hello from the highest incorporated town in the usa
we are currently at 10,200 feet in the town of leadville colorado the highest
town in the usa so we are spending one day here in leadville doing all the things we're going
to check out the downtown area go on some scenic drives taking a train ride checking
out a legendary saloon heading to a national fish hatchery and just kind of doing all the fun things
you can do here in one day and leadville colorado so if you've never been to leadville and you're
looking for a fun day trip here follow along and let's go explore the highest city in the usa
if you are familiar with how i do my day trip vlogs here to these towns you know what
it starts with coffee so we are on main street and we are gonna stop in here at city on a hill
coffee i love trying out local coffee shops and support local family-owned businesses so i got
some banana almond bread but i put some butter on it a maple latte and then vince got a mocha and
a blueberry muffin this is legit one of the best maple lattes i've ever had like ever it's really
good it's the best one ever really like you've ever had yeah oh my gosh city on a hill coffee
hands down amazing vin said that was the best blueberry muffin he ever had
so it is fall time here in colorado it is october 8th as we're visiting and look at all these
aspens just lit up with beautiful golden colors the leaves have dropped quite a bit in this area
already because we are so high elevation obviously a higher elevation is going to you know turn
faster than the lower elevations but there's still some nice pops of color left so the first
stop we're making here just outside of leadville is called twin lakes like 20 minutes right outside
of level and this is where you start the drive to independence pass which is the tallest pass
in colorado it goes up 12,000 feet and this pass connects twin lakes leadville area to
aspen so we're not going all the way to aspen but um one day we'll get there so we're doing
the scenic drive here right behind us is the start twin lakes so we're gonna take this
road all the way up to the top of independence pass and another really cool thing about this
area is leadville area is home to the two tallest mountains in colorado mount elbert is the tallest
fortiner in colorado and mount massive is number two so there's a lot going on here
in leadville we got the highest town the highest mountains the highest passes so it's pretty cool
so fun fact independence pass is also part of the top of the rocky scenic byway and here's a
good illustration of that look at our jeep we are top of the rockies almost this is amazing
drive you guys highly recommend these views switchbacks going in and out of the mountains
we made it to independence pass dang
we are at the scenic overlook here on independence pass 1295 so this pass
does close down it's usually only open through may to october could be november it's definitely
weather dependent how much snow they get here in the mountains um thankfully it's not closed
yet we're here at the beginning october still wide open not much snow at all so that's good
we are at our next stop so right here in leadville they have a free fish hatchery you
can just drive up to and see the hatchery of all the fish and there's a lot of fish
wow and there's nobody here so this is really cool we literally have this whole
area to ourselves look at them all oh my goodness that is a lot of fish here
all right so this section right here is cutthroat trout and then over there that section is rainbow
trout and interesting fact this is the lakes they stock all these fish with here in colorado
it's pretty interesting it is a lot of fish you guys holy cow that's awesome the rainbow trout
they're definitely like slightly different colored more blue tone wow it's amazing this
fish hatchery started in 1889 and it produces over a quarter of a million trout a year
right behind me is turquoise lake here in leadville right by the fish hatchery there's
like a turn to go to this lake so we're like let's go check it out and you guys
it's like glass and beautiful reflection oh it's a beautiful day here we are back in downtown
bloodville and we have about 45 minutes to kill um until our next stop so we're just gonna walk
around downtown here and what we're noticing is all the murals they have here this is amazing
so we're just gonna walk around downtown and wait till we can get into our next stop
right behind me is we're heading next the legendary silver dollar saloon stepping
inside the silver dollar saloon is like stepping into the past this saloon has been
standing tall in leadville since 1879. many of the features throughout are all original pieces
silver was found in the town at its peak of mining it was the second most populated town in colorado
next to denver dark holiday his name is mentioned quite a bit as he was a frequent visitor here as
well as the unsinkable molly brown which you may know from the titanic as with any old buildings
the legendary silver dollar saloon is no stranger to spooky paranormal activity
fast forward 142 years and today the silver dollar saloon serves cocktails beers and food
guys this is officially the coolest bar we've ever visited
this is awesome you need to come here if you're in liberal like it's a must i got
a moscato wine vince got a bloody mary this is the coolest bar you guys like oh my gosh
look at that cashier wow it is time for the leadville train so i just want to give you a quick
overview of this train before we board the train here in leadville is two and a half hour ride
and they have two different options for seating there's coach seating which is about
$42 dollars per person and then they have a lounge seat where you can buy a table and sit
in an enclosed area and it's october it's cold and it's windy i think it's like 50 degrees
so we opted for the lounge and we got a private table just because i didn't want to like freeze
my butt off you know while we're driving a train for two and a half hours really wasn't that much
more i think for the table for the two of us it was $120 so it was roughly about $40 dollars more
than if we just purchased the coach seating so definitely something to think about depending
on the season you're going the only other train we have down here in colorado so far is the one
in georgetown so we're excited to check out this train it's gonna be a good ride i can just tell so
let's go hop aboard the let go train all right here's our tickets we are in booth number six
all right here's our booth
nice big window here this is gonna be great lounge cars have a menu for
you can get some different snacks and then on the back they do have non-alcoholic beverages
and a bar menu i got a hot chocolate and vince got a coors beer
that's a treat yeah
we're halfway through the train ride and they stop and they let us get out here at this old
water tank you can get out walk around you can go up to the engine the caboose pretty cool
back on the train it got windy and it just started lightly snowing you can't see it but
it's happening and it is two and a half hours and we are officially done with the train ride how
fun it was great yeah it was really fun so i just want to do a quick recap of the train ride we are
super happy we did upgrade to the lounge car because it is 50 degrees i mentioned earlier
it started to snow slightly and got windy and even though they have uncovered and the covered cards
in the regular coach class it's not like enclosed completely and i do feel like i personally would
have gotten cold on those so again um depending on the time of year you go um just be mindful of that
and what could potentially be with the weather we felt it very much worth it however one thing about
the launch car that obviously we didn't know so if you're going on the car you want to sit on the
left side of the car because that is going to be the where you get the views all the booths in the
lounge car that are for two people those are on the right side so in order for us to get good
views we had to leave the car to go on one of the open cars so we could get some footage of the you
know outside without you know all the other people in the glass on the other side of the lounge car
that is a bummer however two people tabletops where we were sitting do sit up and above so
you can see out really well but if you're looking to get like video footage or photos or something
you just you have to be mindful of that there are going to be people across from you because
there really isn't any views on the right side of the car so even though we didn't
have the views on where the side that we were sitting we were still really happy that we'd
got the lounge car because it was a lot less crowded we did go walk through those regular
coach cars and they were pretty crowded and you don't have the service and whatnot so i mean
for us even though we didn't get the views we were able to exit when we wanted to but
then we were also able to come back when we were finished so overall amazing train ride definitely
a must do in level super happy we did this and yeah definitely do it it's totally worth it
we are back in downtown leadville and it is time for dinner and we're so excited
for tonight's dinner we are going to an old fashioned steakhouse called quincys
friday nights and saturday i think saturdays we're here on a friday um they have prime rib so
they open at four o'clock we're gonna be like some of the first ones there
we are here oh we got the simplest menu you can have like i love it it's like perfect pre-dinner
salad it's a lot of food you can eat all that it's big in your head it's bigger than your
head it looks so good we both got an eight-ounce prime rib medium-rare oh my god this is amazing
oh i don't know the last time you've been to a steakhouse
i really got the big eyes it's like when i cook something good for her
how are you doing
we were gonna go out for dessert but then we saw on the menu they had a triple chocolate mousse
cake and yeah how do you like turn that down so um we're gonna share this beauty it looks so good
oh my god you see anything on the menu that's triple chocolate mousse it's just an obvious
you gotta get that wow that's all we can say about quincy's legit the best steakhouse we
have ever had and the best prime rib i have ever had it melted in our mouth it was so good
and the cool thing about places like that that don't have many things on the menu
it's like you know they're gonna just kill it and like just make the bus because it's just that's
all they specialize in so it was awesome and that is a wrap here in beautiful leadville colorado
what a cool town like the history and the historic features that this town has it's such a neat place
to experience so we already know we're going to be back in this area because we loved leadville so i
hope this vlog was inspiring and kind of give you some ideas and tips on what to do in a day here in
leadville it is about five o'clock so we got into town about eight and it is about five o'clock now
so it was definitely a full day such a fun day and it is snowing it's crazy mountain weather here you
guys but that's what it's like when you're up 10,000 feet if you guys are interested in any
other day vlogs i have a lot of other things on my channel so definitely be sure to check it out
last week we did a day trip to breckenridge i have boulder idaho springs georgetown
like there's a whole bunch going on in my channel so i share lots of colorado life living outdoor
adventures hiking all the things so be sure to subscribe and follow along so if you have any
questions comment below and we'll see you guys in the next vlog thanks so much for watching