A Cautionary Tale of Tourism and Transportation

Wildcat Pass Before the Snowstorm
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Colorado mountain passes have a completely different weather pattern than the surrounding plains. Rain on the plains often equals snowy blizzards in the mountain passes. Often Colorado residents will drive hours around a mountain range to avoid bad weather in the passes because of the variable weather. After one adventurous empirical test I discovered just how essential it is to listen to the forecast and to trust it…

I guess it might have occurred to us to think about the altitude and the curvy mountain passes when we saw the dark rain clouds- but as tourists in a rental car- it just didn’t. As we climbed into Wildcat Pass the rain quickly turned to snow. Just a little at first but as we climbed higher- the snow increased until snowball sized flakes were swirling around our car. I have never seen anything more beautiful or terrifying at the same time. It was like driving through a kaleidoscope. The snow was swirling so thickly around our rental car that visibility was non-existent. I was hugging the mountain side on my left- and keeping an eye out for the cliffs on my right. We avoided a fall from the cliffs on the right side of the road and made our way over the pass and down to a close by mountain town by putting our rental car into low gear, and crawling along at less than 10 miles an hour in the deepening snow.

It was like driving through a kaleidoscope.

I felt utterly vulnerable while stuck in the snow but as we began to find our way out I felt the opposite- absolutely invincible and giddy. We had thwarted an early demise and giggled on our way to conquering the next snowy challenge (as long as it was months away and after a few cups of calming hot chocolate).

So to future travelers- respect the temperamental weather forecast in the west and be careful not to put too much faith in the tiny guardrails on the edges of Colorado’s serpentine mountain roads.

Enjoy your adventures!