Gateway Auto Museum

I recently had a chance to visit a spectacular auto museum located in Gateway Colorado. Gateway is out in the red slick rock country of western Colorado. It's a beautiful place to visit. Some of the surrounding red mesas have fossilized dinosaur tracks on top of them!

Gateway Auto Museum features the Hendricks Collection. John Hendricks, founder of The Discovery Channel, apparently has a thing for cars. Very very nice cars. The displays and cars are top notch. The display lighting is amazing. The floor, walls and ceiling are dark in color, and the vehicles are bathed by spot lights in all the right places. The resulting "pop" of the cars is dramatic, and makes for intense photos.


It had a Hemi, I checked. 1957 DeSoto Firesweep.


1947 Chrysler T&C convertible Woodie.

Packard 120 woodie wagon. Flawless.

The Crown Jewel: 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 concept car.

The story behind this car is fascinating. 
The F-88 has it's own separate display area. Very well done.


1961 Chrysler 300-G convertible. Mega-rare by itself, but wait....

It's a four-speed!


1970 Hemi 'Cuda.

Have you ever seen these wheels on a 70 Cuda? I was curious about this.

This might explain it. Super low VIN #.

Apparently the 2nd Hemi Cuda built. Early press preview cars sometimes have strange equipment.




1930 Deusenberg Model J Transformable Cabriolet built by Hibbard and Darrin.



1938 Cadillac V-16 5 passenger sedan.

Gateway also features a giant collection of vintage road maps.






The museum is part of a larger resort complex called "Gateway Canyons". It's all very beautifully done, however all the lodging was a bit out of our price range. We ended up at a KOA campground in Grand Junction after our visit and enjoyed some monster thunderstorms that evening. 

Plan yourself a trip out here to check it out. You won't be disappointed! 



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