- Getting this trip on the road!
- Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID
- Fossil Butte National Monument, WY
- Colorado National Monument
- Waiting for surgery — Breckenridge, Chama, Great Sand Dunes National Park, and the UFO Watchtower!
- The Road Home
After surgery was scheduled, we had basically a week to kill. Luckily, we were staying with friends in Breckenridge, CO (which would also the comfortable place I would recover post-surgery). But a week was too long to sit around. Consequently, we slightly modified our original plan of meeting friends for fly fishing in Chama, NM. The drive from Breckenridge to Chama is truly amazing, traversing mountain passes, the San Luis Valley (home to a lot of CO’s agriculture and a few oddities), the high desert, a couple of national forests and the Cumbres Pass. If you are ever in the area, this is definitely worth a detour.
We met our friends at a guest ranch just outside of Chama and mapped out a revised strategy (at least for me). Deb spent the next two days fly fishing in the rivers around the area. This was all wading and the conditions weren’t great — shallow water and a lot of wind. Having said that, she did quite well, bring in some sizable rainbow trout. I lolled about watching football on the first day, but then took the opportunity to ride the Cumbres & Toltec historic steam train that travels 64 miles through the mountains, aspen forests, and high desert from Chama, NM to Antonito, CO (actually it crosses the border between the two states a total of eleven times during the journey). The railroad is joint owned by the states of CO and NM and earned National Historic Landmark status in 2012. But really, this is a love story — an old silver mining railway whose luck ran out when the bottom dropped out of the market and a group of railroad preservationists who fought to save it and turn it into a tourist attraction back in 1969. And the love is still evident — the staff that ride the rails everyday are unpaid docents who have come from all walks of life to study and learn all aspects of running a coal-fired steam engine train. In fact, for anyone that wants to see what it feels like to shovel coal or work a throttle, you can take Fireman or Engineering classes (I should mention that each trip requires 7 tons of coal to be shoveled and 100 gallons of water per mile!). Anyway, the trip was great; made especially so because it was peak leaf peeping time. The highlight is climbing the 10,015 Cumbres Pass through a series of sharp loops. I highly recommend this trip to either railroad enthusiasts or anyone who wants to take in the beauty of the area.
Our our return drive, we largely retraced our steps through the San Luis Valley, making a few detours and stops along the way. The first stop was in Manassa, CO to pay homage to their prodigal son, the Manassa Mauler, Jack Dempsey who won the heavyweight boxing title in 1919. While we got to see his statue, the museum (actually the cabin he was born in) was closed. The next stop was Mother Mary’s Garden, a non-denominational sacred site in San Luis, CO. What attracted us here is the central statue of Mother Mary, carved by a Haida totem carver/artist from Ketchican, AK (the Northwest meets the Southwest!). I mentioned oddities in the San Luis Valley — there are several sacred sites, at least three vortices, and one UFO Watchtower (our next stop)! I should mention that a vortex in this context is an opening to a parallel universe that is full of energy… The Watchtower is some what of an odd place, dominated by a garden that is bordered by two vortices that have been identified by 15 psychics who have visited there. People leave stuff there (not really sure why) and it is a pretty eclectic mix. Proprietor/owner Judy told us that there have been hundreds of sightings reported there since she opened the place (she herself has seen fifteen) in 2001. She admonished us to keep our eyes (and minds) open while we were traveling around the San Luis Valley. We did both — no luck!
Our final stop in the Valley was Great Sand Dunes National Park, outside of Alamosa, CO. They are claimed to be the tallest dunes in North America. Of course, we had already been to Bruneau Dunes State Park in ID that made the same claim. Asking a ranger, she told me that Bruneau has the tallest freestanding dune, while Great Sand Dunes has the tallest range. Hmmm….not too sure I’m buying into that argument. Anyway, this is a beautiful park, sitting at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains that includes forests, lakes, grasslands, wetlands (seasonal) and, of course, the dunes! There are lots of theories about how they were created (most involved dried up lake beds and prevailing winds. For part of the year, a pretty strong creek runs at the base of the dunes (Deb took our kids there to play when they were younger). Anyway, I decided I needed to climb to the top to see the lay of the land. This was challenging for two reasons (1) I was “walking wounded” without a good deal of balance, and (2) the dunes start at 7500 feet and go up another 750 feet from there. Anyway, with my trusty walking stick, I started trudging up. Some of the sand was relatively hard packed and some you sunk in to your ankles. Ultimately, I made it to the top of the second highest peak and called it a day.
The week turned out to be a good diversion and kept my mind off my impending surgery. For that I was grateful…
This entry was posted in Colorado, National Park/Monument, Travel, United States
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
