Gold Belt Tour
Shelf Road Part 2

This is looking back the way I just came, taken in the same place as the last photo. Notice how the angle down has gotten a bit steeper. And figure that 100 years ago, this countryside was crawling with gold prospectors making their way up the stream beds, panning for "color" as they went, trying to locate the mother lode. Shelf Road was first constructed in 1892, a couple years after the gold strike at Cripple Creek that really started all the action around here. For several years, wagonloads of ore were carried down this road to smelters in Cañon City and Florence before the route down Phantom Canyon was located and the railroad track laid over there. Once that track was in place, most of the traffic moved over there but for some reason, Shelf Road continued to be maintained and look at what we have today.