Next stops: Colorado City, Colorado and Taos, New Mexico

hooked up and ready to roll away from the Rockies

Saturday morning we left Estes Park, glad that we were here during the week. The RV Park had filled up for the weekend, and there was a never-ending stream of cars driving into Estes Park and the National Park. Obviously this is a very popular recreation area and also close to Denver. No wonder this is the 4th busiest National Park with over 4 million visitors this past year. 

yet another twisting, winding, two-lane 

We headed out of the Rocky Mountains along scenic Route 36, traveling south through Boulder, by-passing Denver, the city rising above the flat plain to the east like a stack of columns, and through Colorado Springs along I-25 towards Colorado City. The drive down the mountain was beautiful as we twisted and wound our way to slightly lower elevations between range canyons.  Closer to Boulder, the terrain leveled, the Rocky foothills a flange to the west, a few spread out flat buttes dotting the vast open space for as far as the eye could see to the horizon to the east. It was a dramatic difference from the past few days among the craggy peaks.

level terrain against foothills

buttes and open land

The town of Castle Rock is aptly named. Its castle formation loomed ahead.

Colorado Springs is picturesque with its surrounding hills, the Air Force Academy nestled against the range.

We pulled into the KOA in Colorado City early afternoon. It was a warm and sunny day compared to where we left 208 miles ago.

Later that evening we joined a few folks for the ice-cream social in the clubhouse at the KOA, exchanging stories about our respective travels. Several of us are heading to spend the winter in Arizona.

the pretty River Walk in old town Pueblo, featuring many sculptures

The following day, we drove to old downtown Pueblo and strolled along a section of the River Walk before meeting with Michael's niece who graduated from the Air force Academy this year and coincidentally happened to be back in the area for flight training. We all enjoyed a dinner at Brues Alehouse where I particularly enjoyed their Nitro Manthers, a house beer that is a milk stout with a creamy chocolate and sweetened espresso taste...it went down very easily and I will definitely keep my eye out for another. With so many intriguing choices on the menu, Michael couldn't make up his mind so he selected their flight of three 6-oz selections: Storyteller stout, Coconut Vanilla stout, and Mexican Chocolate stout. 

The next morning we were off again, heading south down I-25, crossed into New Mexico about an hour later, and continued on to Taos for the next two nights.

From Colorado City, the landscape continued as a wide, open expanse with occasional buttes and mountain peaks in the distance. 

Closer to Trinidad, the road wound through pretty, hilly terrain. 

Shortly after that we crossed into New Mexico and the other side of the mountain range. 

We turned west along a flat two-lane road, Route 64, driving through vast, open landscape with not a single other vehicle in sight. We passed prong horn deer with their distinctive white behinds, mule deer with their large ears, and occasional cattle. We even spotted a real cowboy rounding up a herd. 

  

Route 64 took us into Taos. It shows as a dotted scenic route on the map so I was anticipating it would be a pretty drive. What we didn't expect again was just how winding and narrow the road is. In fact, with less than 60 miles left, we noticed that according to our GPS, it would take almost two hours of travel time. And now we know why, as we found ourselves driving at posted speeds of 25 and 35 MPH through steep Cimarron Canyon. We also noticed that there had recently been a fire with all the black trees surrounding us. There had in fact been a fire just three months ago, serious enough to evacuate the tiny town of Ute. 

Our Garmin, Ginnie, never stopped alerting us to "winding road ahead" and "right curve" "left curve" for miles. At times it felt like a roller coaster ride as we made our way through the mountain range. 

The scenery was indeed spectacular, the mountain sides ablaze with golden aspens shining brightly in the sunlight. 

Closer to our turnoff, we began to see homes nestled between the narrow road and the the hillsides. 

We pulled in at Taos Valley RV Park early afternoon.