So after a crazy week at work, I decided I needed to unwind. The weather was too crappy to go mountain biking, so I decided to go for a drive in the mountains. The car didn't start out very clean, but I figured I would be bringing it home completely filthy so it didn't matter. Plus I didn't really have too many pics of the car with the winter wheels on it. So here is my little photoshoot (see if you can track the dirtiness):


The start of the drive. Just about to enter into Deer Creek Canyon.


Mmmmm...... what lies ahead.......


Some old house that needed a few repairs.



High grade road. Below is a video I shot last winter driving up this same road:
[url=http://[URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N_Nwq_ZTS0]YouTube[/url] - High Grade Road[/url]



An old school house.


VERY tight and windy up ahead.



I didn't actually intend to stop like this, but I've always wanted to get this shot.


You can see the snow starting to fall.


Normally there is a bridge that goes across this river to get to this person's summer cabin (actual cabin is out of the frame to the right) but heavy spring runoff has washed the bridge away. Oops.


Here is someone else's bridge. Their cabin is out of the frame on the left. See the trail on the opposite bank?


There used to be remains of houses in this river. After the Hayman fire (about 10 years ago) the following year there were floods/mud slides caused by the weakened ground (a fire will consume all the grass and roots holding the soil together) and washed several houses downstream.


These rocks look too perfectly stacked.




The house was built new after the fire burned the old one to the ground. Coming through this area around sunset in the summer can be a very surreal experience. The charred forest and an orange sky behind it really makes for an erie back drop.


Just up the road from the burned forest, it's back to normal.


I didn't get very far up this icy hill. Getting in and out of the car was difficult without slipping on the ice.




Back to more burned forest.


Continued below due to 25 pic maximum cutoff.... ghey.

Even off in the distance you can see more burned forest.
Below are pics of an area that I used to camp with my family all the time as a little boy. It was hard to see the forest I grew up in looking like this. This was the first time since the fire that I had come this far.







The last pic was taken when I decided to turn around. The snow was starting to really come down and the road hadn't been maintained in awhile and the flat light made it tough to make out the problem areas. I really wanted to make it back to one of the old camp grounds we used to always go to and see what was left.


Let's see: deserted dirt road. Hills. Curves. Snow. YES PLEASE! I tried to do my best impression of Colin McCrae in my fwd non-turbo automatic car without a roll cage and the need to get me to home and to work. Car seems to want to oversteer very easily going left......


This appeared to be an area that had collected a lot of sediment and mud washed away from the burned forest.


Getting nice and dirty.


Kinda weird to see this river completely thawed out and flowing while that other river was frozen over in most spots.







Some of the locals.


NICE and dirty.

Here is the route I took:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=8500+W+Deer+Creek+Canyon+Rd,+Littleton,+CO+80128+(Denver+Botanic+Gardens+at+Chatfield)&daddr=W+Deer+Creek+Canyon+Rd+to:S+Deer+Creek+Rd+to:Highgrade+Rd+to:Broken+Arrow+Dr+to:S+Foxton+Rd+to:SW+Platte+River+Rd+to:S+Deckers+Rd+to:Forest+Service+Rd+211%2FWigwam+Creek+Rd+to:Forest+Route+211%2FGoose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:Goose+Creek+Rd+to:39.302225,-105.175552+to:sedalia,+co&hl=en&geocode=FaR5WwIdyXa8-SH0-q4d9c-MuA%3BFcBLWwIdbvu6-Q%3BFaYjWwIdZP-6-Q%3BFSe6WgId3t66-Q%3BFVXLWgIdo5q5-Q%3BFWqWWgIdocO5-Q%3BFQmYWQIdsT-6-Q%3BFe3uWAIdes65-Q%3BFY3GVgId9aO5-Q%3BFamPVgIdZ3K5-Q%3BFRh5VgIdrca4-Q%3BFQpeVgIdqJ24-Q%3BFWsiVgIdtpK4-Q%3BFR0AVgIdYpG4-Q%3BFS8AVgIdI5K4-Q%3BFT4AVgIdmJK4-Q%3BFVn_VQIdepS4-Q%3BFQYAVgIdf5C4-Q%3B%3B&mra=dpe&mrcr=1&mrsp=18&sz=14&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,17,18&sll=39.317168,-105.16036&sspn=0.031541,0.054932&ie=UTF8&ll=39.401183,-105.121307&spn=0.504051,1.400757&t=h&z=10

Love the shots Tom! I'm very jealous of the awesome drive.

That dirt road would have been fun fun fun in my friends STi who was just out here.

Yeah, that dirt road was a blast. Posted speed limit was 15. I think I was rarely below 30. Never caught air, but the front end did get REALLY light a few times. And basically EVERY time I turned to the left, the back end wanted to try to over take the front.

MazdaTom wrote:Yeah, that dirt road was a blast. Posted speed limit was 15. I think I was rarely below 30. Never caught air, but the front end did get REALLY light a few times. And basically EVERY time I turned to the left, the back end wanted to try to over take the front.

So cool, so jealous! I would love to kill that road! My friend and I did tear up a small dirt road in the STi we found. Was good fun.

The road is near Deckers going toward Goose Creek.

MazdaTom wrote:The road is near Deckers going toward Goose Creek.

I will have to check it out when i get my car back.

bottom of post #2 updated with route.

MazdaTom wrote:bottom of post #2 updated with route.

Nice, thanks!

Damn, looks like good times. Nice pics Tom.

Dude love the pics!!! very nice. And yeah that burned forest on its own gives a very shrinking feeling in that something to majestic and mighty can be destroyed so easy!

Nice shots! Why don't you get the msp or MP3 rear lip? I think it would complete your car. Or are you just not a fan of the rear lip?

I haven't found a good used one yet (haven't really been looking either). Appearance items are pretty low on my list. I got a smoking deal on the side skirts that I just couldn't pass up. And the front lip was also a good deal.

That's the Bambi cruise! Tons of deer up in the area...as you saw for yourself. Right out of Pine is where I had my "run-in" with the locals. The pictures are great! It looks like a very nice drive, glad you had a good time!