Currently in Pagosa Springs CO (Low 35 Some Sun early, a Shower or two later; Cooler High 58)
In case the weather prevents sightseeing the rest of the week, which it might as the forecast calls for rain every day and a snow mixture on Thursday, we decided to do some local sightseeing yesterday. We visited the Mother Spring.
Pagosa Springs gets its name from the Ute Indians who named the springs in the area "healing springs", or "Pah gosah". As far back as 10,000 years ago the natives to the area visited the hot springs. There are currently 3 main hotels/spas that take advantage of the hot springs but the Mother Spring is located at the Springs Hotel and Spa and is shown here with 145 degree water.
We like learning new stuff and we did not know that the Mother Spring is the deepest hot springs in the world. The gal at the town Visitors Center told us a couple of fun facts. When the water level of the San Juan River gets lower later in the year they block off part of the water and since it is warmed by the hot springs they have there own spa at no cost. Here is the San Juan River yesterday, too much current to do that now.
The other fun fact is that they were trying to measure the actual depth of the hot springs and got their equipment down to 1000' and the equipment quit sending data back. They tried it a couple of times with the same results so they don't know the exact depth but no other hot springs reach 1000' so they are certain of their statement.
Pagosa Springs is a neat town in a neat area that we hope to explore more if the weather cooperates. We showed a picture of shopping at Walmart in Alamosa with the mountains in the distance so we thought we would do the same from our grocery shopping at Hometown Market in Pagosa Springs.
The Mother Spring is in downtown Pagaso Springs and we'll leave you with a pop culture reference to Pagosa Springs. "Downtown Pagosa Springs" was the final destination for a duo of truckers in the 1975 country song "Wolf Creek Pass" by C. W. McCall (best known for "Convoy"). We went over Wolf Creek Pass yesterday and the vertical drop of around 5,000 feet described in the song as "hairpin county and switchback city" aptly described the descent, although we never felt out of control. Here is one such road sign.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Pagosa Springs CO (Low 37 Mostly Sunny early the a passing afternoon Shower High 69)
We left Alamosa Colorado yesterday and headed to Pagosa Springs, also in Colorado. The highlight of the trip had to be going over the Wolf Creek Pass on the Continental Divide. Here we are at the summit heading down.
It was approximately 100 miles, this is the route we took.
US Highway 160 was a scenic drive sometimes along a babbling river which we did not get a good picture of. We went through a couple of tunnels.
There were some waterfalls from the snow runoff.
You know you are on a high mountain road when you see signs along the way that a runaway truck ramp is close by. Sure is comforting.
We are staying at the Mountain Landing Suites and RV Park. Here is an image from the web.
The last park may have had bunnies but we have something different out our back window this week.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Alamosa CO (Low 38 Currently Sunny 54)
Heading to Pagosa Springs CO (Currently 53 Sunshine with an afternoon Shower High 69)
We had a lot of rain during our stay at the Alamosa KOA in Alamosa Colorado but the park's gravel roads and sites held up well. Our Rand McNally GPS brought us right to the park but the Garmin GPS would have had us turn a little earlier but ended up at the same point.
The hookups were convenient in our 100' pull thru. We had a good line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish. The park wifi was good which was nice because we were approaching the Verizon 4g speed data limit on our jetpack. The Verizon phone service was spotty but the Verizon 4g was pretty good. The park wifi was also pretty good. At checkin we were told there were a lot of bunnies which the cats enjoyed looking at.
Here is the Lifestyle from the front.
To the right.
We were at the end of the row so the view to the left is mostly mountains.
From the rear.
We never got tired of arriving back at the park to see the Lifestyle and the mountain range in the distance.
We would probably stay here again if in the area. After a great week in Alamosa Colorado we depart today heading to Pagosa Springs, also in Colorado.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Alamosa CO (Low 40 Mostly Cloudy with a Shower High 73)
When we arrived at the KOA in Alamosa we saw the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains in the distance and what appeared to be sand.
We found out that sand was the Great Sand Dunes National Park. A beautiful day yesterday so we decided to visit. We got to the park and the visitors center where we saw an excellent film.
Here we are outside of the visitors center.
A little background on the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It is known for huge dunes, reported to be the tallest dunes in the North American continent at 750' and covering 30 square miles. You knew it had to be large for us to see them from about 23 miles away as the crow flies. Although huge it is only about 11% of the sand in the area.
Over time the Sangre de Cristo range blocked the wind that was moving sand from the lower elevations so the sand ended up deposited at the base of the range showing here.
This is a windy area so the sand is continually deposited in the higher elevations where it returns to the dunes during the spring runoff of the winter snow on a creek on each side of the dunes, kind of a sand recycling effort. Here is the Medano Creek dunes area.
The sand here is reportedly 35' below the water you see.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park is home to the Great Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle, from a picture in the visitors center. In fact this is the only place in the world you can find this beetle.
Here is a better picture from the web of this unique beetle.
Some more great scenery shots.
We had a great time visiting this gem of a National Park in southern Colorado.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Alamosa CO (Low 33 Sunny Early Then Afternoon Thunderstorms High 70)
We talked yesterday about the challenges of weather and its impact. We 'planned' to go to the Great Sand Dune National Park which is nearby and was highly recommended by Bob's cousin Kevin who lives in Colorado. With all the snow we got Jo decided to check the live webcam for the Great Sand Dune National Park and we are glad she did. We decided we did not want to visit the Great Snow Dunes since they got more snow than we did so we came up with Plan B - the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge which was about 5 minutes from the KOA.
Our first stop at these kind of places is the visitors center to get some tips.
They had a list of the birds that have been seen that day and we were excited since there were a few we have not seen before so we took off on the auto tour route since the walking trails would be too muddy with all the recent rain and then the overnight snow.
We saw some new birds to us like the Yellow Headed Blackbird. A reminder that you can select the photo and it will enlarge for you.
The American Bittern, a member of the Heron family
The Horned Lark
We think this is the Sage Thrasher
Since this is a wetland there were ducks.
We saw a Northern Harrier in flight but did not get a good picture. Here is one that was stuffed and displayed in the visitors center.
We had a great time just driving very slowly through and stopping frequently trying to spot them with our binoculars and then get a good picture. Again click on the photos and it will zoom for you so you can see the birds better.
We will check the live cam for the Great Sand Dune National Park later this morning and if it looks good we will head there after breakfast.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Alamosa CO (Low 28 Partly Sunny High 60)
At 7543' the weather is unpredictable. Who would have known that we would get snowed on last night. Jo took these pictures early this morning. Here is the snow on the ladder.
The sun trying to shine through, yes Jo was up that early :-)
Other pictures.
Luckily the snow melted quickly and we were able to do some sightseeing that we will blog about later
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Alamosa CO (Low 30 Mostly Cloudy, a few Showers High 58)
We thought we would talk a little about how we arrive at places to eat. With food being so important to us we have multiple lines of research. For years Bob has been collecting tidbits from TV shows and other people on where to eat so we check that first. Then a couple of bloggers that we follow are foodies so we check them, Phannie and Mae and Living our Dream. As we get closer to our next stop we check Yelp and other foodies sites. Once we get to the next park we ask at the checkin desk and then talk to fellow campers in the park. That gives us a whole lot of options.
On our blog we have created a list of "Our Favorite Things! (Food)' on our blog. Here are the Arizona Green Chile Eggs from the Turquoise Room at the La Posada Hotel in Winslow Arizona.
Here is a partial view of that list as it used to be on the main page of our blog.
Mike Mills of Phannie and Mae has a list of his favorite restaurants by city which we think is pretty neat so we stole his idea. We have started to do this but it will be a work in progress. If any of our readers would like recommendations on a city just let us know and we will work on that first. Here is how our foodie section now looks on our blog.
We have made two separate pages; our old best of list and this one by state and then by city.
As stated before this is a work in progress so keep checking back and if you would like a city added just let us know.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
