Peak to Peak Highway Front Range Ceramic Art Tile
— a road for the week the aspens turn.
Not only on a wall.
“Fifty-five miles between Estes Park and Black Hawk, threaded through the Front Range along CO-7, CO-72, and CO-119. Colorado's first scenic byway, designated in 1918 so visitors could reach Rocky Mountain National Park the long way: past Allenspark, through Ward, down into Nederland. The view that holds is east of the Divide. Longs Peak and Mount Meeker rise over a foreground of pine, then aspen, then pine again. In late September the aspens turn for about a week, and the cars slow down. The rest of the year it's a quiet road at nine thousand feet.
Peak to Peak Highway Front Range Ceramic Art Tile, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Colorado State Highways 7, 72, and 119 stitched together over 55 miles between Estes Park in Larimer County and Black Hawk in Gilpin County, climbing through Boulder County in between. The route was laid out in 1918 as the state's first scenic highway, designed to feed visitors into Rocky Mountain National Park from the south. It passes Allenspark, the old mining town of Ward, and Nederland on the way down. Longs Peak and Mount Meeker stand to the west; the road itself rides between 7,500 and 9,200 feet for most of its length, never quite leaving the Front Range timber.
The defining week is late September. Quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides) along the byway turn gold roughly between September 20 and October 5, with the exact window shifting by elevation and the year's snowpack. The southbound stretch between Allenspark and Ward is the most photographed: aspen stands run right up to the shoulder, and Longs Peak holds the horizon. Outside that window the road quiets. Summer brings wildflowers in the meadows near Brainard Lake; winter closes some side roads but the byway itself stays open and plowed; spring is the muddiest and the least travelled.
Drivable in either direction in about two hours without stops. Most travellers begin in Estes Park, follow CO-7 south to Allenspark, take CO-72 to Nederland (passing the turnoff for Brainard Lake Recreation Area, where the Indian Peaks rise over 13,000 feet across the water), then CO-119 down to Black Hawk. There is no fee for the byway itself. Brainard Lake's developed area carries an entrance fee in summer and timed-entry reservations on peak autumn weekends. Cell service is patchy from Allenspark south to Ward. Fuel is reliably available in Estes Park, Nederland, and Black Hawk; nowhere in between.