The sun was shining bright when we left Taos. We had to make a choice of taking the eastern route north on the Interstate highway, or taking the western route north through some of the mountains. We much prefer to stay off the Interstate, so I checked the weather forecast for the mountain route and it looked good.
Here's the route we took. 309 miles (495 kms) from Taos to Denver.
So glad we made that choice! It was a beautiful drive, and we'll show you the pictures to prove it!
Leaving Taos, it was a nice sunny day!
Earthship homes.
Just outside of Taos, New Mexico are the "earthship" homes. These homes are made from recycled material and are designed to be self sustaining with solar electricity and water, food, and contained sewage treatment. You can read more about it here... http://earthship.com/
Did I mention it was a beautiful drive?
Crossing the border.
The first part of the drive was quite flat, but with mountains on either side.
Can't figure why anybody would take the Interstate over this!
Into the mountains! What a fun road to drive!
Typical Colorado ranch and mountains.
The little blue car enjoying the scenery.
We did encounter some snow squalls on a couple of mountain passes. At one point, we were just over 10,000 ft (3,048 m)!
And at 3:45pm, we got our first view of Denver!
We had some facebook communication with Kent and Lynn, a couple who have followed our blog for a few years. They made their first trip to Mexico this past winter with their motorhome and spent two months traveling all the way down to the the border of Belize! They wanted to thank us, because it was from reading our blog that gave them the confidence that anybody could do this journey. How did they thank us? By offering us a place to stay in Denver!
Unfortunately, Lynn's father passed away a couple of days ago, so she's in Texas spending some time with her mom. But Kent still wanted to meet with us, and we had a great evening together talking about RV'ing in Mexico.
Kent made a delicious roast chicken for dinner! Holy cow, I don't know what I'm so wide eyed about!
Makes sense to me.
Today, we're off to explore Denver!
Maybe you're wide eyed 'cause you're getting fed? That would work for me.
ReplyDeleteHave fun in Denver.
The little we have explored in Colorado we love. The huge wind sculpture we have comes from Taos.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're able to "chill out" in Colorado after all that desert heat you've been living in. :c)
ReplyDeleteYou can sign up to receive text messages from the Colorado Dept of Transportation (CDOT). Helpful for road conditions and road closures.
ReplyDeleteThe text messages only work if you have a cell phone and we don't have a cell phone. We just checked the internet for road conditions before we left.
DeleteColorado is one of my favorite places. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteAmazing pictures! I've never been to Colorado, but this sure makes me want to go! Thanks for introducing me to the earthships, I think this kind of thing is really important...
ReplyDeleteYou definitely need to visit Colorado, it is so beautiful. We will be visiting here again for sure. If you want more information on the Earthships near Taos here is their website earthship.com/learn-more/visit-us.html.
DeleteBeautiful pictures. My brother lives outside of Denver and I've always wanted to see Rocky Mountain National park. So I'll be watching your visit carefully. The road you drove looks gorgeous but that 10K feet stuff with a motor home makes me shiver at the thought. Easy for the little blue car and for our Ruby though I don't like icy roads in any vehicle. Been there, done that.
ReplyDeleteWe will definitely be coming through this area again with Sherman. I could certainly see us spending a lot of time here. We love the mountains. We won't be making it to Rocky Mountain National Park this visit but like you we want to see it too. As for the drive that we took, there is absolutely no problem taking the motorhome on this road. It was never very steep and if you were to do it in May I don't think you would have any issue with the roads being icy. Even with the snow squalls we went through yesterday there was no problem with the road conditions.
DeleteI have two cousins in CO - Tim, a retired FBI agent and Kathy, a vet - we love CO, too - it's beautiful there! So happy that you are enjoying your trip north.
ReplyDeleteConnie in PA
I love Colorado my
ReplyDeleteDad still lives there I had a blast going on a whitewater rafting trip - that has been a while, but i always enjoy Colorado - great pictures!!! Angela
Maybe one day we will go white water rafting here too.
DeleteColorado looks beautiful!! thanks for sharing with us! It is one state that we need to visit! great pictures!
ReplyDeleteMore beautiful countryside, nice that you can s out out areas for Sherman to travel, enjoy it all.
ReplyDeleteHi K and R: don't get in a big hurry to reach Sask; they had another storm yesterday. We had friends from Yorkton drop in and they were heading to Regina and Regina Beach but the road was close. Saskatoon wasn't much better. cheers Tom from Med Hat
ReplyDeleteSounds like we should be turning around and running back south fast! We still have over a week yet before being up at Sturgeon Lake so maybe the weather will improve by then (sure hope so).
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