Boreas Pass Day Trip

One of the things that we missed when we moved out here was the taking of day trips to different parts of Colorado. This was something we did alot of when visiting from Minnesota. Retirement is suppose to put these trips back on the front burner.

Last week we decided to take a trip to a place we had driven by many times over the last few years...Camp Como.

Camp Como is located just north of Hwy 285, east of Fairplay. One of the reasons for going to Como was some info we had read in a book on South Park and its place in history as a railroad junction for many of the 1800 train lines from the mountain mining communities and the growing metropolis of Denver.

Como even had a round house for switching of locomotives between the different lines. The roundhouse still stands in Como today.

Using Como as the jumping off point we headed up Boreas Pass. This pass was used by the railroad for the line into Breckenridge, to haul supplies in and ore out. At one time Como being at one end of the line had a population of 6000 souls.

As we headed up the dirt road to the pass one of the mountains visible is called Silverheels.

This peak is named after a saloon hall madam that stayed in Como during an outbreak of smallpox's to look after the sick when most others had left.

This peak looks like one that will need to go on the list for next year. It isn't a 14er, but is pretty close at 13.8K.

At the top of the pass still stands the section house used by the railroad, it is owned by the Federal Government, but operated by the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association. It can be reserved for winter backcountry trips. It appears to be solar equipped and we can attest to the well outfitted outhouse facilities.

At 11,481" it still amazes me some of the places that people lived in the mountains back in the 1800's. This place is remote during the winter today, but I guess if you had a train line coming through it wouldn't be as out of touch back then.

We noticed on the drive up to the pass and the down into Breck the number of tree stumps. They were very old and didn't show burn marks, but looked sawn. We surmised that they were cut for rail ties, cabins and of course train fuel.

The sun was shining on the south side of the pass in Park County, but once at the pass and looking into Summit County the sky was dark and threatening.

You can just see the ski runs at Breck in the background in this shot.

As we moved further down from the pass the rain began and the road started to get muddy and interesting to drive on.

The road was just as wide as the rail bed. The cuts in the ridge were not the nice wide ones seen on most mountain highways today, but narrow cuts to accommodate the train and nothing else.

Sure can tell the difference in engineering between the rail companies profit motivation back then and what is now dictated by government regulations. Made for some tight squeezes.

The next stop was also a stop for the trains making the pull over the pass and that is Bank's Tank for water. It still stands along the road today.

Didn't look like it still held any water, but we didn't do that close an inspection.

The pass comes down into the Blue river area on the opposite side of the valley from CO 9. I had always wondered what was up in those hills, now driving them at least I have an idea.

This drive made for some great views of the reservoir, even in the rain.

After about an hour we reached the end of the 21 mile trip to Breckenridge.

This was a whole side of this town we had never explored, that this drive in unveiled.

Never really realized that much existed on the east side of CO 9, but it seems that this is actually where everyone lives.

People get target focused on the ski resort and the condos that populate pretty much the entire area west of 9.

The last stop was the old the snowblower used on the rail back in the old days.

Maybe we should look into this for Autumn Creek.

One more 14er is scheduled for this year, and will be the most challenging I have attempted so far...Longs Peak.