Out very early and in the dark to avoid the "go to work traffic" on interstate 25. It worked. A very quick and safe drive to Pueble, Colorado and breakfast at Cracker Barrel.
After breakfast we continued on Interstate 25 to Walsenburg and then took US 160 West. This is a drive we have made many times while living in Colorado to visit friends in South Fork, Colorado.
La Veta Pass on US 160 tops out at 9,426 feet, just South of the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountain range. This range has three of colorado's fifty-eight 14,000 plus mountains. There several other Fourteeners are close by and in most directions there are tall mountains.
Sixtten miles or so North of US 160 is the Great Sand Dunes Nation Park and Preserve, which seems out of place amongst so many mountains.
Continuing West on US 160 we passed through Alamosa, Monte Vista, Del Norte and South Fork. Mostly small towns ranging in population from 500 up 9,845. All of these are on or near the Rio Grande River, which I have taken a few nice trout from.
A few miles West of South Fork we starting climbing, eventually reaching 10,856 feet at Wolf Creek Pass, followed by a 7% downgrade into a very bueatiful valley.
Pagosa Springs was the next town and it is one that does not bring back fond memories. Back on October 24, 2010, we hit a deer just outside Pagosa Springs, when heading back home after two month drive around the country. We eventually made it home in a rental, while our insurance company invested over $9,000 in a very badly damaged Honda Accord.
The rest of the drive into Farmington, New Mexico, was uneventful. Tomorrow we have a short drive to Flagstaff, Arizona, for our last overnight before home.
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