Places Visited: Colorado: Florence, Wetmore, Westcliffe, Hillside, Texas Creek, Royal Gorge & Canon City.

Saturday June 10 through Tuesday June 13 2006: Pueblo, Colorado (On I-25 100-miles north of the New Mexico border). We are in Pueblo West Campground N38° 20.522 W104° 43.097'. Pueblo West Campground is located on US-50 about 5-miles west of I-25. It is totally gravel with huge pull-thru sites (trees are limited); 50-amps, water and sewer, $20 per-night 719-547-9887. This is a campground and equestrian facility.

Tuesday, our last full day in this area was spent doing the Mountain Valley scenic drive as suggested by a handout we obtained from the Canon City visitor center. This was a beautiful drive through some awesome mountain valleys flanked by snow covered mountains. A local we met somewhere along the way said that there were no stop lights in the entire county "Comal County" and I think he said 18,000 residents. Sparsely populated would be an understatement. Wide open spaces lush grazing areas and beautiful forested mountains. However, many if not most of the mountains on the western flank of this beautiful valley climb to over 14,000' which puts them 2,500' above the tree line. Snow can still be seen on many of these peaks.

When I stepped out of the motorhome here was this cute little bunny that we had been seeing. It seemed to be adopting our motorhome. Where are your grandchildren in moments like this?

We traveled west on US-50 out of Pueblo about 20-miles to where we turned to the southwest on SR-115 to Florence that old gold processing town with all the old buildings. In Florence we turned south on SR-67 toward Wetmore & other small communities. Only a few miles past Florence we spotted these buffalo gourd growing in the right of way. They were blooming like crazy and putting on quiet a show with their yellow blooms.

Wetmore was an interesting community. I wish we would have taken time to wander through this store.

On SR-67 the scenery was constantly changing but always in a valley of some sort. Evidence of the mountain building forces that played in this area 135 million years ago are evident in many places.

The uplift not only moved and displaced the sedimentary layers of soil it pushed up and moved asunder several layers of igneous rock deposited in previous mountain building episodes.

Visual overload was taking hold. One moment we were mesmerized by the geologic wonders then around the corner would be this scene where someone had settled and was working the land.

Bigelow Divide is as far as we ventured down SR-165 before turning back and retracing our route back to SR-96 where we turned west toward Westcliffe. Driving up to the divide provided some beautiful scenery. A well advertised Castle was only a few miles ahead and we should have taken time to visit it-----------but we can only fit so much into a day.

These are pictures as we are falling off Bigelow Divide heading north on SR-165 (we turned back after going down SR-165 to Bigelow Divide). That is a grove of aspen trees that grow above 8,000 feet or so.

The picture to the left is on SR-165 as we continue falling off Bigelow divide. The picture to the right is on SR-96 somewhere east of Silver Cliffe. Once we got on SR-96 heading west to Silver Cliffe and Westcliffe the panorama expanded. We were on a high plateau between mountain ranges to the west and east. It appeared to be made up of giant cattle ranches.

Then we would wind around another mountain and another ranch house emerges.

Then a house tucked away on a small rise on this huge plateau.

More pictures from SR-165 east of Silver Cliffe on that high plateau.

Sometimes they find silver deep in the mountains and other times they find it in the valleys between mountains. Here they found silver in the middle of this seeming iniquitous plateau.

Mine tailings around the silver mining process in Silver Cliffe.

Less than a mile west of Silver Cliffe is West Cliffe a real charming Colorado town. Westcliffe is a place one could stop in and never leave. Beautiful does not even come close to describing it.

Westcliffe is such a neat place.

View from the west side of Westcliffe looking across this lush valley toward towering mountains to the west.

We are mesmerized by this beautiful valley nestled against the towering mountains to our west.

As quick as a wink we exit that high plateau with the lush valley to our west that we had been following on SR-69 since Westcliffe. We are at the northern end of that plateau when we start back into mountains following Texas Creek to the town of Texas Creek on US-50 where we will turn west and head back to Pueblo. The high plains on that plateau ended so abruptly into this canyon of ancient volcanic rock. Note the structure of the rocks on the right.

We are back on US-50 heading east to Canon City and Pueblo. There are several things you get used to seeing on US-50. One is the the float industry and the other is equestrian related as evidenced by this load of alfalfa hay headed to stables somewhere west of here.

The Arkansas River is alive with rafters.

Pay close attention there are two rafts in this picture. One raft is about to enter the chute while the other is in the chute and almost underwater. One thing for sure is they are wet when they emerge from the chute.

Back in Parkdale we saw a sign that said something about the south entrance to Royal Gorge Bridge so naturally we had to take the road to the top of the gorge. The road starts at the river and climbs to the top of the cliffs that tower over Royal Gorge. When we got to the top of those cliffs the trees were visibly older and you could see how the dry climate at this altitude had affected their growth.

Everything we saw on that cliff exuded the harsh dry climate. The cactus bloom was representative of the plants, extremely hostile yet so delicately beautiful.

When we got back to US-50 Joyce put the camera away and we headed back to the motorhome in Pueblo and the end of another wonderful adventure.

Until next time remember how good life is.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix