Go Big And Go Home - Day 16 - Rocky Mountain High

Well yesterday and today could not have been more different.  We rode into Colorado yesterday so we started our morning on the 160 E.  The easy part of this day is that it was the only highway we took.  We rode 441km to our destination at Walsenburg, CO, close to Kansas State Line.

So today we rode towards the Rockies.  It didn’t take long to catch sight of them.  As we were riding towards the mountains, there was also a sign asking people NOT to call 911 due to smoke in the valley as wildfire had already been reported.  On our next stop we checked to see where the wildfire was, and our app showed that it was in Quartz Creek not far from Pagosa Springs.  The information also indicated that it was a controlled burn so the only thing we needed to be aware of was smoke…luckily we didn’t have any of that either.  Fortunately that was the only real concern for the day.

So…..we were about 50 km away from Cortez when we started to see the mountains and start our ascent.  The Rockies started out with little peaks and snippets but didn’t take long for us to be up to 8000 ft elevation.  This was a huge change from yesterday…like a complete change……yesterday we say desert with sage and cactus…today we say gold meadows and green pines and trees starting to show their fall colour…..yesterday we saw red rock in formations that almost looked carved, today we saw grey mountain peaks with some showing a small bit of snow at the top…….yesterday was fairly flat, today was an elevation of 10, 857 feet (our highest to date)……yesterday was hot (30C), and today was fairly cool (14-22C)…yesterday the air was extremely dry, today it was cool and moist……..two completely different experiences in a very short distance.

Along the route we got our first look at one of the unique sites along Colorado 160.  That is Chimney Rock….had a hard time figuring out why it got that name lol….this formation is at 11,781 feet elevation but stands out in the distance because of its height and of course because it looks like a damn chimney!

This is apparently one of the bigger attractions along the route but we were not far into the Rockies when we found ourselves in a valley, surrounded by the mountains.

The day was sunny, the sky a beautiful colour of blue and the mountains were amazing.

Just as we got past Pagosi Springs it wasn’t long before we were making a real climb up the mountain.  This climb took us around at least one “hairpin” turn, which strangely had a look out right on the corner….poor planning I would say.  As we came to the top of the pass we pulled over at one of the scenic areas which, come to find out, was the Wolf Creek Valley Overlook, and also the Continental Divide.  I won’t bore you with Continental Divide info as you can read if you want on the below photos…what I will tell you is that it also divides Rio Grande National Forest to the east and the San Juan National Forest to the West…..funny note is that this is the second time in two months that I have stood on the Divide, once in Canada and now in the US…..wasn’t even planned.  This is also where we hit our highest elevation to date!

It was a beautiful ride, through a lot of towns/villages but also with a lot of viewing pleasure….here are a few more photos in larger format for you!