The weather has been interesting on the Colorado Trail. It rains every day like clockwork at three PM — except on the days it rains at noon or five PM or during the night. The thunderstorms usually don’t last very long, but they can be pretty exciting with lightning and loud thunder and sometimes hail. If you are planning on hiking the Colorado Trail bring some extra socks, it’s a challenge keeping them dry.
We have made it 72 miles on the Colorado Trail to Kenosha Pass where we are making a quick stop in the small town of Jefferson to resupply.
The hike has been wonderful so far and we have met quite a number of fellow hikers who are hiking to Durango. About 15 hikers were camped the first night near the South Platte River Trailhead.
Rain showers have appeared like clockwork every day but we haven’t used our heavy rain gear yet except umbrella and poncho. Luckily yesterday’s heavy rain fell after we were snug in our tent. We are feeling the climbs but are keeping up with some younger hikers. We feel exhilarated and exhausted but the scenery is SO worth the efforts.
Photo: Deb in an Aspen grove in the Lost Creek Wilderness.
Today we went from movie stars (sort of) to the Painted Desert. We spent the night at the El Rancho Hotel and Motel in Gallup, which claims many movie stars have lodged there while filming in the nearby desert. We stayed in the less expensive motel, but enjoyed our stay. We stopped for much of the day in Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert and then continued on to Holbrook.
Departing Santa Rosa, Route 66 was mostly covered over by Interstate Highway 40 for the next 75 miles. This made for quick travel but not as interesting as yesterday’s smaller roads. Then we traveled through the sprawl of Albuquerque for quite some time. Finally, in the afternoon we made it to very scenic Laguna Pueblo Land and then on to Gallup.
There were boo coo sights today, ranging from painted fiberglass ponies to scary motel signs to colorful wall murals to museum-quality iron works such as, well, irons heated with coals or with gasoline. We also talked with interesting locals running the museums and shops, in some cases they were newly retired and beginning new projects to revive and keep alive Route 66.
Today we arrived in Amarillo, Texas late, just as the sun was setting and made a trip out to Cadillac Ranch, an unusual public art exhibit off historic Route 66 (now Interstate 40) west of Amarillo. Cadillac Ranch was commissioned by local millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 (yes, that’s 3 not III) in the 70’s.
Tomorrow we begin driving historic Route 66 back to California.
LonCooper.com
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