Minturn, Colorado

Minturn is where the northwestern leg of the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway meets the I-70, just west of Vail. Notice the mountainside in the background of the top photo here: these are layers of rock that were uplifted millions of years ago and then the valley was eroded by the Eagle River which flows through Minturn and then west to eventually meet up with the Colorado.

Minturn was originally founded as a mining town (of course: this is Colorado). Up the road to the south there are still a few active mines but Minturn probably survived the never-ending minerals boom-and-bust parade because it was also a railhead in the old days. These days, this pretty little town handles some of the "spill-over" from the big resort towns east and west of here (the folks who work in the resorts can't usually afford to live there, hence Minturn, Eagle, Leadville, etc.). I saw a considerable amount of new construction along the way in Minturn, mostly condo or townhome stuff.

I drove through Minturn on a beautiful Saturday morning in the fall, and the road was packed with folks cruising up into the hills out of Denver to check out the foliage. A couple of the small shops in town were seeing some pretty good business happen.