Colorado US-50

Along the Gunnison River

2019-10-08 (Tuesday)

We woke up to an exquisite morning at 8,000 feet-- a blue dome of a sky uninterrupted by a single cloud, crisp mountain air, and the colors of fall all around us, reds, yellows, and rusts (plus evergreen, of course.) I guess that was invigorating enough that it got us moving a little ahead of our usual departure time.

The Jeep, of course, was not attached to the RV, so we drove down the mountainside with me leading Joe in Samantha. What we got to see was what we'd missed driving up-- the valley below us spread out in an endless vista. Wow, it was spectacular-- but of course, no one could take a photo, because we were both driving. We got to the bottom quickly (a lot easier than laboring up the mountain yesterday), and I soon found a pullout so we could hook the Jeep back up to the RV. And then we were back on the road again.

We are still following US Route 50, which started out in Reno, became the "Loneliest Highway", and now is not lonely, merely beautiful, through most of central Colorado. We had driven on this road before, back in 2015, and I think I must have taken a lot of the same photos back then! We drove through canyons, and past ranch land, but the most beautiful areas were Blue Mesa Reservoir, and the Arkansas River canyon after the reservoir, to the town of Canyon City. Really, it was a lot of "wows" again. The only problem was, it was pretty slow driving, and we were trying to make our "average" of about 275 miles/day so we get home on time.

Along US 50 in Colorado

 One thing that slowed us down was the Monarch Pass. Some time last night, I remembered that we had gone over it in 2015, and it was HIGH! 11,300+ feet. So we made plans to unhook the Jeep yet again before we headed up the mountain. I have a book for truckers, which describes all the high passes in the western states, so I looked up our route, and Monarch was the only high pass on our trip today. So, using the info from this book, we figured out we needed to stop in the little nothing town of Sargents to unhook, and we could re-attach ourselves someplace around 10 miles down the mountain after we went over the pass. And that is what we did! It all worked very smoothly, but I figure at about 15 minutes per hookup or un-hook, it added almost an hour to our day.

Blue Mesa Reservoir

 In any case, we traveled safely over the mountain, and I took a selfie at the summit to commemorate the event. And from there, we headed through along the Arkansas River, with more oohing and aahing, until suddenly we seemed to be back into traffic! From Canyon City we drove to Pueblo, which is a REAL city, and then, one final hour (I was driving by this time) to La Junta. And we are spending the night in the Walmart parking lot here. It's not a typical Yom Kippur, that is for sure, but we are being truly appreciative of what we are lucky to have, and pondering the coming year with both hope and gratitude. We'll continue to be introspective tomorrow as we head on into Kansas, still following US-50.

Arkansas River Canyon

Walls of Arkansas River Canyon

Me and the Jeep on the Continental Divide, Monarch Pass