Continental Divide

One of the great things about living in Denver is that you are only a 29 minute drive from the mountains. All you have to do is head west on Interstate 70, past the ugliness that is Lakewood, drive around the outskirts of Golden ("Where the West Lives"), and you are heading up the foothills. As soon as you pass Lookout Mountain, site of Buffalo Bill's grave, you are in Genesee, at an atitude of 7,600 feet. As you drive under the overpass leading to that community, you can see the entire Continental Divide before you, as seen in the photograph above. Of course, if you go a little further, you will run into a traffic jam when the lanes merge from 3 lanes into 2, especially on weekends, and past that, you will encounter road work at Floyd Hill, which is expected to continue for at least the next 20 years. And so even though you are enjoying that mountain atmosphere while sitting in you car, it probably will take you a while to cross that Continental Divide and get to Breckenridge (Breck to us hipsters) on the other side. And don't even think about making the return trip to Denver on a Sunday afternoon. It could take days. After all, every silver lining has a cloud.