New home of the noon whistle

This is the top of the Elks Building which is the new, temporary home of the noon whistle discussed yesterday. Corner of Galena and Hyman.
taken 4/29/2008

Noon whistle

Another view of the no longer extant fire station. This one shows the siren which sounds whenever there's a fire and every day at noon. The siren has been temporarily relocated to the roof of the Elks Building for the duration of the reconstruction, planned to take two years.
taken 4/29/2008

Now you see it, now you don't

This building, our local fire station, isn't there anymore. It was demolished this past week. It'll be two years before we have a fire station in town again.
taken 4/29/2008

Another view

Another view of the Mountain Chalet, at the corner of Durant and Mill Streets.
taken 4/29/2008

Swim, anyone?

The swimming pool at one of our local, longtime lodges, Mountain Chalet.
taken 5/18/2008

Out for an afternoon drive

This Jaguar parked in our grocery store parking lot caught my eye.
taken 5/20/2008

Aspen Criterium again

Another image from Sunday's Aspen Criterium, this time looking at the historic Wheeler Opera House with Aspen Mountain reflected in its second story windows.
taken 5/18/2008

I spy

This is the side of the Crystal Palace Building at the corner of Hyman and Monarch.
What detail in this picture do you think inspired the title of this post?
taken 5/16/2008

Aspen Criterium

The Aspen Criterium from the corner of Mill and Hyman, looking towards Aspen Mountain
taken 5/18/2008

Wagon wheels

The wheels from the disassembled Popcorn Wagon which usually resides at the corner of Mill and Hyman but which is in the midst of being totally rebuilt. Since they have to be reopened for Food & Wine on June 12, the welders are currently in a race against time.

taken 5/16/2008

Main Street Bakery Redux

Explore!

It's nice when your favorite bookstore is in your town.

Aspen Art Museum

Opened in 1979, the Aspen Art Museum is located in the historic brick former hydroelectric plant building just upriver from the confluence of Hunter Creek and the Roaring Fork River.
taken 4/29/2008

The ARC

One of the many fountains in the indooor pool at the Aspen Recreation Center.
taken 5/13/2008

Gate to nowhere?

Lonely gate at 234 W. Hopkins

taken 5/9/2008

Blue awnings

300 block of S. Galena Street.
built 1886

What's today's date?

This is what my world looked like when I woke up this morning.
That's the Hunter Creek Valley to the left and Smuggler Mountain to the right. Smuggler boasts a viewing platform at the top of an old dirt road which offers a bird's-eye view of the City of Aspen.
taken 5/10/2008

The Rectory

The rectory of St. Mary's Catholic Church with the church tower in the background. St. Mary's was founded in 1882 and was known as St. Stephen's then. The current church building was dedicated in 1892. The rectory, located at the corner of E. Main and S. Galena, was constructed in 1888.
taken 4/29/2008

Fill in the blanks

What would you guess is the name of this relatively new establishment in Aspen?
It's located at the corner of S. Galena and E. Hyman.
taken 4/23/2008

Another passing

Blue Maize, established in 1997, has closed for good with no warning. This makes me sad. Located at 308 S. Hunter, Blue Maize had an enormous (big enough for my husband and me to share) chili-rubbed ribeye that I liked to call the best piece of meat in Aspen. Just a couple of weeks ago, I had been saying that I was really jonesing for it. Now, I'm out of luck.
It's going to be replaced by an Argentinian restaurant.
taken 5/7/2008

Chrome Knight

Another sculpture fashioned out of chrome bumpers. This one is located in the Library Plaza, between the Pitkin County Library and the Pitkin County Courthouse and faces south, towards Aspen Mountain.
taken 4/29/2008

High school corridors

The hallway to the science and foreign language wing at the Aspen High School

Caution, wet paint

Spring spruce-up.
Another off season activity here in Aspen is repainting all the pedestrian crosswalks and lane markers on the Aspen streets. Winter in Aspen is pretty tough on the paint and by the end of each winter, all of the markers are basically invisible. I find it very exciting each spring when I drive or walk through town and all the streets are freshly painted.
(It doesn't take much to excite me.)
taken 4/30/2008

Catkins

I learned the other day that the buds on aspen trees are called catkins.
Who knew?
taken 4/30/08

420

This was my second choice for yesterday's theme day.
This now defunct once very popular bar in Aspen used to have an awning which obscured its street number. Only recently did we realize that its address was 420 E. Cooper which we found quite amusing. For those of you who don't know the significance of 420, read this.
taken 4/30/08

Number

Old beat up license plates like this one are status symbols to some here in Aspen.
These license plates are quite an item of pride. In years past, in Colorado, license plates had a two digit alpha prefix which denoted the county of residence. ZG were the letters assigned to Pitkin County where Aspen is located. As more and more people have moved to Aspen and as the State of Colorado abolished the use of the two digit alpha prefix, the ZG license plates (which their owners were allowed to keep using) have become quite a badge of honor. Basically they indicate that the driver of the vehicle is a long-time local and around here, many feel that the longer you've lived here, the cooler you are.
Not everyone buys into it, but there you are.
taken 4/30/08

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Aspen High School

A view along the front of the new Aspen High School (completed February 2003) looking towards Red Mountain.

Hyman Avenue Mall

The north side of the Hyman Avenue Mall.
East Hyman Avenue between S. Mill and S. Galena Streets
taken 4/29/2008

Shards

Another detail from the pottery building
at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village.
taken 4/15/08

Inspiration

A small early spring inspirational garden at the base
of a mailbox post along W. Hopkins Avenue.
taken 4/24/08

New business

On April 14, 2008, I posted a picture of a long-time Aspen business which just closed, so, today, I thought I'd post a photo of a brand new Aspen business. The Aspen Brewery has been very popular, albeit a bit controversial since there's a dispute with the City regarding how many ounces of beer they're allowed to serve in their tasting room.
taken 4/15/08

Wet Bride

Even though this photo was taken last October, I was inspired to post it now after viewing Denton and Connie's April 18, 2008 post on Greenville Daily Photo. This is not actually a photo of a bride, but rather of a model in a wedding gown running through the Nicholas DeWolfe Fountain at the corner of Mill and Hyman.
taken 10/03/07

Main Street Bakery

At the corner of Main and Aspen Streets
The bare bricks are the scar left when a Suburban plowed through the newspaper boxes and ran into the building.
taken 04/23/08

Hiking to Highland Peak.

Work, work, work, that's all I ever do.

This photo was taken from the deck of our ski patrol headquarters. Three fellow patrollers are seen hiking the ridge in the early morning preparing to do avalanche control work.

taken 1/22/08

Prayer Flags

Prayer flags flying on Highland Peak.
This is the summit of the hike to the Highland Bowl, which is some of the most extreme inbounds skiing in North America. The hike takes approximately one half hour, depending on how fit you are.
In order to open the Bowl for skiing, the patrol bootpacks the Bowl every year. Bootpacking entails hiking up and down extremely steep slopes in thigh deep snow, in order to pack the snow down with your ski boots. This is just one aspect of the avalanche control work performed by the ski patrol.
taken 4/20/2008

Snowfall

Looks like a waterfall, doesn't it?
Snow sliding off the roof of the Ski Patrol Headquarters at Aspen Highlands.
taken 4/20/2008

Mid-mountain party weekend

The Merry Go Round Restaurant and pond skimming venue
from Scarlett's on Aspen Highlands
Since we've had so much snow this year, SkiCo decided to reopen Aspen Highlands this weekend and next. They also decided to turn the weekend into quite the spring party. They built a pond right outside the Merry Go Round Restaurant for a pond skimming contest and hired a live band. Mother Nature cooperated (as she has been all season) and gave us a balmy sunny spring weekend. Highlands has been packed yesterday and today with the parking filling up by 10 am and cars illegally parking along Maroon Creek Road. The lifts ran until 5 pm and then there was a party at the base each day.
taken 4/20/08

Anderson Ranch

This is a detail of the pottery and ceramics building at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village. Anderson Ranch has workshops and residencies and also sponsors events in Aspen such as the annual Wintersculpt.
taken 4/15/08

Off-season = construction season

The mountain has been closed for 5 days.
They've been busy, haven't they?
They're going to tear up the upper level of Gondola Plaza and replace it since it also functions as the roof for the offices below and it's leaking.
taken 4/18/08

There's no place like home

The view from my front porch.
Looking south towards Aspen Mountain.
Note the buds on the aspen tree branch at the top of the photo!
Spring's a-comin'
taken 4/17/08

How do I get there from here?

Trail signage located in Rio Grande Park. We have an extensive and well-maintained trail system here in Aspen which is accessible year round.
And, yes, the first sign does point to the John Denver Sanctuary.
taken 4/12/08

Wildfire

Cloudy, hazy sky due to a 1000 (edit) acre wildfire burning downvalley.
Hwy 82, basically our only real vehicular connection to the rest of the world in the winter, was closed for about 7 hours today and for much of that seven hours, the only alternate route was blocked too, due to fire danger. We had 30 mile per hour winds as a cold front blew in and, while there is no official word yet as to the cause, the rumor is that it was a controlled ditch burn that got out of hand around noon today. Two homes were damaged and a fisherman was treated at the local hospital for injuries. Many of the local residents are still under an evacuation order which is not expected to be lifted until noon tomorrow.
taken 4/15/08

closed tonight

The sign says closed tonight but it's really closed forever.
The Crystal Palace, an Aspen institution for the past 51 years, closed for good on Saturday night. The owner of the dinner theatre, Mead Metcalf, has unapologetically sold the building and packed off to Crested Butte.
taken 4/14/08

Aspen Mountain closing day

There's an awful lot of snow for it to be closing day.
This view is at the base of the Gondola right next to Ajax Tavern and the Little Nell.
taken 4/13/08

Early morning snow storm

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