The Southwest Colorado Trip - Day 1

Today was day one of a long overdue week long vacation with the family. My loving wife chose a timeshare in Pagosa Springs, CO and booked it many weeks ago. Work continues unabated at United Airlines, but my manager said I could still go. I just have to attend some meetings during the upcoming week and since I am a contractor and no work means no pay, it should all work out.

Anyways, I worked all last night and early morning, grabbed three hours sleep this morning and was on the road by Noon. Traffic was bad, couple with a couple of spots with construction-related lane closures but I still made pretty good time. Riding on US285 as I did this past weekend, I made it to Poncha Springs by 3:30 PM and checked in with the family. They were in the minivan and about two hours ahead of me.

Before I got to Poncha Springs, I went by Mount Princeton on US285 and spotted a sign for Chaffee County Road 162 which seemed to head straight for the gap between Mount Princeton and Mount Mamma. I deviated from my highway run for 30 minutes and came upon the town of Mount Princeton Hot Springs, some kind of spa resort apparently. I went past the small town and took these pictures:

Looking west on CR 162, just beyond Mount Princeton Hot Springs

The foothills of Mount Princeton, to the east of the Mount Princeton Hot Springs

The "ghost town" of Saint Elmo was about 12 miles further west but I did not have the time today to explore it. I headed instead back towards US285, stopping briefly to get these shots of the mountains:

A panoramic view of Mt Princeton and Mt Mamma

I proceeded south on US 285 and encountered a bit of stormy weather as I cruised towards Saguache and US 160. I did end up getting rained on a couple of times, briefly, but each time I was able to outrun the rain and the warm weather dried me out nicely each time.

I was riding directly at this weather pattern

A closeup view of part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range

While Brigitta was shadowed by the rain clouds, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains were nicely lit

Looking south on US 285, somewhere north of Saguache

I got to US 160 and turned west towards Pagosa Springs. You ride through the large San Luis Valley and go through a couple of small towns such as Del Norte and South Fork. As you leave the San Luis Valley you get to the mountains around the Wolf Creek Ski Resort and the Continental Divide.

The requisite pass picture of Wolf Creek Pass

The view one sees when starting to descend from Wolf Creek Pass

The valley below, from the Wolf Creek Pass scenic overlook

The riders in the pictures blasted past me just before I got to the overlook, moving way faster than I was, and yet we ended up in the same spot, same time.

A vertical panoramic view, showing the cool rock formations at the base of the overlook

The scenic overlook one gets to after descending from Wolf Creek Pass is well worth the stop. You get a great view of the valley in which Pagosa Springs is located. The road up to the overlook is nice and twisty as is the road down into the valley. The light wasn't quite right for some of the rock formations near the pass so I hope to be there tomorrow soon after sunrise for another try.

I rode on down into the valley, and was soon in Pagosa Springs which was about 20 miles away. Again, it rained on me briefly as I neared the timeshare's location. Here's where the only real danger of the whole ride existed. Clueless cagers wandering about lost inside the timeshare complex trying to find their units! Truly amazing these people were able to pass driving tests.

No matter, I reunited with my family at our timeshare unit, safe and sound. Dinner was almost ready and my loving wife had the wine handy. What more could I ask?

I got to Pagosa Springs at 6:30PM so it was about six and a half hours of riding with picture stops. Brigitta's odometer was right on 76,000 miles when I parked her for the night.

There's some truly beautiful scenery in this part of Colorado so far. The next few days should be some great riding!

EOD Mileage: 76,000