Colorado Counties
        

Tenderfoot Lodge

Tips for Tenderfeet
    hot tips
    winter tips
    summer tips


 
 

    Summit County, Colorado

 

Summit County sits at the top of the Rockies about seventy miles west of Denver.  Stepping beyond its early history in mining, Summit has rapidly developed as a vacationland of international repute.  Today it attracts more skiers than any other region in Colorado.  Summer in Summit provides safe haven from the heat down below.

 
 

Rocky Mountains

Summit County is part of the High Country of Colorado's Central Rockies.  Its eastern and southern boundaries lie on the Continental Divide at altitudes from 11,000 to 14,000 ft.  More mountain pictures.

the spine of North America

 
  Peak 1 of Tenmile Range

Geopolitics

Summit County originally included the entire northwestern quarter of Colorado.  But after the politicians got a hold of the map, it was reduced to one of the smallest counties in the state!  The current year-round population is no bigger than it was a hundred years ago during the gold and silver rushes.  Until the construction of Interstate 70, Summit County remained an isolated region separated from major population centers by 11,000 ft mountain passes.  Today, the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 funnels visitors, winter and summer, under the highest part of the Continental Divide. 		 
 

Hydrology by the Compass

Lake Dillon, at 9,000 ft, is the largest body of water at this altitude in North America.  It supplies much of the water to metropolitan Denver.

As Summit Co. is on the western slope, this water must be piped south under the Continental Divide to the North Fork of the South Platte.  The pipe is 10 ft in diameter, 23 mi long, and passes right under Keystone!  The South Platte then carries it east through the Front Range to Denver.  The rest of Summit Co.'s snowmelt flows north down the Blue River and into the westward-flowing Colorado.

Lake Dillon twd the Tenmile Range
Lake Dillon toward Tenmile Range 		 
 
©2000-3
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
           
Tenderfoot Lodge    Tips for Tenderfeet   Winter Tips    Summer Tips    Units for Rent    Units for Sale    Owner's Closet