Colorado - Day 4 - to Trinidad and La Junta

La Junta KOA, La Junta
Friday, 4 September 2020

On the way out of the campground, I noticed an arrangement I haven't seen before.  It was a Jayco camper that had a rear slide - presumably for a bed - and a front slide that was a railed patio.  I would have taken a photo but I think the people were inside so decided not to.  But it looked like the whole platform underneath the camper slid forward and became this patio area with a railing.  The reason I thought that is that the very front of it still had the propane tank that always sits at the front of these campers.  So I figured when they were driving, that front slide would be pushed back under the rest of the camper until the propane tank would be situated where it always is.  Maybe the railing consists of separate pieces that are added after the floor has been extended.  It was something new for me.

today's route

I had to drive back into Walsenburg to pick up I-25 S for the first leg of our trip.  On the way there I noticed a bar that was in an upright position but obviously would be long enough to stretch across US 160, which I was on.  The bar had a sign attached to it saying "Road Closed."  Clearly there are times when that bar and sign are needed, and I wondered what for.  I didn't see anything like that elsewhere since I've been in CO, other than the No Snowplowing notices.  Of course CO gets snow, but I'm curious why that one piece of road would have to be closed.  The sign was just west of a bridge, but it's a short bridge and fairly level so doesn't seem like it'd be any more vulnerable to bad weather than anywhere else I've been.  Just one of those local mysteries, I guess.

South to Trinidad
An exit off I-25 is marked as access to the Highway of Legends, which as far as I can tell means "legends" as in the early settlers who passed that way long ago.  Unless it means the mountains the road travels through.  I can't tell.  Basically, today it's a scenic route between Walsenburg and Trinidad, for those who want something other than the interstate views.

Not far beyond it was another exit marked as being the road to the Ludlow Massacre Memorial.  This isn't something I remember hearing about so of course I looked it up.  Those who know about labor disputes in the US will certainly have heard of it because it turned out to inspire labor leaders all over the country to rally support.  It was a dispute between the coal miners and the coal mine owners, who hired private armed guards and co-opted the state national guard, with a number of deaths, and the whole thing stopped only when Pres. Woodrow Wilson sent in federal troops.  I found 2 informative accounts: this one from the City of Trinidad   https://visittrinidadcolorado.com/ludlow-massacre  and this one with additional information from Wikipedia.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Ludlow-Massacre

lots of this kind of scene along the highway

For much of the trip south to Trinidad, I had the Spanish Peaks for company.  Farther on there were still plenty of hills and things.  I saw horses and a few cows, and you can see in these photos the kind of land I saw.

I was heading straight for New Mexico but saw only 1 NM license plate.  Almost all the others were from CO, TX and AZ.  Maybe New Mexicans are still hunkering down because of the virus?

I watched that odd knob come closer and closer as
we went down the highway - found out when
we got to Trinidad that that "knob" is called El Moro

El Moro, above Trinidad

Trinidad, pop. about 9,000 and elevation at 6,017', seems to be a nice little place, founded in the 1860s because of the coal mines.

We got extremely lucky by stumbling on a very large off-leash dog park that was completely empty for most of the time we were there.  It looked like the park for large dogs was a full acre, with another quarter-acre for small dogs, plus a paved walking trail.  By the time we left, several other people & their large dogs had arrived and I barely got my dogs back in the car in time to prevent trouble.  But they got a good little sniffing session in.

Northeast to La Junta along the Santa Fe Trail
US 350, the highway I was on, parallels and in several places coincides with the old Santa Fe Trail up to La Junta which, by the way, is pronounced "lah HUNT ah" here in Colorado.

One of the reasons I chose this route was that AAA says it's a scenic route, but it's honestly not my idea of scenic.

off my left side - pretty flat scrubland
for a long distance

this series of mounds was the most relief
we encountered

You can see there wasn't much variety in the scenery for nearly 70 miles.  I suppose if you like this sort of thing it's scenic, but my tastes tend toward the lakes-and-forests variety.

Part way along there was a Point of Interest, per a highway sign, with these varied informational signs.

This sign was hard to read even in person, so I'll translate the text:
IN MEMORY OF THE CREWMEN
On the morning of 21 August 1944, two B-24 Liberator bombers
collided in mid-air and plunged to earth killing eighteen men.
[lists of the crewmembers who died]
Dedicated August 21, 2004 [the 60th anniversary].

This and the next 4 are all parts of the same sign -
they're all hard to read because of being very weathered.

detail of the text is below (I liked the drawing)

detail from above left

This is half of one of two signs titled
"Purgatoire River Region - Model & Thatcher"

The 2nd half of the sign above

This map was below the text shown above.

This is half of the 2nd sign . . .

. . . and the other half of the 2nd sign.

Along this drive I passed several places labeled by highway signs as towns: Model, Tyrone, Thatcher and Delhi, all of which are labeled on the AAA map and none of which seem to be in existence.  I understand Model, at least, has a post office, but all that's by the road is a few abandoned buildings.

In fact, when I left Trinidad I saw a sign saying there are no services between Trinidad and La Junta, and I found none.  The farm people who live along this road must be very self-reliant.

Along the road I passed occasional signs telling me I was actually on the original Santa Fe Trail route for the next ___ miles - 7 miles and 5 miles and 7.5 miles, followed by a sign saying "end original route."

At one point I saw 2 cowhands on horseback following 11 cows & calves that were trotting along, followed a little way back by 5 more cows; then a longer distance away I passed a large herd of cows grazing.  It all looked so authentic it was hard to remember this is real life for a lot of people, not a TV show.

One other odd thing I saw was what I thought at first were apples dumped by the side of the road.  Then I got curious because there were quite a few of these apple dumps.  Because the road was so straight and flat with almost no traffic, I could stop and get out of the RV to take some photos.  I think they're some kind of gourds.

Farther along I came to a sign saying I was entering the Comanche National Grasslands - it's a separate section of the same grasslands I drove through when I first came into the state.

Somewhere in this area I knew there were dinosaur tracks.  Quite a few of them, actually, and I would really have liked to see them.  But a little research told me I'd have to hike more than 2 miles just to see one of them, let alone to follow their trail.  With the weather as hot as it's been, and my reluctance to take the dogs, much as they would have loved it, because we might meet another dog and I don't want to deal with that - those 2 factors combined to make me decide not to attempt it.  But they sound wonderful.  Here's a variety of information sources, each providing different versions of the facts.   https://www.colorado.edu/following-dinosaurs-along-colorados-purgatoire-river;   https://thedyrt.com/picketwire-canyonlands-dino-tracks;   https://en.wikipedia.org/Purgatoire-River-track-site.

La Junta
I decided to go directly to the campground, just to be sure they were going to give me the campsite they'd promised, and the answer was not quite but close enough.  However, it was still 11:00 and they wanted to charge me for early check-in, so I said I'd run some errands and come back.

Coming into town we'd passed a nice-looking park, so I went back there for a walk and some lunch.  It was a city park that included a baseball field and some beautiful old locust trees.  I didn't notice the trees - just the shade they cast - until we'd parked in said shade and I opened the door.

That was the view I had when I opened the door, and some sight it was to see.  I love old trees.  They seem so reassuring, somehow.

After a walk and some lunch, I went hunting for one of the spots where the city promised I'd find drop-off boxes for recyclables.  Driving through town I couldn't help but notice this nice-looking structure.  The sign doesn't say so, but it's a Church of God.  It seems to fit with the fact that La Junta was established in 1881.

From there down to the town tennis courts, where I did find drop boxes and, wonder of wonders, they accept glass.  But oddly they didn't accept any plastic and they didn't accept any paper except office paper and newspapers.  I got rid of a lot, but I've got a lot more looking for a bigger town to be dumped in.

Near the tennis courts I found Otero Junior College.  Founded in 1941 with an enrollment of 1,262, it seems to be filling a real need in the area, especially for STEM classes.

Koshare Indian Museum

On the grounds of the college is the Koshare Indian Museum, which I'd thought about visiting.  It boasts the world's largest self-supporting log ceiling, which I'd hoped to be able to see from the outside.  I couldn't, but I did see some nice architecture.  Very Southwestern Indian, to me.

detail of the bars on the windows

I found a photo online of the ceiling and am attaching it here.  This museum is unusual for more than the ceiling, though.  It was conceived and created by a Boy Scout troop and still acts as a hub for both the local troop and visiting groups.   It's an interesting story which you can read about at these links.   http://koshares.com/about; http://koshares.com/worlds-largest-self-supported-log-roof.

Heading back into the main part of town I passed a little house for sale that looked like something I'd be interested in.  Turns out someone else is too, because the realtor's website says it's under contract, but I was curious about the price: $110,000.  Built 1931, 2 story with 1,144 square feet and .16 acre lot, fully fenced.  Well, I don't think I could be happy living in a town with only 7,000 people, as La Junta has, but it's nice to know there're still houses like this available.

I stopped at the local Safeway, with a slightly larger selection than the one in Walsenburg, though I really don't care for Safeway in general because they push their own brands to the exclusion of national brands.  In this part of Colorado, though, there's not really a choice.  And I stopped at Big D's Liquor Store near the campground.  In Colorado, all wine and liquor can be purchased only at a liquor store.  The state only allowed full-strength beer to be sold outside liquor stores 3 years ago, so it'll probably be a while longer before grocery stores can sell wine.

And then back to the campground, where I'm planning to stay until the Labor Day weekend has passed.  National holidays and I don't get along real well, now that I'm living in campgrounds, but I have to acknowledge they're a part of this country I've been driving around to see.

Colorado - Days -1 to +3 - Lathrop State Park/Walsenburg

Lathrop State Park, Walsenburg
Monday, 31 August - Thursday, 3 September 2020

I spent most of these 4 days in the campground.  Thanks to having an internet signal, I spent most of the time walking the dogs and working on catching up the blog posts.

I drove into Walsenburg one day for groceries, but the Safeway there, the only grocery store in town, didn't have a lot of what I wanted, so I guess I'll have to wait for La Junta.

While we were in town, I walked the dogs a bit.  It was another hot day, and we'd parked in the shade of the Catholic church, a block off Main Street.  In the next block I saw an abandoned school building - at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was - probably built in the 1930s or 40s, red brick, 2 or 3 stories - you know the type.  All boarded up now, with a construction-type fence around the overgrown lawn.  I wanted to go that way because there's a sidewalk in front of the building, which I figured would keep the dogs out of traffic.

As we got closer, I saw what I assumed was a statue of a deer lying down on the grass in front of the building.  And just as I was concluding it wasn't a statue, the deer turned its head and looked at us.  Above all else I wanted to get us away before the dogs noticed it, which they'd have been bound to do because I could see it was starting to stand up.  I did get us turned around and heading in the other direction without trouble, and when I looked back I saw the adult deer had been joined by a fawn.  For the life of me I can't imagine what they're doing in this fenced off piece of land - how they got there and why they stayed there.  But with the dogs in tow, I sure couldn't check it out.  Very odd.  Even odder because this was 2 blocks off Main St. in the middle of the town, with houses and businesses all around.

Back in the campground, the only wildlife I saw were a multitude of rabbits (early in the morning, flashing their white tails as they ran from us), very pale squirrels, and Magpies.

Magpie: internet photo

Magpie: my photo

I don't remember seeing a Magpie since Alaska, but once seen, never forgotten, as you can probably tell.  They're really big birds, so you can't miss them, let alone mistake them.  There were quite a few in the campground, especially active in the first part of the morning.

That's it for fauna, as far as I saw.  For flora, things were quite different than in Oklahoma.  Almost no stickers, on the plus side.  But plenty of plants that could stick, nonetheless.

a whole field of those little puffy things

these cactus flowers
must have been lovely a few months ago

There were also more flowers than I would have expected in this desert-y environment.

But the dominating features in the environment were the mountains.  That sign back in Walsenburg about it being the Heart of Spanish Peaks country wasn't kidding.

Spanish Peaks from the campground - I can't tell you
which is the east peak and which is the west
because the perspective gets skewed

The Spanish Peaks consist of East Spanish Peak at 12,683' and West Spanish Peak at 13,626'.  They are not part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which I think are a little bit west of these peaks.

Spanish Peaks, from another angle at another time

mountains to the north or west of the Spanish Peaks -
taken at sunrise from my campsite

again, not the Spanish Peaks, but
next to them from my viewpoint

I assume these other mountains include Blanca Peak at 14,351' - it's farther west (see map below) but, with that height, might look as these do.  If Blanca Peak is one of these, then those are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains and run from central Colorado south into northern New Mexico.  I got all that from Wikipedia, of course.  Blanca Peak is the 4th highest summit of the Rockies, so - tall.

this shows that Blanca Peak is
directly west of Walsenburg
and West Spanish Peak is southwest of
town and southeast of Blanca Peak

Although we didn't get the constant wind I experienced most of the month I was in Oklahoma, we certainly had our fair share while we were here and one time got smacked with an exceedingly strong gust.  It actually made a noise, seemed to come out of nowhere, and rocked the RV a bit.  It was so sudden and so strong it startled all of us.

I liked this campground a lot, especially Loop B where we went the first 2 nights and the last night.  On the 1st and 2nd we were in Loop A, which has a lot more trees but is distinctly more popular.  On both those nights Loop A was completely full, while B still had plenty of vacant spaces, and the odd thing about that is those were Tuesday and Wednesday nights which are usually the slowest nights of the week.  It was a relief to me to get back over to Loop B for our last night, even though it started to fill up for the Labor Day weekend.

When I first checked in, the office staff told me I might have had trouble making an online reservation because their system almost crashed: they'd had one cancellation for Friday night - apparently creating the only space available in the campground - and the whole world tried to reserve it at once.  I was really glad I'd made my reservations for the holiday weekend several weeks in advance.  Obviously a lesson I learned well.  Wish I knew which states I'll be in for Thanksgiving and Christmas so I could really plan ahead.

I think I mentioned earlier that CO tacks on a daily fee for anyone entering any state park.  This fee varies from $9-$11, probably depending on how popular the park is.  Here it's a $9 fee, meaning my campground cost would have $9/night added to the price.  Since I knew I'd be staying for 5 nights just at this one campground alone, adding up to $45, I decided to buy the annual pass for $80.  I'm assuming I'll stay enough nights at state parks for the rest of the month to justify the expense - it'll only take 4 more nights to break even, after all.

And I have to say that, if this campground is representative of the rest of their system, the money is being well spent.  The whole place is very clean and well maintained, and I was quite impressed.

Colorado - Day -2 - from OK to CO

Lathrop State Park, Walsenburg
Sunday, 30 August 2020

I got only 2 hours of sleep overnight at Black Mesa State Park.

I woke up feeling like we were under siege by the stickers and flies, afraid to leave the RV, and not even able to get on the internet to be constructive.  I had no phone signal, no TV reception and no town nearby - let alone another campground.  Even if I took the road west, it deteriorates into a seasonal road, meaning not one I'd want to be on even in the summer.  I just felt trapped.  And the longer I lay in bed feeling this way, the more determined I was not to stay here for 2 more nights.

I decided to go on north to Colorado and, when I got in range of an internet signal, check on campsite availability at the KOAs and state parks I'd already researched for the Labor Day weekend.

I rousted the dogs out even before first light and took them for an abbreviated walk using a flashlight.  No flies, though there were mosquitoes or something out instead.  But the stickers were a constant worry because I already knew they lined the pathway and the dogs had to relieve themselves somewhere.

Because I knew we were leaving, I'd already taken steps to get the cabin ready for road travel, so we'd had breakfast, I unplugged the hoses by flashlight (to avoid the stickers), and we were on the road just as light was starting to break.  I think I've left that early only once or twice before - I prefer to travel in daylight.

today's route

Back on the road
It turns out I exaggerated yesterday about the cattle guards: there were only 5 of them on the 6-mile drive back to the highway. Plus a very low low-water crossing.

There were also lots of flocks of birds flying across the road and I had to slow way down to keep from hitting them.  Don't know why they wanted to cross the road (to get to the other side, probably) or why so many of them were flying around so vigorously this early in the morning.

I stopped at a batch of historical markers I didn't want to take time for yesterday - most of them about the Santa Fe Trail.

see some of the text below

detail from the sign above

I'm sorry I couldn't get some of that "excellent camping."

upper part of sign

lower part of sign

It's not too hard to picture these folks
moving across this land.

I guess they decided to plunk down a bunch more signs now that they'd cleared a spot to put them in.  Here are some others that were there.

I guess they're talking about the Santa Fe Trail.

Remember I said I'd gotten us on the road before sunrise?  Here's proof.

Official sunrise in Kenton about 10 miles farther west was 6:27, but I didn't see the sun come up until 7:20.  Maybe a difference in elevation?  There's a herd of cows in the field at the front of that photo that you can't see because if I'd lightened the contrast it would have messed up the pretty colors.  Two young cows kept staring at me when I was taking pictures.

Once the sun came up, it actually made it harder for me to see than before because all the way into Boise City I was driving almost directly into the sun.  The sun was too low for the visor to help, so I had to hold up my hand to block it out of my vision - except we humans have that stereoscopic vision so holding up my hand only blocked the sun from one eye.  That 20 miles or so was a 40 minute drive, partly because the sun made me drive much slower that usual.

Plus there was a stretch of heavy ground fog across the road - yet another reason for going slowly.

Fortunately, it was just yesterday that I'd come through Boise City, so I knew there was a major detour in the smack middle of town.  That meant the directions I'd gotten from Google last week were useless because I knew the road it wanted me to turn on was blocked off and I hadn't seen a detour marked for it.  So I found a place to park in town across from the hospital and got an internet connection and studied a map of Boise City to find an alternate route.  After the dogs and I walked a bit, I took off again.

Except that alternate route I picked assumed the key road wasn't blocked off for its entire length, which it was, and it no longer connected to US 287, which would take me north to Colorado.  I wandered around the streets in Boise City - not a metropolitan area with a population of about 1,200 - and kept finding dead ends and nothing that seemed to connect to the highway.

Finally, in desperation I flagged down a passing car and asked for help, and she said just turn around and go until I got to the field and turn right and I'd find the highway.  Then she saw the blank look on my face and said I could follow her if I wanted to.  Thank goodness.  I'd never in a million years have found the route she took me because, in the first place, she crossed that blocked road at an intersection that had signs saying do not enter, and then she led me down what seemed to be an alley that I'd noticed before but didn't think it was wide enough for me (it was), and then turned right on what wasn't much more than a dirt road alongside a cropfield, and kept going farther than it seemed like we should go and then, sure enough, we got to the highway.  Definitely the local knowledge route.

Her kindness, and the incredible local-ness of that route, made me feel very happy.  After that truly awful experience in the campground I was really glad to be leaving Oklahoma on such a high note.  It kept me smiling for a long time.

Then I saw a sign saying, "Welcome to Colorful Colorado."

Colorado - my 26th state

This map shows clearly how my tidy little plan of travel is getting a bit out of whack, thanks to this stupid virus.

Quite soon after I'd crossed the border I saw a sign saying there's a statewide mandate for masks in public places.

Eastern Colorado is still High Plains country, and the landscape looks just like the western part of Oklahoma.  The first 50 miles of highway passed through Comanche National Grasslands.  Despite having visited the Black Kettle National Grasslands a week or so ago, I'm still not clear about what constitutes a set-aside area.  This area just looks like the same scrubland I've been driving through for several days.

I passed cows, a few trees, and occasional plowed fields, which made it clear this is brown dirt here, not the red dirt of OK.

We stopped in Springfield, both for a walk and for me to regroup.  I needed to figure out where we were going to sleep for the next 2 nights.  With an internet connection, I could see there was room at Lathrop State Park, where I already had reservations beginning on the 1st, so I reserved a campsite online.

We'd stopped at the empty parking lot of a community center, and they had a big Welcome to Springfield sign that said, among lots of other things, that they grow sorghum, wheat and prickly pear here in Colorado.

The highway signs that give the names of towns don't provide any other information about them.  Not so for the water bodies, though.  I can tell you that Bear Creek, for instance, has an elevation of 4,330'.

I passed a driveway for something labeled Shipwreck Ranch.  I couldn't find anything for it online and wonder what the story is with that name.

The land here seems nearly flat, though there are occasional towering land masses.  I saw one to the northeast that seemed pyramid-shaped and, as I got closer, saw that there are 2 of them and they're called Two Buttes.

I passed a homemade sign that had too much message for me to be able to read it all.  The words I got were something like, "Bush's Rapists Are Abusive" and "Thief Trump ___" (I couldn't read the missing word).  For some reason I looked up the first one and learned, to my surprise, that Pres. George HW Bush was a known satanist and an evil pedophile, part of a satanic cult that hunts and hurts naked children.  Yeah, right.  Me too.  After that, I didn't even bother trying to figure out where the Trump thing was going.  I know this QAnon stuff is popular, but what I can't figure out is how so many people can believe there's a long-standing pedophile ring going among the Who's Who in Washington, particularly one that drinks children's blood and consists of cannibals, while absolutely zero law enforcement people - from any agency - have managed to find them.  Why does it make people happy to believe stuff like this?

I started seeing mountains on the horizon, and thought I might be seeing smoke.  Anna had sent me information about wildfires in Colorado - there are 4 of them spread out in the western part of the state with 2 in the Denver vicinity.  So that's probably the source of the smoke I'm seeing

In Lamar (pop. about 7,700), elevation 3,622' they say, I saw 2 statues that I now know I should have taken photos of.  One was called Prairie Wings and showed 2 flying geese - very nicely done.  It was in Centennial Park, where the dogs and I walked around a bit.  The other was called Pioneer Mothers and I remember it as being a pioneer woman with a couple of kids.  I can't find either one of them online, and my search for Pioneer Mothers insists I saw a statue I didn't see.  I'll have to go back sometime.

I'd been told by several highway signs and some other materials that I'd find a state Welcome Center in Lamar.  It must be very well hidden because I looked diligently but didn't find it.

From Lamar I turned west on US 50 and started seeing goats and maybe sheep (hard to tell once they've been shorn), as well as cows and horses.  I passed several huge feed lots that were packed with thousands of cows.  Well, I hear it comforts cows to be in tight spaces, so I guess they felt nice and calm here.  I'd never seen anything like it though.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a one-room building with a sign that I thought said, "The Star School, built 1812."  I guess I got most of it right - I found this historical note online with only the date different.  And that building in the picture looks the way I remember this building looking.  I can attest that it's still standing after 120 years.  They built it real good.   https://www.waymarking.com/Star-School-McClave-CO

I saw my first Red-winged Blackbird in months.

US Hwy 50, that I'm on here, and then US Hwy. 350 that runs farther south than I'll be going today, parallel the old Santa Fe Trail, and I saw a sign saying so.

Around the town of Hasty, the land suddenly seemed much greener than it has been - but there's lots of crops grown here so maybe there's more water available.

The land also gradually begins to climb.  At Las Animas, it's 3,901' up.  Farther down the road, La Junta is at 4,066' elevation.  And at Walsenburg, where I'm going tonight, the elevation is 6,185'.  I never noticed the climb, though, which is how I know it's done gradually.

In Las Animas, the highway makes a 90° turn at an old building.  Google tells me it's now used for driver's licenses or something like that, and maybe that's right.  But this building was built long before cars were built.  I'd like to go back and see if there's a historical marker on that building.

La Junta, aka The Junction, has a population of about 7,000 and is the Otero County seat.  You can maybe tell the Spanish and Mexican influence in this part of the state.  There's still a large Hispanic population in southern CO.  On the county courthouse grounds, where I walked the dogs a bit, they have speakers playing '70s music - Eagles, Crosby Stills Nash - like that.  La Junta seems to be a very attractive town, but I'll learn more later this week.  I've got a reservation to cover the Labor Day weekend at the La Junta KOA.

I switched highways - US 50 heads up to Pueblo but I'm heading farther south to Walsenburg and Lathrop State Park down State Highway 10.  I passed multiple signs along the road telling people: "No Snowplowing 7 PM to 5 AM."  Something about that message seems odd to me.

Sadly, many many butterflies kept hitting the RV.  Maybe they're migrating now?

For a change, I started seeing square hay bales instead of round ones.  I guess the cattle farms around here are on a smaller scale than in OK.

The land changed again, now back to the yellow/tan scrubland, where the only plants that are sticking up are varieties of cactus.  This state highway is very straight and flat, but also very bumpy; Dexter's having trouble sleeping, even sitting on the front seat.

I can see the mountains are coming nearer and am having some very strong wind gusts hitting the RV.

Scrub and juniper, bare-topped mesas, what I think are the Rocky Mountains ahead.

I passed a trim little farmhouse with out buildings and a homemade sign saying, "Not 4 Sale."  Wonder what made that sign necessary.

I came to Walsenburg, elev. 6,185' (meaning I've been doing some climbing, even though the road seemed flat).  Walsenburg, The Heart of Spanish Peaks Country, and Gateway to the Great American West, per various signs.

And on to the campground, just 3 miles west of town.  Where I found out the campsite I thought I'd reserved didn't get reserved.  Honestly, every state's got a different system.  The weird part is most of them use ReserveAmerica.com so you'd think they'd be standardized, but they absolutely aren't.  Luckily for me, no one had come in during the day to rent that spot, so I got it anyway.  I should have plenty of time during the rest of the month to get this system figured out - it took me a bit to figure out OK's, after all.