Phantom Canyon Road

In the fall in Colorado, one of the places my family like to take a drive on is Phantom Canyon Road.  This is a road by Cripple Creek, Colorado.  In the fall, all the aspen leaves are changing to a beautiful yellow. This is a very mountainous road and not for the someone who does not like small mountain dirt roads with small passages to pass other cars, and some blasted rock tunnels.  Also, it has some step drop offs on the switchbacks to proceed up the mountain which is breath taking and beautiful.    Down at the bottom of the mountain is a river that runs through mountain landscape.  The perfect place for us to stop and have a picnic lunch.  Our dogs love to run in play in the water of the river.  They do not smell great when they get back in the car.  Ugh! Wet dog. Along with the beautiful trees, there are many igneous rocks on the top of the mountain.  I was explaining to my kids that igneous rocks come from the cooling and solidification of magma. They thought that was cool that Colorado once had volcano's. That caused rocks to create jetted formations.   When we stop to look closely at the rocks, we can see the course grain.  You can see a multiple different grains and different colors in the rocks and flecks of crystals.  The rock is much smoother then you think it would be.  It is amazing to think that these rocks were formed millions of years ago.   This drive never disappoints and always give us another amazing Colorado adventure.