Happy Fourth of July from Dillon, CO -- Part two

Happy Fourth of July from Dillon, CO -- Part two

Friday afternoon,  July 4, 2014   (second post of this travelogue)

One day we took a guided tour of the reservoir on a pontoon boat.  The guide was a volunteer of the Summit Historical Society (left in photo).  The boat “captain” is left of Pat in the photo.  The tour focused on the history of  the dam.  The captain took us around an island that had nesting Bald Eagles.  An amazing tour.

 

We spent the better part of a day in Keystone.  It is a really neat little town that looks a bit like a European mountain village.  The best activity was riding the ski lift up to the top of the main ski area.

The first photo is going up and the second is going down.  It was a beautiful day for the trip.

This is the view of Dillon Reservoir (link to website) from the top of the ski area.  The elevation at the top was 11,640 feet.  The Dillon Dam crest is 9035 feet.  The maximum designed level of the water is 9025 (opening of what is called the “Glory Hole” that controls the maximum leve)l.  When we first got here the lake was a few feet below the Glory Hole.  The water is now fairly close to the rim.  A few additional Dillon Reservoir facts:  The surface area is a bit over 3200 acres (when full) and the height of the dam is 231 feet.  It is owned by the Denver Water Board and was built in the ‘60s.  The water is diverted from this western slope location to the east slope via the Roberts tunnel which is over 23 miles long and 10 feet in diameter.  Both the dam and the tunnel recently celebrated their 50 year anniversary. 

While at the top of the Keystone ski area, Damon and Molly made a tube run on this hill.  The picture is deceiving.  Right after I took this picture, they disappeared over the hill and dropped a few hundred feet!  Nothing like snow tubing in July!!  Damon also went snow skiing at Arapahoe Basin on the last day it was open (6/22 – second day of summer)!!

That is all for now.