Days Seventeen and Eighteen: Taos to Boulder

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We had a beautiful drive across the mountains from Taos to Raton (I love the name of this town..it means "mouse" in both Spanish and French). It was chilly in the morning, but the dryness made it seem much warmer than 27 degrees when I went for a run before we left. Taos is at 7,000 feet and we climbed another 2000 feet over Palo Flechado Pass before heading down to the midwest plains on the eastside of the Rockies.

I stopped to wade in Taos Creek along the way...to shallow to dip all the way in..

We took a side trip into Raton to visit the history museum there...so many artifacts to see and there was a very knowledgeable docent on duty. After Raton, the scenery was mostly monotonous: flat with dry scrub.

The snow peaked Rockies were beautiful in the distance to the west.

We charged up in Trinidad, and continued on to South Denver, where we charged up again. There was a Ross store nearby and I bought a large jug of body lotion since the dry air here has really affected my skin. We spoke with our next hosts, Vicki and Geoff (long time friends from Seattle who moved to Boulder in 2020) and they suggested we drive through Golden, rather than Denver, to get to their place. The drive was pretty and the traffic much lighter. We arrived at their place round 7:00 and Geoff fixed us martinis and a delicious dinner! They live in a beautiful senior residence, with a view of the mountains from their deck. Their daughter and her family live nearby. Their sweet rescue cat Bella greeted us with curiosity.

On Friday, Geoff drove us along the Peak to Peak Highway, through former mining towns (one, Blackhawk, is now full of giant casinos!) and up to Estes Park, at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way we stopped at beautiful Lily Lake to hike a bit and I got to swim in the mostly ice covered lake.

On the way home, we went past the area devastated by the fire in December of last year. Wind of 100mph whipped a grass fire into an inferno and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes.

Tomorrow we begin four days of long drives to get us back home!

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Photos

An ancient volcanic plug
One of the only things to break the monotony of Southern Colorado

Wading in Taos Creek
Snow on the ground

Palisades Sill
Cut by the Cimarron River...9000 feet elevation

Eagle's Nest Lake
Native peoples gathered eagle feathers here

Raton History Museum
Mr. Sanchez, our docent, showing us the very intricate safe from the first bank in Raton. The bank was allowed to print their own money!

Tom, the dof of the town's photographer
He went to school every day and the children adored him. He dies in 1885, and was given a tombstone.

Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park
Elevation 9000 feet

The homes devastated by fire near Vicki and Geoff's place in December 2021
Over a thousand homes were destroyed...
https://www.cpr.org/2021/12/30/boulder-county-grass-fires/