Gateway, Western Colorado

Aug 28, 2012

Flying from Gateway, Colorado.

This is the setting at Gateway, Colorado!

And this looking south.

The airstrip is on BLM land right next to the upmarket resort.
BLM = Bureau of Land Management, ie - public land.

A tingle in the tummy when flying an open aircraft like this over such country.....

These are the remains of the 'Hanging Flume' 
which carried water to a hydraulic mining site down stream.
https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hanging-flume-0

Those timbers sticking out from the canyon wall used to support the flume.
Must have been quite a job to drill all those holes at exactly the right level,
while dangling on ropes....

It ran for many miles along these cliffs, and is an amazing engineering project for it's time.
It was quite  thrill to discover this without having heard about it beforehand.

A more recent bit of engineering to cut this roadway into the cliff.

Driving south to Durango, had to cross two 11,000ft passes.
Sure glad I had this F250 with the 7.3 litre turbo diesel, with 6-speed manual and exhaust brake.
A real brute of a towing truck.

Seen along the way......