Gold Belt Tour
Shelf Road Part 2

More and more excellent granite face. I'm surprised no one is running a climbing school in here, unless they have better (or more) rock somewhere else. I know the Colorado Mountain School runs their stuff out of the Fort Collins area. Part of their thing is Long's Peak but if you've ever been to Long's Peak in the summer... let's just say the I-25 on July 4th weekend has less traffic on it. I hear stories of folks waiting 4 to 5 hours just to get through the Keyhole in either direction. I'm sorry, I much prefer roads (paths, routes, climbs) less traveled. I come out here for the solitude, not to meet the folks I'm trying to get some space from. Which reminds me, on the Phantom Canyon Road I ran into a bit of traffic but it wasn't enough to complain about. On Shelf Road, there was almost no one along the way. I say that and then I have to remember the famous Murphy: when I got down to the single track road that hangs along the canyon side wall below Marigold, there was a vehicle in front of me (Kansas license plates) that stopped every 20 feet or so for something or other. I couldn't tell if they were taking photos, taking a leak or if the missus was freaking out about the road. But they wouldn't move and they couldn't pull over: the only parking spot available was directly in the road. When we finally came down into the wider road at the northern end of Garden Park they floored it and were gone in seconds, so...