Everything's coming up Cottonwood

 

Looking south from Cottonwood Pass

(From mid-September 2020) 

We couldn’t get out of Buena Vista fast enough. I won’t ever pronounce that name as Coloradans do, especially not after driving through on Saturday and finding a full-blown Trump rally along the main highway on the east side of the Sawatch Range. It was garish with spinning flags waving signs and almost unhinged. 

With one left turn, motored on and vowed not to come back that way under any circumstance. A flat country road on the washboard plain before the prominent Sawatch Range would suffice on the way back. 

We escaped Buena Vista for the rural plain leading up to the Sawatch Range, heading for the top of Cottonwood Pass. The Sawatch Range contains several of Colorado’s highest peaks and has relatively few paved crossings, with Monarch Pass the only year-round option. 

Trees at the pass

At 12,119 feet above sea level, Cottonwood Pass is the highest paved mountain pass in Colorado, having only been paved in both directions since 2019. Only a few feet separate Cottonwood and Independence Pass, another seasonal pass that connects Twin Lakes to Aspen. 

The road followed Cottonwood Creek up from Buena Vista, past clusters of hot springs resorts and other vacation spots. 

Fall in Colorado brings leaf tourists looking for the blaze of aspens turning. We were a little early, which meant lighter crowds but not much color. The color changes was slight, mostly cottonwoods along the creek’s floodplain. The aspens, the star of Colorado fall color, had turned a muted green and would hit their yellow peak in the next week or 10 days. 

The road remained remarkably straight until we reached a series of switchbacks that brought us closer to the pass with each turn. We passed a cyclist grinding his way to the top. The car struggled to hold speed as the road wound in even tighter switchbacks.

The lot atop the pass was full forcing people to park on the road. Why people post up with camping chairs and just sit by their cars, I don’t know. Yes, the views are great but it’s a parking lot with cars buzzing by constantly. 

On an overcast day with patchy clouds, Cottonwood Pass had undeniable majesty, with clear views for dozens for miles of both directions. The drifting smoke from wildfires raging to the north and west did obscure some more distant features. 

View to the west from Cottonwood Pass

The views get even better for those who step onto the short trail to the overlook a few hundred feet above the pass. The clouds moved rapidly, putting us in and out of sunlight. We hiked a little way up the pass hike for better vantage points, and every step gave fresh glimpses of the vistas on either side of the Continental Divide. 

As we waited for our turn at the sign marking the top of the pass, the cyclist arrived and asked us to photograph him. From Buena Vista, the ride had taken him about two hours. I could only imagine the the wind and the shape he had to be in to complete the route. 

From the pass the road drops fast an uneventfully back to the creek valley. Numerous trailheads and wildlife viewing spots arise close to the road. The popular trailheads were not hard to pinpoint with cars spilling out of the lots and lining the road. 

Cottonwood Lake

Before turning out onto a backroad to Nathrop and Salida, there was one more side trip. Three miles up a dusty unpaved road we came upon Cottonwood Lake, a glacially cut lake deep in the Collegiate Peaks. 

Cottonwood Lake had enough shoreline that it was not hard to claim a spot for ourselves. I took off my shoes and socks to wade in the chilly waters. I lasted about five minutes until my toes numbed, all the while the glacial pebbles giving the soles an a rough but pleasant massage.
 

Ice cold water