We did a Labor Day Weekend art fair in colorful Breckenridge. Summit County, home of Breckenridge probably has too many homes, shopping plazas and other downsides of too many people trying to claim some ownership in a high mountain environment, but there is no denying that Breckenridge's historic old main street, as packed with people and touristy shops and restaurants as it is, is a delight to wander around and people watch. In addition to the colorfully painted old Victorian era buildings that line main street, we love the flower festooned street gardens, window boxes and hanging planters that are everywhere adding even more color and gaiety to the street scene. Unlike our home town of Driggs's unfortunately drab, treeless main street, Breck isn't shy about planting lots of aspens and spruces and other native species all along the median between the curb and the sidewalks bringing the atmosphere of the mountains right into the heart of the town. These trees not only offer eye pleasing beauty, but provide shade and noise quieting as well. A very cool town, well worth visiting more than once.
An attractive flower garden in front of a Main Street business.With three days to enjoy between shows, we went deeper into the Colorado mountains to finally do a little exploring via our favorite mode of transportation; our feet. We've been too busy with the business and building our new house and studio this year to take time to take even one hike in our glorious home Teton mountain range, so we risked sore muscles to jump at the chance to climb Colorado's highest mountain (and the second highest mountain in the lower 48 states); Mt Elbert which tops out at 14,440 feet. We had a stunning day to make our way to the top, almost cloudless blue skies and hardly a breeze.
Here we are, on top of Mt. Elbert, 14440 feet above sea level.The next day we "discovered" a very long and winding dirt road that followed the route of the original train route up through a narrow canyon to connect the gold mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor to the outside world. We had no idea what an amazing road we were embarking on when saw it as a narrow gray line on the map. Narrow, dusty, mostly single lane, winding along cliff edges and through narrow old railroad tunnels, and going on endlessly, but offering gorgeous views and interesting historical information markers, it turned out to be a surprise highlight of our trip. Victor looks like a small, sort of dirty, industrial mining town high on ridge and Cripple Creek was a surprise of an all together different breed. It at first looked like a restored tourist type old mining town with a surprising surplus of parking lots. Once we hit the sidewalks the truth became clear, the restored street side facades of the old buildings covered up large casinos that filled all the buildings on either side of the central business district. Having no interest in gambling, we were not aware that Colorado had its own little Las Vegas tucked away high in its mountains with hourly bus service down to the cities along the Front Range.
Our Colorado excursion ended with a two day show in Castle Rock, a very suburban community located about halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs. After a somewhat sparsely attend show in Breckenridge, it was nice to see good sized crowds attending the Castle Rock show. In addition to an up tick in business, the jurors at the Castle Rock saw fit to award us with another Best in Show award, an honor we always appreciate.
Receiving our Best in Show ribbon.
