Our short day trip to Buena Vista, Colorado about a 100-miles, 2-hour drive West of our home in Colorado Springs. We first stopped at the scenic overlook off of Colorado Rte. 24/285 just outside Johnson Village and overlooking the town of Buena Vista with the Colorado Collegiate Peaks (Mt. Princeton, Mt. Yale, Mt. Columbia, Mt. Harvard, Mt. Oxford, etc., all are over 14,000 ft. altitude) looming over Buena Vista to the West.

We then drove through the old Midland Railroad Tunnels just East of Buena Vista, which are a series of tunnels blasted out of the soild rock. They were used by the Colorado Midland railway from the 1880s until its closure in the early part of the twentieth century. The tunnels ran between Colorado Springs, Leadville, and Aspen, carrying shipments of silver, iron ore, and supplies to Colorado pioneers.

Next we arrived in Buena Vista to visit the new, but quaint, South Main Street area with its Boulder Garden, shops, restaurants, homes and vacation rentals. Then a light parting dinner at the Eddyline Restaurant at South Main and then onto the 2-hr. drive home.

Check out our route map and the 3D map of the Collegiate Peak names.

Cathy & Joe R.