The Glenwood week is done. The Glenwood job is done. Now we’re east of the canyon between Gypsum and Dotsero at Riverdance RV Park. A little fishing on the Eagle River.
Along the way
Sage and wildflowers at Camp Hale, the 10th Mountain Division World War II training facility for mountain warfare.
Good High country stuff.
Good High country stuff.
Santa fe
Meanwhile, back at Santa Fe Skies, there is a lot to see.
Buena vista
We took the scenic route. The direct route from here to Glenwood Springs would have been to go straight north right back through Leadville to Interstate 70, then west. We didn’t do that. We left Santa Fe on Interstate 25 northbound and drove for a few hours, as far as Walsenburg, Colorado. From there we took a back way we never get to go on, a colorado highway through Westcliffe to eventually meet up with Highway 50 and follow the Arkansas River upstream through Salida. We were expecting great scenery and got it. So here we are again at the KOA in Buena Vista for the night. In Santa Fe, the hummingbirds were all black-chinned. Here, they are all broad-tailed and Rufous. Swarms of hummingbirds and a bonus; a roving pack of about a hundred pinon jays, complaining their way across the scrub forest.
Karma
On our way to Santa Fe, on the outskirts, stuck in a traffic jam so bad they’ve closed the freeway, all three lanes of traffic being routed off the exit ramp in the distance to crawl along the access road until the next opportunity to return. We’re in the center lane. All three lanes barely moving, but the merge not happening until the police officers directing traffic right at the ramp. As we get closer, still barely creeping, another RV pulls next to us in the right lane. He opens his window, and invites us to merge ahead of him. We’re sixty feet; not that easy to change lanes without help, so we thank him profusely, and over the course of the next several minutes, manage to get our full length ahead of him and merge into the empty space. What a nice guy! He didn’t have to do that. Time marches on. This man should be rewarded beyond our measly thanks and light blinking recognition…. and he was! The universe is just and fair. His reward? Because he volunteered to wait just a little longer and let us go first, he didn’t have to be the last vehicle diverted onto the exit ramp. Somebody had to be last, and it wasn’t him….. it was us. Just as we passed the point of no return, the police pulled aside the barricades and reopened the southbound freeway. He waved as he went past.