Phantom Canyon Road

It’s 29.6 miles from Florence to Victor on Phantom Canyon Road. It took me four-and-a-half hours to make the trip. It wasn’t a road I wanted to speed on, but that’s not the reason it took me so long. I stopped and got out at least 25 times, and just stopped to admire the view another 30 or so times. During those 29.6 miles, I might have seen 15 cars. Traffic was so light that there were several times I just parked my car in the middle of the road and wandered around the area. This was never a problem.

The road follows the bed of an old railroad that was used to transport gold out of the mountains to the north. It goes through two tunnels and over several bridges, the longest of which is an iron trestle from the original railroad. The road starts in the short-grass flats along the Arkansas River Valley, passes through several plant zones and ends in the town of Victor, right at the timberline. I kept thinking it couldn’t go much higher or get much prettier, but it kept doing both.

There were birds around, more so at the bottom of the canyon. I can’t recall seeing any animals other than cows. The weather could not have been better. I took 153 photos. Those posted here appear in the order I took them.

Enjoy the ride.

I enjoyed every bit of those 29.6 miles. I want to go back.

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