So we took the fork out of the day we considered done before it began… storms fired near Castle Rock and drifted northeast grabbing the attention of most Denver-based chasers. I was out making the purchase of my new Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens when my phone exploded with calls and texts as the storms were showing TVS and meso signatures early in their life. The storms never amounted to much as they weakened as they headed towards I-70. I left Lakewood for I-25 and bounced south to E-470 where I elected to take the easy storm moving up along E-470. I got in behind it and flew into the core about E-470 between Smokey Hill and Quincy getting hammered with a ton of hail up to penny-sized which covered the roads and made for some interesting driving. I followed the core to I-76 and returned south to intercept more storms. I eventually ended up on I-70 in Bennett before calling it a successful local day.

The funny part of the chase was the number of tolls I ended up paying while driving back and forth along E-470. I managed to blow through $17.25 in 90 minutes; I do better on the Blackjack! LOL