Sep 9, 2012 - Conejos River Valley in Southern Colorado

It's so good to be back in the mountains! We really enjoyed the drive from Albuquerque. We hadn't made the drive for over 10 years & have to say not that much has changed. We're very happy with the Conejos River Campground. It was once a KOA but is now a private campground & they keep it up very well. We're looking forward to spending a month here. After we got the trailer set, we took Callie for a long walk down to & along the Conejos River. The river is 150 yards from the campground & guess you have to walk about a half mile to get to a...

Sep 2, 2012 - More in Colorado

After leaving Leadville, we travelled to Buena Vista, nice small town, 1 grocery store but did find a place to get my haircut. We took several side trips from there one was over Cotonwood Pass, beautiful drive and @ 12,156' it was quite cool on top; following the road on down we came to Tin Cup, where we ate at Frenchy's, supposedly wonderful burgers. Our sources were correct the burgers were excellent, they close Labor Day for the year, not much there, dirt roads and lots of hunters and 4 wheelers. Next day we took a trip to an abandoned...

Aug 29, 2012 - Alamosa, Colorado

Well, we woke up this morning to sunny skies and +10 C. Brrrr. It didn't take long for it to warm up, as we meandered through the New Mexico winding roads. We saw plenty of antelope grazing in the pastures, before riding through the Cimarron Canyon State Park. After riding through the mountains we came down into a valley at Eagle's Nest, where there was a huge lake. That body of water was the only water we saw throughout New Mexico, as all of the creeks and rivers were dried up, with the draught. Cousin Daphne gave us a super tip for a...

Jun 7, 2012 - Alamosa, CO

Heading west on Rt. 64, we left Raton and took the scenic route to Alamosa, CO. Driving through Cimmaron State Park provided a splendid albeit twisting drive up and down the mountains. Mother nature was at her finest there for me, but I love mountains, evergreens and lakes. We arrived at the peak of the mountains and immediately saw Eagle Nest Lake below, which was still 8366 feet above sea level. The lake is stunning and pretty good size. Apparently there are a lot of wind surfers there. Lots of RV parks too, which we made note of for...

Sep 18, 2011 - Jour 25

Bonsoir, Encore une autre belle journée à notre actif. Aujourd'hui nous avons marché dans les Dunes de sable jusqu'au sommet pour ensuite les dévaler à toute allure comme des enfants. C'est capoté, les gens apporte leur planche de snow et leur ski pour descendre les dunes. Certains même sont en luge. Par la suite, nous avons monté dans une rivière très froide pour aller admirer une belle chûte. Demain, c'est le retour à la maison, nous avons terminé notre parcours. Il faut bien revenir si nous voulons repartir. Nous empruntons une route...

Sep 17, 2011 - Jour 24

Bonsoir! Today, nous avons fait une nouvelle expérience. Nous avons été nous baigner dans des sources thermales. Les degrés des bains variaient de 92 à 111 F. Ensuite nous avons pris la route en direction d'Alamosa sous la pluie et avons eu de la neige en traversant les montagnes à plus de 8600 pieds. Température en altitude : -2 C. J'ai eu un peu peur, vu la route sinueuse. Ce soir, de la vue de notre chambre, nous observons le coucher de soleil qui reflète dans les montagnes enneigées. Le ciel est rose, c'est tout simplement magnifique!...

Jun 30, 2011 - Day 3

Great Sand Dunes National Park today……not really anticipating a big pile of sand to be all that awesome, but the brochure showed a mountain stream with people swimming and talked about the diversity of the park, so we assumed there must be more than sand. When we got to the visitor’s station, we asked the ranger what we should see. The response was, “We’re kind of known for the sand…..so go to the dunes parking lot and hike to the top……do it while it is still cool.” A bit taken back that there wasn’t more, we pointed to the happy people...

Aug 22, 2010 - Sunday, Alamosa, CO (151 Miles)

Leaving Raton and driving north into Colorado we passed several early Spanish settlements that were overrun by coal companies at the turn of the century. Most have become ghost towns, except for Cokedale, a model mining center built in 1907. The drive follows an old Indian trail, traveling through the Cucharas Pass at 9,941 feet. Alamosa’s KOA campground contained something new to us – a fenced-in dog park. The boys had fun running loose. The big attraction near Alamosa is the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. The 30 square miles...

Jun 29, 2010 - Loveland, CO to Alamosa, CO

There was some beautiful country between Loveland and Alamosa. The mountains had a totally different look; there was a lot of green on some. We passed Pike's Peak and Mt. Blanca. Mt. Blanca is the second highest peak in Colorado and is 200 feet higher than Pike's Peak. We thought we had conquered the overheating problem in the MH. Not so. While the grades didn't look all that steep, they were long. We unhooked the car about 50 miles from the KOA. There was road construction with some lengthy delays, but the road remained pretty flat for the...

Jun 16, 2010 - Alamosa and The Great Sand Dunes NP

Welcome to Colorado – Had a delightful drive up from Santa Fe, albeit on a two-lane road through the mountain passes, but we only had 155 miles to drive and being a Sunday morning made for little traffic and a very nice, leisurely drive. Only took a little over three hours to get here. We are staying in Alamosa in the San Luis Valley surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range and the San Juan Mountain range to the west. Now I say “valley” because to us “easterners” a valley is say, the Hudson Valley – you can see across it – here...

Jun 5, 2010 - Traveling to the Great Sand Dunes

During our days at our campground in Durango I met a guy in the Air Force who was from Alaska. He told us to go to Pagosa Springs which was on our way to the GS Dunes. He said it was like Alaska. So we went thru and it was so beautiful with the mountains. We also crossed the Great Divide which was 8 miles up with a 6% grade, over and down with a6% grade and 8 miles down. What a picture postcard sight. We had snow on top of the mountains and the ponderosa Pines where a sight to be seen. At the end of the divide we passed a ski lift which...

Aug 29, 2009 - Adams State College

Here we are, still in Alamosa, as the perfect weather is just too alluring to leave. We really are going to move on one of these days but what’s the rush? Today we explored the Adams State College campus. It is a lovely campus with large shade trees and grassy areas on which to relax. Adams State College was founded in 1923 as a teachers’ college but has since grown into a liberal arts college that now offers “bachelor's degree in any of 16 majors, with 28 minors and emphases”. We enjoyed viewing the various art displays and Blayde enjoyed...