home for twenty-five years.)  Butch & I lived in Glenwood Springs & Rifle before moving to Washington.  With a relatively early start, the weather couldn't have been better for most of the way.

The Archway, Kearney, NE 9:30 a.m.

Further on into NE, we ran into cloud cover, it almost looked like it was going to snow.

1:15 p.m.

Once we crossed into CO, the sun appeared! It was a beautiful afternoon, with temperatures in the 40's. As we started the climb up to the pass, the higher we went, the darker the clouds became.

2:35 p.m. Idaho Springs~

We stopped in Idaho Springs for gas & Butch's hot coffee.  We'd somehow managed to forget the thermos.  We both knew, if we ran into weather ahead, we could be held up for a while.

3:13 - into the snow~

We were making the climb up to Eisenhower tunnel when the snow hit.  Within minutes the roads were covered & getting slick.  The chain-up lane was full of truckers.  We'd had almost 30-minutes of slow-downs just to get to this point.  

3:28 p.m. Going into the tunnel~

We've driven this road in all kinds of weather & both knew if this side was bad, the far side would be worse.  

3:33 p.m. Snowplows were waiting to lead traffic down~

It was great to see the snowplows up ahead, clearing as we dropped in elevation from 11,000 to 8,000ft.

4:07 p.m. - almost a white-out

Past Vail, the snow was heavier than before.

4:11 p.m. 

The trees looked so beautiful - a real winter wonderland.  

4:28 p.m.  Traffic!

Neither of us could believe the traffic!  There must be an incredible amount of people who commute from one side to the other now...  Crazy...  We had two more slow-downs, before we started into Glenwood Canyon.

5:21 p.m.  We're in the canyon!

I'd actually forgotten all the tunnels! The rock in the canyon was beautiful with the light snow.
Within a few minutes, it was getting dark. Now, it would be under an hour, even in slow traffic & we'd reach town!

It was dark when we arrived.  We took our exit & were instantly at a traffic circle, that was anything but!  Lots of signs, but the way we were used to going had totally changed.  The traffic in town was non-stop, a late rush hour...  We took one wrong turn & ended up at the pool - turned around & finally found our way to the Lodge!  Sweet relief!  It had taken us just under twelve-hours to make the drive.  

We checked in, then drove around to the closest door to our room - 4th floor.  Normally, we would have liked that, but unloading in a heavy, wet snow was no fun.  We grabbed our swimsuits, robes & hurriedly returned to the truck.  We made it back to the pool in time for a much anticipated soak in the hot, therapy end of the pool!