Gold Belt Tour
Phantom Canyon Road Part 1

The southern end of Phantom Canyon Road enters into a deceptive canyon: in the beginning you don't know what you are getting into. It's paved for the first couple of miles but as you go, the canyon walls begin to rise. I took this photo right near the end of the pavement in an area where this glorious red rock is just jumbled everywhere. Notice the cottonwoods: that says there is pretty regular waterflow through the bottom of this canyon.

I'd actually stopped here because a couple on a motorcycle flagged me down. They were headed for Cripple Creek but wanted to ask me if the dirt road we had all come to would go on for long before we came to pavement again. I told them it was at least 20 miles of narrow, winding dirt road between here and the next pavement at Victor. Then I suggested that they go back south to US 50, go west to State Highway 9 (just west of the Royal Gorge) and then head into Cripple Creek that way over paved roads all the way. They thanked me and I never saw them again.