Some of the best things Colorado has to offer are visible from a car window.The state’s high elevation and dramatic topography mean that the roads connecting its mountain communities are frequently as beautiful as the destinations themselves. Near Florissant, this is especially true. The roads here wind through terrain that changes character every few miles — pine forest giving way to open grassland giving way to granite canyon giving way to an old mining town that looks like it arrived from a century ago.
Here are the drives worth taking.
The Gold Belt Tour Scenic Byway
The Gold Belt Tour is one of Colorado’s designated scenic byways and it begins near Florissant. The full loop covers approximately 135 miles through Cripple Creek, Canon City, and back — passing through some of the state’s most dramatic and historically significant landscape.
The Shelf Road section south of Cripple Creek is not for the faint of heart — a narrow gravel road cut into a cliff face above Four mile Creek that rewards the brave with views that are legitimately extraordinary. 4WD or AWD is recommended.
The Phantom Canyon Road between Victor and Canon City follows an old narrow-gauge railroad grade through a granite canyon. It is one of Colorado’s most dramatic road experiences and almost nobody knows about it.
South Park
Driving west from Florissant on Highway 24 you drop into South Park — a vast high-altitude valley at approximately 9,000 feet that stretches across an area roughly the size of Delaware. The scale is disorienting in the best possible way. South Park’s openness contrasts dramatically with the forested landscape of Teller County. The sky feels enormous. The mountains ring the valley on all sides. Ranches and small communities appear at intervals. It is the kind of landscape that produces a specific quietness in the people who experience it.
The Highway 24 Corridor
Highway 24 between Woodland Park and Florissant is itself a scenic drive worth taking slowly. The road follows Fountain Creek through a series of landscape transitions — from the ponderosa pine and granite of Teller County through increasingly open terrain toward the broad valleys west of Divide. Pull off at the overlooks. There are no crowds here.
Cripple Creek and Victor
The road from Florissant to Cripple Creek takes approximately 26 minutes and arrives in oneof Colorado’s most atmospheric historic mining towns. Victor, five minutes beyond Cripple Creek, is even less visited and arguably more genuinely historic.
Drive through both slowly. The Victorian architecture, the old mine headframes still standing on the hillsides, and the sense of a place that has been many different things over the past century and a half make for a genuinely memorable hour.
Where to Stay
The Den House and Perch Point Studio in Florissant put you at the center of all of these drives. Wake up, choose a direction, and go.
Book direct at thealpineeffect.com.
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