Welcome to Elevation 9,640!

This is a personal blog about growing up in the Colorado Rockies.

Stories here span from 1975 when I moved to Denver, Colorado until 1983 when I moved to Lake Worth, Florida. Most of the stories are about “living in the boonies” or “roughing it” which didn’t happen until my family moved west (and up) from Denver to Central City.

This is an eight year block of my life from about 8 years old to 16 years old – what I would call “growing up”. Writing this years and years later, it has taken some time to figure out how to put the stories into the proper online format. Clearly, the normal sequential blog format is out… even if I could figure out the exact dates and time lines to back-date the stories to. In reality I don’t remember things sequentially so I can’t start at the beginning and go to the end.

I decided to write the stories as they come to me or as I see fit and categorize them by years as much as I can. This will allow interested readers to read the stories chronologically (as much as possible). At the same time I will add other categories that will allow me to put a story in several groups so if readers want to read stories about specific people in my life or different aspects such as school, they can do that as well.

Elevation 9,640 has been an ongoing project that has now spanned years sometimes between updates. It is personal project that brings me peace and joy. I enjoy writing about the many adventures we had growing up in the middle of the Colorado Rockies.

I hope you enjoy too.

~Brian Gibbins

Because that was the elevation of the highest point on our mountain property. Our silver mining claim (aptly named “The Colorado”) went up one side of the mountain and down the other; split equally in half with one side in Gilpin County and the other in Clear Creek County.  A stone marker was placed in the middle of our property long ago by surveyors who etched the elevation and county names into the stone.

• Bald Mountain RoadJuly 10, 2021
  There were four roads that we used to get to our log home in the Rockies. We had our own names for these roads as they didn’t have anything but …

  Continue reading “Bald Mountain Road”

• The Aspen TrailApril 25, 2021
  “The Aspen Trail” – Known to every local merchant and a lifeblood of the fall sales. Tourists from all over came to our little city to see the historic town and drive through the mountains to view the majestic fall colors of our Aspen trees.
• A 1970’s Friday night ritualApril 5, 2021
  Pizza night was dad’s night to cook; with the help of Chef Boyardee and me. While the pizza was cooking, my sister and I would set up the TV trays. You know the ones, with the fake wood and gold trim? Someone you know had them back then.

The stories here are copyright Brian Gibbins. Please obtain permission before reprinting or publishing to another platform. Linking and contextual citing is always permitted with a link back to the original story on Elevation9640.

Most of the images found here are from my own personal collections, others are believed to be in the public domain. If you are the owner of an image here please contact me for credit or removal.

The Weekly Register Call ~ Colorado’s Oldest Newspaper has been given permission to reprint my stories. Check them out at https://www.weeklyregistercall.com/

My wife keeps a wonderful list of recipes on her site here.

I also host another site where I have photos and commentary on home projects here.