Woods Landing

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Woods Landing, Wyoming
	The restaurant/bar and original cabins at Woods Landing

Well, you're here, so it looks like in your mind you must have decided to keep on going. Or perhaps you overnighted in Centennial and have decided to drop south through Woods Landing and on to Walden, CO. If so, good. You're in for some great riding.

The lodge at Woods Landing is pretty neat. The big room on the right side of the building was built back in the early 20's last century as a dance hall. It's still used that way sometimes, and the bar is in there. The floor is hardwood planks laid in a pattern, and it is supported on - boxcar springs underneath. That was to soak up the stomping vibrations of all the dancers. I'm told it was fairly common at the time, but the place is now on the National Register of Historic Places because I guess none of the other places are left.

The left side of the building is a small restaurant, taking up about a fourth of the total floor space in the place. When I was there in 1991 it was pretty good, nothing special, but not expensive.

Here's some routing information to get to Woods Landing from Centennial. If you don't use this, you'll have to go all the way to Laramie to get on Wyoming 230 back to Woods Landing, a bit out of your way.

Soon after you leave Centennial you'll be able to look to your right (south) and see a couple lakes, at least one. That's Lake Hattie Reservoir and Twin Buttes Lake. Somewhere along there after ten or twelve miles you'll find a road that turns off toward them; it's marked, as I recall, and it's gravel for four or five miles, but well-maintained.

Take it. Follow it south between the lakes, then turn left, crossing the south side of Twin Buttes Lake. It'll turn into pavement again, and there may be a couple more turns. I don't recall them exactly, but just keep heading east or south whenever you can and you finally come out on Wyoming 230. Make a right and you are headed to Woods Landing, and eventually to Walden, then Steamboat Springs or Granby, CO.

If you look at the photo in the Wood's Landing website you'll see what looks like a gas station in the background. It is, with one pump and irregular hours. Fortunately, the staff at the restaurant can open it up if you need gas after about 6pm. At least they did for me, anyway.

The old cabins you see here are right on the banks of the Laramie River, no great stream, but providing good fishing and a comforting chuckle of water through the night. It's a great spot to sit on a rock with a drink and a cigar in hand and look at the sky as the stars come out.

Woods Landing is at a fork in the road southbound. Wyoming 230 continues on southwest, becoming Colorado 127 when it crosses the state line in twelve miles.

Highway 230 is good pavement. It runs through the forest, but it's well cut back and you get nice views here and there. As you leave Woods Landing you begin to climb again, and you cross the Snow Range once more, from east to west. It is not so high here, the max altitude being about 9,200 feet.

If you are headed southeast, toward Denver, you may be tempted to take Highway 10 at Woods Landing. I'm told, though, that it quickly turns to compacted gravel with a calcium chloride binder. While that's good in dry weather, it's slicker than grease on glass when it gets wet. I'd check the weather pretty careful before I took it if I were you.

Coming down out of the mountains you'll find yourself at the north end of one of the huge "parks" that are so beautiful in the Rockies. They're not "parks" in the sense of an area set aside for recreation, but that's the name given to the high, wide, long valleys surrounded by hills and mountains there. Most of them are so high that they give you the sense, even in August, that fall is not far off.

About 25 miles after leaving Woods Landing you'll reach the junction with CO 125, where you'll turn south toward Walden. In another 15 miles or so you'll be there.

Once in Walden you choose between your highways, southeast on CO 125, or southwest on CO 14. Both eventually hook up to US 40, with the road southeast to Granby being longer because of a huge jog to the south that US 40 takes in that area. If you're headed out to Denver, though, that's the way to go. If it's Salt Lake City you want, take CO 14 to Steamboat.