Monarch Crest Gift Shop, Colorado

Highway 50, a major highway that runs across the southern half of the state, goes over Monarch Pass, one of only two sites directly on the Continental Divide with retail opportunities. The Monarch Crest gift shop and visitor center has operated here since 1954, though the old log cabin style building burned down in 1988, and was replaced with a larger and more hardy 8,000-square foot structure. The building was made in a modular fashion, using a cluster of ten concrete squares, topped by concrete domes, then covered by eight feet of earth. Inside is a snack bar and gift shop, often staffed by the owner. The building is on land leased to the concession by the National Forest. There is also a nook for Continental Divide Trail hikers, who can pick up packages mailed to them here, repack with supplies, and charge cell phones. A relief map shows them where they stand in the state on their long journey one way or the other. The bathrooms for the gift shop and snack bar are on the eastern side of the Divide, and the sewage treatment and septic is on the Pacific side.