Day 13. Leadville, CO

Never before have I seen such variation in building design and decor in one small place. Seems like anything goes here – or at least used to. There are about 30 vintage buildings in the downtown area, mostly Victorian, built in the late 1800s. The houses in town are a mixed bag, about 1/3 being cobbled together, jerry-rigged affairs. Another 1/3 are cute little old houses painted to look Victorian although few actually are, and the final 1/3 are modest newer homes. The wooded area west of town has many large modern homes plus the occasional, and seemingly inevitable, rundown places reminiscent of Dogpatch.

Here’s a bit more Leadville history. A surprising number of well-known names are associated with the place, including Houdini, Oscar Wilde, John Phillip Souza, and Sarah Bernhardt – all of whom entertained here. Doc Holiday has his last recorded gun fight in Leadville: he won of course but his opponent survived his wounds, and Doc was acquitted. John May of May Department Stores started here, as did Marshall Fields and the Guggenheims. Others included Margaret Brown, aka The Unsinkable Molly Brown; Buffalo Bill; Soapy Smith; Chicken Bill Lovell.

Trish made a great stew for dinner last night. It really hit the spot in this cool weather.

Speaking of food, here’s a bit of advice for those who take food on the road. If the last time you opened your half full jar of chili sauce was at 450’ altitude, you’ll want to aim it away from you when you reopen it at 8320’ altitude. Otherwise, you and the area around you will closely resemble a scene from one of those chainsaw massacre movies.

Day 12. Evening. Leadville, CO

Have any readers heard of Leadville? Odds are, very few have so here’s a history lesson. Current population is just short of 3000; population in 1880, 30,000. It was one the gold/silver mining boomtowns, and is touted as the bawdiest and baddest of the genre. It boasts the highest airport and golf course in US at an altitude of 10,430’. We are staying at a campground on 2nd Street, which used to be named State Street and boasted 64 bars and numerous brothels back in the day.

We had planned to golf here so we’d have bragging rights on playing the lowest course in the world, Death Valley, and the highest course in the US in the same season. But, the forecast for tomorrow is crap: high of 51 with wind and thunderstorms, so that’s not going to happen. Instead, we’ll tour the old Victorian buildings and such, maybe go to a movie.

Day 10. Morning.

Morning. June 9th. Trip miles1023. Day 10. Durango.

We’re off to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP this morning. We’d never heard of it until we started researching this trip and saw that it was on the way to Rocky Mountain NP. So, we penciled it on to the dance card. We’ll stay there 2 nights, before going on to Leadville, CO for another 2 night stay.

What’s the difference between a canyon and a gorge? Is gorge the root word of gorgeous? If so, to be fair, shouldn’t there also be a canyonous? Hold on, I’m off to Wikipedia.

I’m back. Canyon and gorge are interchangeable terms, with usage varying from one locale to another. As far as naming goes, it appears it’s only a matter of who gets there first and labels it with their term of choice. There appears to be no connection between gorge and gorgeous. Although I’m not the first to consider canyonous as a possible word, the only real Canyonous is a place in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Thus ends today’s geography/vocabulary mini-lesson. Now we can go forth into the world of the uninformed, dazzling one and all with our knowledge and brilliance. It’s always a pleasure to add another bit of totally useless information to minds long since over-cluttered with same.