Like many people, I use Microsoft Edge as my web browser, mainly because that was what was provided when I bought the computer. The home page is filled with all kinds of articles and videos, including news stories, various features, top 10 lists of this or that, you name it. Yesterday I read an article in which the author listed her 5 favorite state parks in the country, and one of them was Eldorado Canyon State Park, located just to the south of Boulder, Colorado. I have known about Eldorado Canyon, and how popular it is, for years, but never got around to visiting it. But after reading that article, I decided it was finally time to drive up there. You reach it via Eldorado Springs Drive, which starts out paved and then turns into a gravel road as you approach the town of Eldorado Springs, a strange little town with a lot of old homes from around the turn of the 20th Century. Just beyond the town the state park begins, and you wind up a road past trailheads and technical climbing spots to the visitor's center, passing spectacular scenery along the way, such as the view of South Boulder Creek in the photograph on the left. Evidently the state park and the town were all part of a very popular resort complex, with the Crags Hotel located a thousand feet above the town, reached by train or a funicular, and the Eldorado Springs Resort in what is now the town of Eldorado Springs. Glen Miller played at the dance hall at that resort, and President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife Mamie honeymooned there. The pool from 1906 and the ballroom are still there today. This resort complex had its ups and downs in later years, and in 1978 the State of Colorado purchased the land to the west of town and made it into a state park to prevent it from being turned into a rock quarry. And good for them! It is definitely worth a visit. Just don't take 45 years to do it.
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