Cottonwood Pass, the Second Highest Paved Mountain Pass in America

This is the view we had from our hotel window in Buena Vista, Colorado of a few of the Collegiate Peaks in the Sawatch Mountain Range in Central Colorado last October. We were excited to hear that the nearby Cottonwood Pass had reopened in September after being closed for three years of extensive road work.  At 12,126 feet elevation, it became the second-highest paved mountain pass in the United States after Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park which is at 12,183 feet elevation.  We decided to take a scenic drive over the pass all the way from Buena Vista to Crested Butte.

My husband has driven us over many Colorado mountain passes after we moved to Colorado seven years ago.  I usually sit next to him as he drives as I like to take photos.  I might be leaving some mountain passes out, but here's a list of those we driven over so far with highlighted links to a blog post about them:  Hoosier Pass, Loveland Pass, Guanella Pass, Independence Pass,  McClure Pass, Berthoud Pass,  Rabbit Ears Pass, Kebler Pass, Monarch Pass, Kenosha Pass, Raton Pass between New Mexico and Colorado,  Red Mountain Pass on The Million Dollar Highway, Pagosa Pass, La Veta Pass, and Vail Pass.  All are beautiful!  Cottonwood Pass is at a high elevation so it is closed for winter, usually, from November to May when there can be twenty-five feet or more of snow in the mountains!

It took three years, around $34 million, and some 90 pieces of road-building equipment to re-engineer the 31 mile Cottonwood Pass and make it a safe and beautifully scenic road--CR 306 on the Chaffee County side, CR 209 in Gunnison County.  Improvements included two 11-foot paved travel lanes with shoulders, guardrails, protection from rockfall, and additional parking areas at the summit and Denny Creek.

As we drove, we were surrounded by dense forests and mountain views...

...on an asphalt surface of the road that was smooth as glass.

From the eastern side of Cottonwood Pass, it did not take too long to reach the summit.

There is parking at the summit, trails, and a sign showing that we were traveling over the continental divide where water would feed on the eastern side to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the western side to the Pacific Ocean.

The summit vistas were magnificent!

We hiked for a while at the summit to enjoy the "top of the world" views and then continued our drive.

We continued driving on the western portion of Cottonwood Pass...

...and stopped again at Taylor Park Reservoir, at 9,500 feet elevation, to enjoy the view of the Sawatch Mountains in the distance.

We also stopped at the Taylor Park Dam to take photos.

Although autumn of 2019 was delayed by unusually warm weather, the colors here were brighter than in other areas.

The Taylor River was particularly pretty.

There were many ranches in this area around Almont,  Colorado, which was very evident by all the cattle we saw freely strolling around near the road...

...and even on the road!

They did not have a care in the world!

We finally reached Crested Butte.  I've blogged about this colorful ski town in the past--click here and here.  On this visit, it began to rain! We had lunch in town and continued on to travel back to Buena Vista but this time on Monarch Pass--my next post!

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