El Rancho en las Nubes
El Rancho has been a landmark on US 40 since 1947. When I-70 was built, the highway department named the exit after the place. The town of Evergreen has since swallowed the land around what was once, a somewhat remote mountain getaway.
It has one of the best views of the Continental Divide in America, according to some. Over the years, a succession of families ran the restaurant. Now, it's the Vincent family who are keeping the tradition alive. Ken and Larry met a couple of the family members when we shot this scene. They even volunteered to move their vehicles from the front of the building to make our job easier. The Vincent family added brewing equipment to the place, which we hid with the tractor trailer rig. [The brewing silo wasn't period]
As luck would have it, by the time you read this, El Rancho will have reopened with a new menu and a remodel. If you hurry, you might be able to reserve a table, outside in the Beer Garden or inside in the newly refurbished dinning room.
Why "El Rancho in the Clouds"? On that day, the one24thscale team was working inside a cloud bank that hung along the front range.
We were not in fog as our Michigan car friends would know it. We had both driven up Mt Vernon Canyon into the bottom of a cloud that was clinging to that first ridge. The world closed in as the walls of the canyon disappeared. All the landmarks on a stretch of highway everyone in Colorado knows by heart, were gone. The famous, "Sleeper" House, somewhere in the cloud on the left. Chief Hosa Campground, just a sign that loomed out of the mist and was gone. The exits for both, Buffalo Bill's Grave and the Genesee Bison Herd were spectral images that dissolved in and out of view as traffic went by. The fabulous, award winning view of the Continental Divide seen under the Genesee Bridge? The bridge was invisible, though the view beyond was still there, in my mind's eye.
This is a forced perspective photograph of 1/24 scale die-cast model cars and truck in front of a real background.
1960 Mack B-61 tractor is by Eastwood Automobilia
1956 Packard Caribbean hardtop is by Danbury Mint
1958 Edsel Bermuda 6 Passenger Station Wagon is by Danbury Mint
1960 Chevrolet Impala is by Franklin Mint
1955 Chrysler C300 is by Motormax
El Rancho en las Nubes
El Rancho has been a landmark on US 40 since 1947. When I-70 was built, the highway department named the exit after the place. The town of Evergreen has since swallowed the land around what was once, a somewhat remote mountain getaway.
It has one of the best views of the Continental Divide in America, according to some. Over the years, a succession of families ran the restaurant. Now, it's the Vincent family who are keeping the tradition alive. Ken and Larry met a couple of the family members when we shot this scene. They even volunteered to move their vehicles from the front of the building to make our job easier. The Vincent family added brewing equipment to the place, which we hid with the tractor trailer rig. [The brewing silo wasn't period]
As luck would have it, by the time you read this, El Rancho will have reopened with a new menu and a remodel. If you hurry, you might be able to reserve a table, outside in the Beer Garden or inside in the newly refurbished dinning room.
Why "El Rancho in the Clouds"? On that day, the one24thscale team was working inside a cloud bank that hung along the front range.
We were not in fog as our Michigan car friends would know it. We had both driven up Mt Vernon Canyon into the bottom of a cloud that was clinging to that first ridge. The world closed in as the walls of the canyon disappeared. All the landmarks on a stretch of highway everyone in Colorado knows by heart, were gone. The famous, "Sleeper" House, somewhere in the cloud on the left. Chief Hosa Campground, just a sign that loomed out of the mist and was gone. The exits for both, Buffalo Bill's Grave and the Genesee Bison Herd were spectral images that dissolved in and out of view as traffic went by. The fabulous, award winning view of the Continental Divide seen under the Genesee Bridge? The bridge was invisible, though the view beyond was still there, in my mind's eye.
This is a forced perspective photograph of 1/24 scale die-cast model cars and truck in front of a real background.
1960 Mack B-61 tractor is by Eastwood Automobilia
1956 Packard Caribbean hardtop is by Danbury Mint
1958 Edsel Bermuda 6 Passenger Station Wagon is by Danbury Mint
1960 Chevrolet Impala is by Franklin Mint
1955 Chrysler C300 is by Motormax