Day 3 (Fri 6/19)

Crawford State Park to Hotchkiss, CO via 92W (about 12 miles)

Hotchkiss, CO to Carbondale, CO via 133N (about 66 miles).

We ate at a little pizzaria called "The Roaring Fork" – good food.  Carbondale was a nice town – actually, it felt like a college town

Carbondale, CO to Leadville, CO via 82E and then to 24W (about 89 miles)

Along this route, we travelled through Aspen, Colorado – a little 'touristy', but beautiful nonetheless.  From Aspen, we travelled along Independance Pass where we crossed the Continental Divide.  The ride up to the Continental Divide (12063 ft.) was beautiful because of the twists and turns.  The road narrows at some places where it becomes essentially a one-way road, so proceed with caution.  Also, we stopped a couple of times to take in the gorgeous views.  At the Continental Divide, we took some photographic evidence, threw some snowballs and moved on toward Leadville, Colorado (passing an area called Twin Lakes – Mark had camped there before).

In Leadville we stopped into a little coffee/gourmet cookie place called the Ugly Cookie Company located on a main drag called Harrison street and rested for a while.  While sitting at the table, we read a little of the local literature, finished our snack food and left for some more substantial fare.  We spied the Golden Burro Restaurant were Stan got the chicken-fried steak and Mark got a cheese steak.  The food was pretty good at the Golden Burro, but was really interesting was the menu itself, which was chocked full of interesting history about the little mining town of Leadville.

It was getting late and we decided to head back to the Twin Lakes Recreation Area to bunk down for the night (Twin Lakes Recreation Area).  This was a very nice camp site if you are look for a good place to stay.