More about our late September trip to Colorado, including stops in Texas on the way and Texas on the way back to Wimberley. In the first episode, we left you at Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, TX. This segment includes our route to Great Sand Dunes National Park included rural Texas, a corner of New Mexico, and into Colorado. We took the lovely Highway of Legends, CO 12, then we on to Great Sand Dunes National Park.
The first part of this segment provides us with yet another opportunity to observe the abandoned countryside and small towns of America as farming goes corporate.
At this point we were traveling on U.S. 87, traversing the high rolling plains of the Panhandle. Here is a photo of the old and new – windmill and grazing cows. Some windmills are still operational, but more often now solar powers the pumps to get water to the lifestock.
After joining I 25 for a short section, we take the scenic route, Highway of Legends, CO 12. We had driven this route before and it’s always a pretty drive and highly recommended. There are campsites and campgrounds along the route, but we went on to a campground in La Veta. By September, many people had decided that camping is safe. Motorhome sales skyrocketed and campgrounds were full, even into late September in Colorado. This is the first time we had visited Colorado so late in September (our favorite month, but usually just after Labor Day), and we enjoyed the fall colors.
This scenic route provides great views and lots of recreational and camping opportunites.
One of the things we enjoy are murals on buildings in small towns. This little shop is in Blanca, CO.
Now we are quite close to Great Sand Dunes National Park. As always on this trip, the haze from fires in California makes landscape photography difficult. You have to try to bring out in a photograph what you could barely see with your eyes… It did make for lovely sunsets, though…
We used to camp almost every fall in September in Colorado when I was a kid. We lived in Kansas City, Missouri, and one of the important parts of the trip was the first view of the mountains. We tend to think of Colorado as mountainous, but the eastern half is flat. I remember our excitement at Firstview, CO, on U.S. 40 (before the Interstate system).
This view of the mountains and dunes at Great Sand Dunes National Park shows the high desert that makes up that part of the state.
This is a view of the dunes and the mountains behind.
There were a lot of people at the dunes. People enjoying using sandsleds or sandboards on the dunes. They can be rented as close as 4 miles away (at the campground we stayed at). You can drive into the mountains with 4WD vehicles, but it is tricky because of the soft sand. We’ve hiked in that area, but even when we had a jeep with us, we didn’t dare take the road. One thing that now makes such travel safer is the existence of fairly inexpensive satellite phones that you can use in emergencies that occur far from civilization.
The campground at the park was full, so we stayed at a local private campground with great views of the dunes and the west. I took the featured sunset picture from that campground.
From here we traveled on to western Colorado, and Mesa Verde National Park. Stay tuned for Part 3! Either because of the late season or the pandemic, Mesa Verde was pleasantly uncrowded. There were no tours because of the pandemic so for the first time I have photos of Cliff Palace with absoutely no people in it!
