Breckenridge is 1 1/2 hours away if I-70 isn’t backed up from accidents or being hit by snow. During ski season there’s always something happening on I-70. The question is, what?
Short to medium delays aren’t bad because the trip takes us 3,500 feet up; where the scenery is dramatic. Snow lines both sides of the road and often clouds hang low in the valleys between the mountains.
In Breck snow covers the ground in heaps. At night coats are needed for walking. Hats and gloves are stuffed in pockets all the time because even though the sun is much brighter and warmer in this high altitude it is cold in any shadow.
The town is buzzing with an assortment of people. People with money shopping in boutiques and eating gourmet meals. People on a budget in t-shirt and gift shops checking out the sales racks. People with accents checking it all out.
Going skiing the slopes aren’t crowded. If I scare myself making a parallel turn no one is behind me ready to run me down. The slopes are broad up top and the earth looks endless across the mountain range.
Walking we saw the markers for trails we hiked last summer, but winter hasn’t released them yet. It will be another couple of months before the ground lets go of its greenery.
Coming home I-70 is closed for rock mitigation so we take Hwy 9 to Hwy 285 and see the Continental Divide up close. The sky is a bright periwinkle blue that sets on the snow topped mountains. Swirls of colors appear on the sides of the mountains as the snow melts; lopsided like an ice cream cone.
