The Road Less Traveled

Well not really but since the opening of the Central City Parkway, travel to and from Black Hawk and Central City, Colorado is faster and in my opinion safer than ever before.

Opening in Spring 2005, this 4 lane 8.4 mile highway from I-70 has drawn over 750,000 cars (which explains why there is a car counting cord draped across the road at its highest point) What used to take you a hour on a two line stretch of road which bordered a canyon wall and a large drop off on the other side, now takes about 40 minutes. (for me)

Though the CC Parkway may not be as picturesque as highway 6 to route 119, with the streams and mountain side areas. (once saw a mountain goat just hanging out), it makes the journey allot more pleasant. CC Parkway does have a great view of the open mountains though as its appears to be just carved out of the side of one itself.

With this passing season of record amounts of snow fall we reflect on how well traffic and safety have held up over this amazing season. As far as local media goes there was no reported accidents on CC Parkway verses 2 major accidents on the old route 6, one of which involved two elderly patrons driving off an embankment into the stream. With the extra lanes and lighting for a large section of CC Parkway, it seems to have held up better during the season.

I once rode the old route during a "minor snow storm" in a Geo Metro. As my then girlfriend (now wife, luckily) clasp my leg, yelling at me for making her go out in this weather, and her friends doing everything they could to keep the car on the road, It makes me really appreciate the new road choose to the casino towns. Less yelling from the wife and more time to spend on the machines, which then again causes yelling from the wife on time spent on the machines, um mm, guess its just a different kind of trade off.

J