So, after I wrote to you two nights ago we had a change of plan. We had intended to drive yesterday from Ridgway State Park in Colorado to the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area just east of Salida, Colorado. However, as sometimes happens we had two reservations booked for last night. The other one was to stay put in our campsite at Ridgway. (Sometimes I deliberately make two reservations to give us flexibility, sometimes parks require a 2 or even 3 night minimum, especially around holiday weekends and sometimes I just screw up... I'm not telling why we had two reservation options last night... I'm just saying that we had two). So, yesterday morning I played Monty Hall (ok, youngsters... for your understanding of the story let me explain that he was a TV game show host) and asked Mrs. C' "Would you rather have a 3 1/2 hour drive on Sunday to a gravel parking spot on the Arkansas River with no electricity and no internet followed by another 3 1/2 hour drive on Monday orrrrrrr... Stay at this spot in Ridgway State Park all day Sunday without a care in the world then drive 7 hours on Monday?" (There was no "door #3, no "Monty's Cash Can... Nothing else... Just those two options). She said "I don't care, you pick". Obviously, she never watched "Let's Make A Deal" or she would have known that Monty never picked... The contestants did. Anyhow, I played along and said "Door number 2!" So we stayed in Ridgway yesterday and drove two days worth today.
So let's talk about today's trip. First off, there won't be any pictures tonight. There are two reasons for that 1. We have the sketchiest internet we have had all trip here at Clayton Lake State Park tonight. I'll be lucky to post this text. 2.) when we have 7 driving hours neither of us has much patience for stopping to smell the megapixels. Today even more so for reasons that will become clear as I share the story. So, we were up and readying the trailer for the road by 7:00 with a plan to roll at 8:00. We only missed our target by 15 minutes. Not bad. A quick stop for an exchange of trailer tank contents (the camp's faucet gave us fresh water and our storage tanks gave them... You get the idea) and we were off.
We headed north to Montrose, Colorado then turned east onto US 50 which would take us much of the way today. We climbed to about 8,000 feet then descended back to 7,200 to drive along the Blue Mesa Reservoir which is an amazing body of water formed by the impounding of the Gunnison River. I had never heard of this reservoir. It's a very large lake and more amazing because it's a mile and a quarter above sea level. It was well traveled by boats of all sorts even on Memorial Day when, at that altitude, the air was cool and the water had to be frigid. We continued into Gunnison, Colorado then continued on US 50 toward Monarch Pass. The climb up and over the pass began at about 8,000 feet. The steep section is not particularly long, maybe 5 or 6 miles, but it's a consistent climb without a break for the entire section. There were two uphill lanes all the way through that segment and we stuck to the right lane but managed 40-45 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. At many points there were no guardrails and serious drops. My thoughts flashed back to the two measurements of road hazard (road width and probability of death if the vehicle leaves the roadway). At points, the climb to Monarch didn't look good on either of those measurements. In those five or six miles we went from 8 thousand to 11,328 (according to my GPS altimeter). That put us 22 feet higher elevation than we had been on our Jeep excursion to Yankee Boy Basin and marked the high point (at least when measured in feet above sea level) of our entire trip. The trusty Tundra worked hard to get over the pass. I know because we stopped at the very top and I could smell the heat coming off her despite the fact that the gauges never budged above their normal readings. The trip down the other side was equally steep, although the slope is advertised as a 6% grade on the many warning signs and we have done 9% on two occasions without too much challenge. However a steady 6% for 6 miles or so is a bit challenging.
Shortly before noon we rolled into Salida, Colorado. I have pics that I'll post when Internet reliability permits. Let me describe Salida (pronounced locally as suh-Lye'-duh) briefly. It is a charming town of what appears to be about 40,000 population. Without internet I can't research what brings or keeps people there. We went into "Historic Old Salida" only because the restaurant that we picked for lunch with the help of TripAdvisor was there. It took most of the skill I've gained through 20,000+ incident-free miles of dragging the Cliche' behind the trusty Tundra to get through Historic Old Salida while still being entitled to use the phrase "incident free". We found a municipal parking lot (gravel on an abandoned commercial property that had been bulldozed clean from whatever had once stood there) and took up 6 parking spots in the back row. We walked the dogs, gave them fresh water, told them to clear the trailer while we were gone and headed off knowing they never do what we tell them to.
Lunch was delightful. We ate at a place in a commercial/retail section of the old city. The historic zone appeared to be about a dozen square city blocks - maybe three one way and four the other. We parked on the edge of that and ate near the middle. The buildings were mostly brick and two or three stories. Some bore dates like 1895 suggesting this town may have had mining roots like Ouray where we visited the other day. Hey, I don't have Internet worth a fig, but I bet you do. Rather than me taking guesses, feel free to help me out here and go to google then type Salida Colorado and read the Wikipedia page... You'll know what I don't. Anyway, lunch was great (I had fish and chips which were just right with the beer batter and Mrs C' had the fish tacos). After lunch we practiced some retail therapy which was easy given that the historic area had a huge selection of funky shops with everything from antiques to clothing to ski stuff.
With 4 driving hours still ahead of us we decided to cut short the shopping leaving many funky shops unexplored. Maybe Salida left us wanting more, or maybe we just needed the break in the middle of a very long driving day, but we both had a very good feeling about Salida and would clearly have liked to stay and explore more.
We jumped back on US 50 heading east. It follows the Arkansas River through a 10 mile long gorge that is quite scenic. It's worth noting that the mountains of Colorado are the source for three of the six largest rivers in the US (measured by area drained or flow or something... I can't recall). Earlier in this trip we had close contact with two of the three. The Rio Grand flows south out of Colorado and we had camped on its shores north of Albuquerque then followed it upstream into Del Norte, Colorado. The Colorado flows southwest out of the Rockies and we had seen it at Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon. Now the Arkansas which we first contacted today as it headed southeast from Salina. We will revisit it repeatedly in the next week including camping on its banks in Arkansas next weekend. It says a lot about both the elevation and precipitation in Colorado that so much water power starts there.
The main story about the rest of the drive is that our Rocky Mountain Adventure clearly ended this afternoon. As Salida slipped off the screen of the trusty Tundra's moving map GPS we were already experiencing a terrain change. For almost an hour we drove southeast on Colorado 69. It was a miserable road for a vehicle our size since the lanes were narrow, the hills and curves plentiful and the appropriate speed for the cautious driver varied from 35 to 65. There was no cruise control for that hour. However as we drove that stretch the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado (the northerly extension of the range we followed out of New Mexico and into Colorado three weeks ago) went from a few miles away and towering above us to 5, then 10, then 15 miles to our west. As they receded from view, the closest of their peaks got shorter and less snow covered. It was clearly the hour we left the Rockies.
About 4:30 PM we hit I25 South which carried us out of Colorado and into New Mexico, albeit with one more jaunt up to 7,800 feet at Raton Pass where the two states meet. From there we descended and jumped off the interstate onto US 87 heading east. The land grew flatter and more barren. Northeastern New Mexico is cattle county and a sportsman's paradise. For mile after mile there were cattle grazing on the left (north) side of the road and pronghorn antelope grazing on the right. There were miles and miles on end with nothing more than 100' elevation variance and no sign of human habitation.
Our home for the night - Clayton Lake - sits in the middle of that expanse on the western edge of the Great Plains. We are 12 miles north of US 87 near the town of Clayton. The lake is modest size... maybe a mile long based on what we can see from here and half that in width. There are just 7 campsites and a boat ramp here. A sign points to "dinosaur tracks" but we did not get to explore it tonight given our late arrival and need to feed both the dogs and ourselves. I'm sure we'll check it out when daylight allows.
So, that's how we went from pictures of snow capped peaks to dry, flat grassland. Tomorrow it's on to the last new state for the Cliche' on this trip - Okalhoma! We know the plains are waiting for us, as is Fort Supply Lake. Check in tomorrow to see if the wind came sweeping down on us.
Later...
SC'
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