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5-08-07
After a night's stay at a Holiday Inn in Clovis, New Mexico, we set off for Colorado. I hope I never return to Clovis. Something about that town just weirded me out. Anyway, after going after a slight risk the day before and busting horribly, we made a smart choice in just forgetting the entire setup and shot west down through Texas. We had Colorado in our sights today, but we weren't sure if we were going to reach Pike's Peak or not today. A few hours into our trip, we started seeing some bedrock plateaus. It was something different anyway.
Once we neared the northern New Mexico border, the scenery finally started to change. The flat land was neat and all, but after driving through miles and miles of the same thing, it tends to get a little redundant. The hills were starting to get pretty neat. Tall pine and other trees started to become more popluated as we gained in elevation.
Well, this only lasted for a short while before we neared the high plains. Things really flattened out again. I thought it was sort of neat with the sun hitting the wheat fields.
After stopping at a rest stop, we noticed some cactus growing behind a walkway. I saw some a while back during the drive, but this was the first time I could actually get any pictures.
Things again started to get a little hilly. It was starting to get very scenic. We noticed some cumulus forming to our north and eventually some started dumping some rain. It sort of broke up the repetitive pictures of open fields and the fair weather cumulus.
Back at the rest stop, they had a big write-up about the Capulin Volcano. It was about an hour out of our way, but we saw a road that winded up around it all the way to the top. Man, it would be pretty cool to look down inside a once active volcano from the very top. Once we got there, we quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen. They closed at 4. I really wish that sign would have said something about that. We were pretty ticked off about that, but oh well. You can read more about it here: Capulin Volcano
So, we went about an hour out of our way to snap a few shots of the above. Oh well. From the ground it just looked like another hill. At least I can say I say the volcano. On our way back from our "detour", another shower appeared in the distance. This time though, it was alot more interesting. The temperature kept dropping and dropping so the chance for snow was increasing with every mile we neared. But, we started to descend in elevation and the temps stopped dropping around 45 degrees. But, it was still rain. It was something to watch while we were getting back to the main route.
Once we entered Colorado, we started to climb in elevation again. A few hours later, we noticed the first snow covered mountains. We pulled off at a scenic overlook. The actual mountains were behind us and well to the north. There was a hill blocking our view from them behind us, but this was still pretty cool.
Skipping WAY ahead, we finally neared our mountains. I can't remember the names of them now, but they are the first prominent snow capped mountains you'll see coming in from the north. They were incredible. This was my first time ever seeing any type of mountain.
Saw LOTS of virga that week! I would say almost every day except the last few we saw some sort of virga (rain not reaching the ground).
We planned on crashing in Pueblo. On the way, I saw this to my right. There were also some pretty cool sun dogs that accompanied the sunset, but the pics didn't turn out.
We ended up staying in a Hampton Inn, by far the nicest room we had all vacation. It was pretty nice. The next day we headed for Pike's Peak. This was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had.