Last week, I took my three sons on a camping trip to Colorado. Our Pathfinder was supposedly fixed just in the nick of time: I picked it up from the mechanic at midnight Saturday night. However, something went wrong with the timing during the repair, so I had to borrow a 4Runner from friends at church. I turned our car in at the mechanic first thing Monday morning, then drove the loaner car home, loaded the boys into our friends' car, and off we went.
A map of our GPS track can be viewed on Google
here. (The track starts at our first gas station stop, and it ends at the motel we stayed at on the way back.) Dark red is westbound, purple is eastbound. Not shown is that we used US-160 over North La Veta Pass on the westbound trip rather than Old La Veta Pass, which we used on the return trip.
The main destination was Great Sand Dunes National Park, at which we camped three nights. Temperatures for the first two nights were likely below 35 degrees, but I don't think it actually dipped below freezing. I'm skinny and a cold-weenie, so I slept in three shirts and a coat. The third night wasn't as cold, but the wind kept three of us awake most of the night. As soon as the sun came up, though, it warmed right up into the 70s every day.
We hiked partway up the sand dunes one day, and then we hiked Dunes Overlook Trail the next day. Hardly a cloud in the sky the whole time, and just barely some occasional haze.
After our time there, we headed across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, making use of a San Isabel National Forest road, commonly known as Apishapa Road, which is a spur of the so-called Highway of Legends. No 4WD was required, but I probably would have used it if I had been traveling westbound. From a mile or two west of Cordova Pass all the way to Apishapa Arch, the road was quite rocky and required a little bit of skill to navigate. My speed along that stretch was typically around 10 mph, and I was thankful to be in a vehicle with auto-stick. On the way up, my middle son got carsick, so he and my youngest switched seats for the way down—in order for him to be able to see out the windshield. After Apishapa Arch, the road gradually improved—from large rocks all over in the roadbed to smaller rocks and visible tire tracks, then from that to the smoothest gravel road I've ever driven, then from that to asphalt. From Aguilar, we drove down into New Mexico to briefly visit Capulin Volcano National Monument and hike down into the vent. Then, on our way back to Kansas, we stopped and found the official BLM marker for the northwestern corner of Texas—which is NOT in the shoulder of the highway, as Google Maps suggests.
Mountain passes crossedCuchara Pass (twice) | CO-12 | Elev. 9,995 feet
North La Veta Pass | US-160 | Elev. 9,413 feet
Old La Veta Pass (Uptop) | Huerfano CR-443 | Elev. 9,382 feet
Cordova Pass | Las Animas CR-46 | Elev. 11,248 feet
Raton Pass | I-25 | Elev. 7,834 feet
Highway photos:
US-160 WB, between Springfield and Trinidad, CO
CO-150, approaching Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO
Old La Veta Pass at the ghost town of Uptop, CO
US-160 EB, as seen from the road coming down from Old La Veta Pass
Cordova Pass, CO
Apishapa Arch, east of Cordova Pass
Southeastern Colorado is loaded with decimal-pointed county highways
NM-72 EB, between Yankee and Folsom, NM
My wife and I often visit relatives in Branson (MO) and Des Moines (IA), so this sign in Folsom (NM) was humorous to me
Is there anything New Mexico DOESN'T get wrong about signage? Error US-64 shield on NM-325 in Capulin
Getting my roadgeek on with the boys
