Driving to Durango

It's our first trip "out" since we've been in Canon City, CO.  We're traveling to Durango to meet up with our good friends, Danny & Robin, from Gardnerville, NV.  I feel like we almost forgot how to pull up camp and head out!  We switched out some hours with another Workamper couple (Buzz & Sandy) and headed out early Thursday afternoon to our stopping waypoint, South Fork.

The campground was nice and shady (I love shady sites except when they interfere with our satellite dish, of course!).

And it was right on the Rio Grande River!  The Rio Grande has its origin near South Fork in the San Juan Mountains and flows from southwestern Colorado all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.  It is 1,885 miles long forming part of the border between Texas and Mexico.  In Mexico, the river is known as Rio Bravo del Norte and is basically unnavigable except near its mouth.  Which is now often reduced to a trickle there by drought and the drawing off of water upstream.

Below, we're standing by the river's edge which was right across the lane from our campsite.  Once again, Sadie is giving you a butt-shot!  By now I think she's famous for them.

Although we did not have a campsite right on the river, we took advantage of this empty site to get a photo of me, Sadie and the river.

Leaving South Fork the next morning we started the last leg of our journey to Durango.  The San Isabel National Forest is beautiful country as you can see from these passenger seat shots.  The windshield was dirty from all the bugs and debris so that's why you see all those spots, but that was not going to deter me from showing you all the scenic sites along the way.

We had to climb up over Wolf Pass to get to Durango.  You'll see the elevation in a picture below so I won't divulge that right now, but from the snow in the picture below you know we were definitely getting up there in elevation.

Okay, now you can see the elevation at Wolf Creek Pass ... 10,857 feet!  We are also (once again) crossing the Continental Divide. This is probably our fourth or fifth crossing of The Great Divide since we started our travels almost a year ago (June 15, 2013 was our first day on the road!).

To give you an idea of how high we were, you can see the road in two parts in this photo with the closest being in the lower right corner and then a thin strip of road you can barely see in the lower left corner of the photo.  It was quite a trip down from the summit and we knew we were going to have to drive back over on our way back home.

We also passed Chimney Rock National Monument on our way to Durango and were able to get a fairly good photo of it from the car.

 

History Lesson: 

Chimney Rock National Monument protects a 1000-year-old community once inhabited by the Ancestral Puebloans. Four ancient structures have been excavated and stabilized for public viewing. They include the 44-foot diameter Great Kiva, the Pit House, a multi-room dwelling, and the Chacoan Great House Pueblo. Many unexcavated structures are also visible on the tour and within the Monument.  It is considered a place of mystery, a sacred place, a celestial observatory and seasonal calendar for the Ancestral Puebloans. Chimney Rock is a place of unparalleled natural beauty sitting on a high mesa at the southern edge of the San Juan Mountains within the San Juan National Forest between Durango and Pagosa Springs.   The Monument encompasses 4,726 acres, preserving hundreds of prehistoric sites that dot the landscape around the twin spires known as Chimney Rock and Companion Rock.

The photo below of Chimney Rock I pulled from the Internet.

 

Next stop?  More beautiful Colorado country and Durango, Colorado.

Psalms 18:2-3

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.