Glenwood Canyon Bypass
We were headed out for our annual spring trip to Utah. We'd left pretty early so we could drive all the way to the Hole In The Rock trail to set up camp that night. We'd run into a few unexpected road blocks along the way, starting with an issue soon into our trip. We had a hard time just getting out of Colorado.
Glenwood Canyon has a few tunnels with two lanes going the same direction through each tunnel. They were working on one of the tunnels, so traffic was moving in both directions through the remaining tunnel. That morning, a fatal accident shut down I-70 and we assumed it would be cleared by the time we got there. We were wrong.
We took a frontage road to Dotsero but we were turned back, so we decided to have lunch in Gypsum while we waited. People were waiting everywhere. We finished lunch and the canyon was still closed, so we had to make an alternate plan. We found a way to Glenwood Springs via Cottonwood Pass Road and Cattle Creek Road.
Naturally, we weren't the only ones. It was a parade in both directions. Some of the curves and tight turns were interesting, to say the least. The road was smooth and maintained, though, so we made it through without any issues. The scenery was fantastic, so we didn't mind the detour too much.
As we were coming out the other end we saw a semi truck heading in. That was going to keep things backed up for a while, so we got lucky getting through when we did.
It's not a difficult trail as it's just a dirt road, but it offers a lot of nice scenery for SUVs and people new to taking a vehicle off of the pavement. It's also a great path to remember when I-70 turns on you. Unfortunately, it made us late for our plans to camp at Hole In The Rock, so we camped just south of Moab on the Cave Trail. It was a great place to stop and we had a great night, so it all worked itself out.
