 Colorado Scenic Byways: Taking the Other Road
by
Jim Steinberg and Susan J. Tweit
Review by Niki Hayden
With all the archaeological sites and natural wonders in
Colorado, it makes sense that roads reaching those places would come under special
consideration, too. In Colorado the journeys to
plains, rivers and mountains can be as astonishing as the destinations. That’s
the idea behind the Colorado Scenic Byways: Taking the Other Road, designated roads
featured in two books by photographer
Jim Steinberg and writer Susan J. Tweit.
 Although the Scenic Byway system has been around for decades, it gained
momentum in Colorado in the 1980s. Since then, ten of our 25 byways are included
as National Scenic Byways. The designation attaches significance to roads that
claim historic legacies or natural phenomena. For example, the road to Mount
Evans was strictly for tourists to enjoy an altitude and tundra they
might otherwise never experience. The Santa Fe Trail today may be a commonplace
highway, but remnants of early travelers are strewn along the way.
And the trip through Ouray takes visitors on one engineering feat that once
served as a toll road for gold and silver miners, the Million Dollar Highway.
One is a lavish coffee table book and
the other a companion book as atlas and guide. The first is to be read before
setting off on the journeys. The second is designed to be taken along in the
car. Colorado Scenic Byways: Taking the Other Road, with an introduction
by Governor Bill Ritter, is part history, part geology and botany study, part
armchair travel.
In an age of rising gas prices, we become frugal drivers. Driving has
to be worthwhile and close to home, pleasurable rather than only expedient. In these
books the emphasis is on taking time to take it all in. As author Susan Tweit
says, the byways are a relaxed drive compared to the frantic rush of interstate
highways. The books are a call to dip into the past along the way. "We have
to think about all the people who walked or have ridden the byways before us.
Imagine if you were a Native American how endless the plains must have been, or
how enormously expansive they seemed to those on the Santa Fe Trail," she
says.
It’s easy to watch traffic stream by with nothing more to offer than
frustration over a clogged transportation artery. Colorado Scenic Byways
counters that daily irritation by suggesting we consider what has come before
us. So many of our roads first were carved out by the journeys of Native
Americans or pioneers. Or, as in the case of many mountain roads, the gold and
silver miners. Most of these roads are two lane and in today’s fast-paced
world invite a old-fashioned approach: the leisurely road trip.
Many have no fast food restaurants or gas stations along the way. But the
lack of those amenities invites the traveler to slow down, enjoy the scenery,
take in the historical sites and truly savor the journey rather than fret over
the destination. "Byways are easy to drive. Each showcases such divergent
paths of Colorado. There’s a feel of childhood vacations, piling in the car to
see what’s out there to be seen," Tweit says.
And while one byway is dirt and gravel (Flat Tops) and a few are open only in
the summer (the Alpine Loop or Trail Ridge), most are easy to travel year
around. Some are close to home. Tweit’s favorite Collegiate Peaks Byway runs
by her town. Other notable byways she returns to again and again are the gravel
road of Flat Tops from Meeker and the Unaweep/Tabeguache Byway that begins
outside Grand Junction and sweeps around the Uncompahgre National Forest.
Closer to home on the Front Range, you may choose Mount Evans and Guanella
Pass west of Denver, the Gold Belt Tour outside Colorado Springs or Peak to Peak
west of Lyons and Boulder. For those who love the prairie, the Pawnee Pioneer
Trails in the northeast and Santa Fe Trail in the southeast draw bird lovers and
grassland enthusiasts each spring and fall.
From the stories of miners on the Silver Thread Byway to the Utes at the Flat
Tops, the pioneers on the Pawnee Pioneer Trails to the prehistoric Native
Americans of the Trail of the Ancients, humans figure prominently as trail
blazers. But creatures blazed trails, too, some extinct as in the Dinosaur
Diamond trails of our northwest corner or the abundant wild elk that loll along
steep meadows of the Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow Road of Rocky Mountain
National Park.
And while gold mining on the Gold Belt Tour has been replaced by gold in the
casinos of Cripple Creek, byways indicate how people and animals always have
been restless and on the move. But not by car. Byways often were built atop foot
paths that widened over hundreds of years or railroads that carved out thin
ribbons etched into rocky mountainsides. Eventually twisty, winding roads
indicate a path that only an automobile could maneuver.
Many roads for automobiles date to the 1950s when
Americans purchased a first car to take to the great outdoors. Tourism replaced
mining; grand vistas attracted enthusiastic visitors whose destinations became
recreational, or some might add, spiritual. All have been given careful scrutiny
as worthy enough to be included in the 25 unique byways. With excellent maps,
seasonal travel tips, places not to miss and a broad historical background,
these two books are sure to be included in Colorado classics. Next time you
dream about a getaway, forego air travel or an exotic locale. These books will
make you want to spend your next vacation very close to home.
Colorado Scenic Byways, published by Portfolio Publications, 1016 Oak Street,
P.O. Box 1192, Steamboat Springs, Colorado 80477, www.coloradoscenicbyways.com
for updated travel tips.
Book signings by the photographer and author:
Sept. 3: Grand Junction, Barnes & Noble,
5-8 p.m.
Sept. 4: Glenwood Springs, Book Train, 4-7 p.m.
Sept. 5: Steamboat Springs, Off the Beaten Path (this one's a hometown
book-release party with food and music!), 5-8 p.m.
Sept. 6: Denver Art Museum, noon-3 p.m.
Sept. 9: Denver, Tattered Cover Bookstore, LoDo (Jim will show slides
from the book, and I'll tell the stories behind the words), 5-8 p.m.
Sept. 18: Colorado Springs, Barnes & Noble (725 Citadel Drive East),
5-8 p.m.
Sept. 19: Colorado Springs, Mountains & Plains Booksellers
Association, Crowne Plaza
Sept. 21: Salida, The Book Haven (this one's a hometown book release
party too!), 3-5 p.m
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