Pioneers & Pathways Scenic Drive/Part 2 - 7/17/14

After visiting the MacGregor Ranch, we continued on the route north on MacGregor Avenue to Lumpy Ridge. What an appropriate name for the rock formations we saw!  Below are some that we stopped to explore.

We continued on County Road 43 through an alpine valley. The road drops to the bottom of a narrow canyon with steep forested hills.

As we travelled through the tiny village of Glen Haven we began to see the devastation caused by the 2013 floods. Parts of the road from Glen Haven to Drake are not yet paved as the clean up of the debris that the flood waters brought through the valley are in evidence everywhere.

Here is one of the dozens of houses and cottages we saw that were destroyed by the flood. Road construction vehicles and work is underway in many parts of the road as well as repair crews working on the homes.

There were many destroyed homes along this part of the river.

Sadie wanted to go for a swim, but the banks of the river are still very unstable.

Here you can see some of the debris in the river. There were parts of houses, sheds, many trees, etc., in the now beautiful river.

When we reach the little hamlet of Drake, we turned right only US Highway 34 that continued along the Big Thompson River.

The scenery on this drive was just beautiful, but the destruction to so many homes and businesses was heartbreaking. The commitment to rebuild was evident in all of the activity we saw along the Big Thompson River.

This continued to reinforce for us the astounding beauty of the countryside in the Estes Park region. We will visit this area again in the future!