Day 8 - Thursday 5/28/2015 - Calypso Cascades Hike & the Georgetown Loop Railroad
Today, we headed out to Rocky National Park’s Wild Basin Trailhead which is on the east side of the park for the hike to Calypso Cascades. This hike was 3.6 miles round trip with 610ft in elevation gain, starting at 8500ft going to 9110 ft. There were several smaller water falls on our hike to Calypso, including Lower and Upper Copeland Falls. Little side trails visited these. The plan was to continue on to Ouzel falls which was a mile further than Calypso but we wanted to make it to the Georgetown Loop Railroad and the trail was already slick with snow the last few tenths of miles to Calypso so the going would be slow (I got new boots after this but the pair I was wearing was years old and very worn).
We drove the beautiful, peak to peak scenic byway from Allen’s Park down though Blackhawk / Central City to I-40. Then up I-40 to Georgetown. At the Georgetown Loop Railroad, they were running their Diesel engine that day. Unfortunately, the Shay 9 wasn’t running and diesel 1203 was dong the honors. We did the Lebanon Silver Mine tour but felt like we should have done the more advanced tour as it saw more of the mine. Very good tour though!
After the train ride, we then drove up Guanella Pass from Georgetown to its summit of 11,670ft. We got out at the trail heads there for some photos of 14,000ft Mt. Bierstadt. It was a very cool, scenic drive if you have the time. We then headed back to Georgetown and down I-40 to Denver. We ate at a local pizza joint called Mannie & Bo’s, that took forever (cause it was from scratch they said) but it was very good pizza!
After the train ride, we then drove up Guanella Pass from Georgetown to its summit of 11,670ft. We got out at the trail heads there for some photos of 14,000ft Mt. Bierstadt. It was a very cool, scenic drive if you have the time. We then headed back to Georgetown and down I-40 to Denver. We ate at a local pizza joint called Mannie & Bo’s, that took forever (cause it was from scratch they said) but it was very good pizza!
