In early June I drove over to Denver, Colorado to visit an investment client that moved there in October 2019 after her husband had passed away in a terrible motorcycle accident. I had not seen her since she moved due to Covid. I tried to make this journey last October, but mother nature decided that I was not going to Colorado that time; all of the highways were shut down due to some pretty bad snowstorms.

Normally, when traveling to Denver from Utah, I usually head north from my place and catch Interstate 80 going east across Wyoming until I reach Laramie. From there I travel southeast on US 287 to Fort Collins, Colorado. At Fort Collins I can catch Interstate 25 south down into Denver. For some reason I have always used this route. But as I was looking for a little bit of adventure, I decided to head southeast on US 6 until it connects with Interstate 70 in Green River, Utah. I then just stayed on Interstate 70 all the way into Denver.

Most of the times that I have traveled to Denver from Utah, I am usually with my wife attending the Region Eight Arabian Horse Championship Show. As such we are typically towing a trailer, and Interstate 70 goes to nearly 11,000 feet in a few locations crossing the main portion of the Rocky Mountains through the Eisenhower Tunnel. Since I had no trailer this time, I decided to try the new route.

About 35 miles or so east of Green River, Utah there is a turnoff from Interstate 70 to head south towards Moab. Interestingly enough, I have never been east of this intersection on I-70 other than on the section between Grand Junction, Colorado and Rifle, Colorado. So a lot of this drive was new to me. According to Google Maps this route is about 50 miles shorter than the northern route across Interstate 80. It was supposed to take close to one hour or so less travel time as well.

That did not happen. After Rifle, Colorado (yes, that is really the name of the town), the interstate highway gets quite curvy and the road conditions degrade considerably as the highway winds its way through the spine of the Rocky Mountains. Some of the potholes were so deep that I was worried about blowing a truck tire. Now I know why we don’t take our trailer on those roads — too rough! I think the drive time ended up being almost exactly the same as taking the more northern route.

I didn’t take very many photos on the drive over just because it’s a full day’s drive, and I wanted to get to Denver before it got too late. My client and I had a really nice meeting, and we had a wonderful time getting reacquainted.

We decided to do some sightseeing, and she wanted to bring me up to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. (Yes, the venue uses the British or Canadian spelling.) Red Rocks is a very famous venue which has hosted all of the major bands from the Beatles, to the Rolling Stones, to James Taylor, to U2, to Zac Brown and so many others. The amphitheater is built into a natural bowl in the mountains just west of Denver. The huge red rocks surrounding the upper portion of the amphitheater provide nearly perfect acoustics. As such, the Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a go to venue for major musicians who can fill the stadium.

We were lucky to be able to get up to the Red Rocks between performances. As you can see from the photos the venue is a very popular place for those who wish to engage in some pretty hard-core workouts. The place is really huge! It was hard to photograph just because of its sheer size.

While we were there, a group was warming up and testing their sound equipment. As I was walking by the huge rocks on the south side of the amphitheatre, I could actually hear and feel the sounds of the band coming off of those rocks. It was like standing next to some enormous speakers!

I really had a blast being able to explore this piece of musical history. Just to be standing in the same spot as Mick Jagger, John Lennon or John Denver was simply awe inspiring. What an incredible place.

Well, I hope you enjoyed these photos and that you can imagine being at the Red Rocks while listening to your favorite group.

Stay safe our there, and I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog.