Update Archive

Archive 6/2 - 6/7/2005:
6/2/2005 - (326 miles – 6 ½ hours - L:67F – H:89F) We drove from our camp on the Guadalupe River to Big Spring, TX today. This morning is the first time we’ve had any wind (excluding T-storms, of course), which makes driving a lot more work. Actually, I took it as a good sign since it was a westward wind. As we all know, the westward wind is a restless wind… The trailer sure seems to pull easier since the repairs. My gas mileage is still only 7-8 mpg, which is really too bad. I was hoping it would have improved. One reason could be all the hills… they don’t call it the hill country for nuthin…. There’s hills out in these here parts. 70mph at the bottom 55mph at the top. Just like a yo-yo. It was a good drive. Pretty low key. I didn’t run over any gas pumps. It’s all good!
There is a tornado watch in effect for the county I’m in. The radar looks okay so far… The storm hit around 1:30AM and lasted for hours. Lots of rain, lightning and thunder. Very cool.
6/3/2005 - (443 miles – 11 hours - L:66F – H:78F) We left Big Spring around 11AM and headed for Dalhart. The storm last night dumped huge amounts of rain all along our route, causing road closures, which thankfully, didn’t affect us directly. There were people being pulled out of the mud all over the place…. I am soooo not leaving the pavement.
It turns out that when I made my test run a week or so ago I had taken the wrong road… Lost and didn’t even know it. Not surprising to most of you, eh? Anyway, when I really looked at the map I discovered I could knock about 50 miles off my trip if I took 137 straight up to Brownfield instead of going through Seminole. Sounds good, right? Well, there were no gas stations between Lamesa and Brownfield. I should have stopped for gas in Lamesa, but figured I was okay and that odds were there would be a gas station in the 40 miles to Brownfield…and it was only 40 miles, right? Ha! When I hit a ¼ of a tank I made sure I had cell service in case I needed to call a tow truck for a few gallons of gas. When I finally limped into Brownfield I had less than an 1/8th of a tank. When at best you’re getting 8 miles to the gallon, less than an 1/8th of a tank won’t get you very far. I was totally freaked out. I squeezed my rig into a gas station I never would have gone near if I hadn’t been desperate. The truck took over 20 gallons to fill up – it’s a 24 gallon tank. Ack!! I’ve never been so happy to overpay for gas in my life! But hey, it all worked out. And there isn’t anything like the sense of freedom a full tank of gas gives you. After that it was smooth sailing. The roads finally flattened out and the wind stopped. The birds were singing and the sun was shining :o).
I hit Vega around 3:45PM and decided I would push on through to Capulin, NM instead of stopping at Dalhart. There were some scary looking clouds ahead, but the nice folks at the gas station in Vega said the weather was all east of us. (notice how I now stop at damn near every gas station I see, whether I really need gas or not?) On the drive to Capulin a storm cell formed to my left… so I took a few pictures of it as I drove down the road. We arrived in camp around 7PM CST (I’m now in MST but I’m having trouble with the conversion). The folks here are really nice and they set me up in a great spot.
After unhooking the trailer I headed out to get a better look at the storms brewing all around. I took a side road out to Folsom and found a place where I could pull off the side of the road and just watch the clouds shoot toward the sky. The countryside is beautiful! I sat out there for well over an hour and then headed back to camp. It was a very good day.
6/4/2005 - (214 miles – 5-1/2 hours - L:44F – H:76F) Wow! What a difference in temperature. And here I thought I had packed my LJ’s away for the summer. I even plugged in a heater I was so cold. I guess I’m just not used to it, is all.
Max and I drove to the Capulin (cah-poo-LEEN) Volcano National Monument. It’s only about 5 miles from camp, which is nice. The volcano erupted between 56,000 and 62,000 years ago. It rises more than 1,300 feet above the surrounding plains to 8,182ft above sea level. I took the trail around the rim of the crater, from which you can see forever. Apparently, on a clear day you can see four states from the highest point on the crater rim trail. I believe it. Wow. I followed the rim trail as it curled down to the vent remains on the crater floor. 300ft elevation change in 100 feet of trail. Nice. Nothing like a short hike to remind you of what horrible shape you’re in. I swear it’s the elevation change. Yesterday at this time I was at 2,432ft above sea level. Yeah, that’s it! That’s why I can’t seem to catch my breath…
After leaving the crater we headed to Raton to do some reconnaissance. I wanted to drive the Raton Pass (7,834ft) before pulling the trailer over it. Also, I’m not exactly sure where I want to stay next, so we need to scout out a nice camp. We didn’t go all that far, I was tired, it was getting late and I don’t think either of us wanted to be in the truck for another 3-4 hours.
6/5/2005 - (412 miles – 11 hours - L:32F – H:77F) Talk about cold. Even so, I’d rather the nights be cold than the days. The days are beautiful.
The camp owner here in Capulin recommended that I take the road to Folsom and then catch 72 into CO. I had picked up a brochure in the CO visitor center that detailed several scenic byways and decided we’d take ‘The Highway of Legends’ over to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. I actually had a route all mapped out ahead of time! I’m turning over a new leaf! Sadly, when we left camp I forgot to bring the map with me.
What a beautiful drive. 72 is remote and narrow. Curving down around hills and cliffs to drop into picturesque valleys, climbing up through old lava flows to high plains grassland. It’s fantastic. There is such a sense of isolation. It’s so easy to imagine the area buried in 6-feet of snow. It’s maybe 40 miles to Raton, but you’d swear there wasn’t anyone or anything for a year.
Next we followed I-25 up to the turnoff for ‘Highway of Legends’. I eventually found it. Funny thing; a lady on a horse, leading another horse down the shoulder of I-25. That’s not something you see every day.
The ‘Highway of Legends’ started out kind of disappointing. Lots of houses and people. Once we passed Cokedale, WOW. The brochure recommends you start in Walsenburg and end in Trinidad. I didn’t want to back track that far so I went the opposite way. I think the view of the volcanic dike formations on the Spanish Peaks is probably better coming from the north, but I wasn’t disappointed with my view at all. The drive takes you through lush green valleys with giant mountains standing sentinel. It’s an achingly beautiful drive.
We hopped onto US160 and headed toward Alamosa, where we would turn off into the Great Sand Dunes. The drive up to and through the La Veta Pass (9,413ft) is gorgeous. Once you approach Blanca the terrain turns into more of a high desert, with lots of sage and scrub brush. The view of four of the 14ers is fantastic. The road skirts around Blanca Peak (14,345ft), Little Bear Peak (14,037ft), Mt Lindsey (14,042ft), and Ellingwood Point (14,042ft). I thought there would be more snow, but I’m just as glad there isn’t.
Great Sand Dunes National Park is amazing. The coloration of the sand is spectacular. (I’m running out of adjectives!). The highest dune reaches 750ft (Star Dune) with the next highest at 650ft (High Dune). These are the tallest sand dunes in North America and comprise about 11 percent of an enormous sand deposit that covers more than 330 square miles. I took a brief walk through at the visitor’s center and then headed to the dunes. You have to walk across Medano Creek (Snow melt from Mt. Herard (13,297ft) is the primary source of the creek) before you can climb the dunes. It’s a little creek, with the water reaching mid calve at the deepest part of the crossing. I elected to go barefoot. Big mistake. It was great walking through the creek. Once I hit the sand, ouch. That sand was hot! I didn’t want to stop and refused to go back for shoes, so pressed on and climbed the nearest dune. The views from that modest perch were fantastic… the San Luis Valley (largest valley in CO) stretches to the south and west, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the north and east… I can only imagine what the view from atop Star Dune was like. I so should have worn shoes! By the time I limped back to the truck I had blisters. Luckily, the hot sand didn’t seem to bother Max.
On the way out of the park we decided to drive up to Zapata Falls. There is a 3.5 mile unpaved road leading to a .5-mile hike. The brochure says mildly steep…. I guess it’s all relative. A 500-foot gain in elevation over a distance of .5 miles is mildly steep by Colorado standards. Just give me a minute to catch my breath. Max loved it… all those trees! I swear, he had to pee on every single one. We finally made it to the falls, which I’m not sure I would have found were it not for all the other people walking back into the canyon. The water was cold, and felt great on my feet. I don’t think my boots will ever dry out, though. We hung out there for a while before sliding down to the truck.
I decided we should take a different road home, so consulted the map for an alternate route. We ended up taking US160E (Kit Carson Trail), then cutting across through Branson, Folsom and then back to Capulin. We saw lots of deer and not much else. This is truly beautiful country.
6/6/2005 - (472 miles – 9 hours - L:51F – H:80F) I wanted to check out Canon City as a potential camp city and figured we could see the Royal Gorge while we were there. We took I-25 to Pueblo and then cut across to Canon City on US50. It’s a nice drive, hard to compete with what we saw yesterday. Canon City didn’t really appeal to me that much. There are, like, 13 prisons right there. The camps are close to the Royal Gorge, but the whole Royal Gorge experience is mostly an amusement park. Don’t get me wrong, the Gorge and the Bridge are amazing! But this place must be an absolute zoo on the weekends. It’s very carnival like. I’m glad I was there on a weekday. I did cross the Bridge (the world’s highest suspension bridge, spanning the Royal Gorge at 1,053 above the Arkansas River) and rode the Incline Railway (world’s steepest – 1,550ft long; 100 percent grade; 45-degree angle) to the bottom of the Gorge and back. Very cool, that is one deep gorge, and the cliff sides are very colorful.
6/7/2005 - (L:43F – H:F) Ah, a day of rest. It has been a busy week! We're getting ready to move on to the next place… We're actually going to be IN Colorado! WooHoo!!


New Pictures: TX, NM, CO