Friday, August 10, 2012

Day 10..Into New Mexico.

What a difference a day makes. We woke to mild temps at the Limon KOA. They had an all you can eat pancake breakfast, and we took advantage of it. We hit the road around 8:00 and continued south on 71.
If the USA has an "outback", we drove through it. Yesterday, we did more than 75 miles and more than 100 miles today in some very desolate looking land!

We followed along a section of the old Santa Fe Trail.

The Fort Carson Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.

By the time we reached Trinidad, the temp had started to climb into the low 90's. A big contrast to most of the morning's mid 70's.
From Trinidad, we took a scenic loop on CO-12, up to La Veta.
Along the way, we stopped in Stonewall for lunch at the Stonewall Shopping Bag. I had a great Green Chili covered Burger.

Right outside the window was a very busy Hummingbird feeder.

I was a little nervous about climbing the mountains...

But it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, even at 10,230' (3118m). The climb was not too steep, going up or down.

We stopped for a few pictures of the narrow gauge trains in Antonito.

Then we finished the last stretch of mountain passes to Chama, NM.

We ended the 397 mile day at the Chama Trails Inn Motel.


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