From: John Freeman [johnfree@pacbell.net]

Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 11:06 PM

Subject: Mountain West

 

 

Wednesday Nov 1� Albuquerque NM - Jemez Springs - La Cueva NM

 

It's 36 degrees at 9 AM, but it is supposed to be mostly sunny today.� There are severe storms going on back in western Oklahoma where I was last night, so I am glad to be here instead of there!

 

I feel crappy, I think these weather changes have wiped me out.� Scratchy throat, run dowwwwnnn :(� And it seems SO cold!!!� I'm trying to talk myself into a better attitude about the weather.� When I started this trip, I was fully prepared for cold weather.� But those two or three weeks of unseasonable warmth and humidity in the south got me all soft and thin-blooded.� Just three days ago I was scampering around in shorts and flip flops, and here I am now in negative wind chill territory and not digging it at all!

 

So anyway, off I go to do New Mexico.� I plan to head into the Jemez Mountains and see what develops.� After escaping Albuquerque I pass a couple of Pueblos.� They are closed to the public today, which is just as well, because I wouldn't go anyway!� At the one pueblo I visited on a previous trip I got such massive waves of Native American hostility that I am happy to leave them to do their Native American thing in peace without me.

 

I have loved the Jemez Mountains since the first time I came through them in the 70's, but today I feel like I'm in one of those troughs where all my biorhythms have bottomed out at the same time. �So I kinda just go through the motions.� The little town of Jemez Springs is still funky (in a good way).�

 

There is an unimproved, uncommercial hot springs in the mountains here called Spence Hot Springs.� I don't really feel like doing it, but sick or not, I'll be darned if I'm gonna drive past a soaking opportunity.� So I park at the unmarked lot, walk down the hill, across the creek, and a couple of hundred yards up the other side of the hill, to where this hot water comes out of the side of the mountain.� There's an upper pool about 15' long and 3-4 feet wide, which flows into a lower, cooler pool.� Somebody has mortared a few rocks in strategic places to increase the pool depth, but otherwise it is just as nature made it, and I say kudos to the Forest Service for just leaving it alone. The air temp is about 40 degrees and it looks like it wants to snow, but all in all it felt pretty good.�

 

I continued to the top of the hill and decided to stay at this little motel at the junction called La Cueva, a well-maintained little lodge with a little restaurant and store in the parking lot.� It funny how these little places are often more convenient than the big city places.� I mean, there is nothing else happening for miles and miles, but I can walk from my room to a restaurant and grocery store.

 

 

Thursday Nov 2� La Cueva NM - Los Alamos - Taos - Alamosa CO

 

I'm at 7600 feet, and everything in the car was frozen solid this morning.� Unpacking last night I discovered that my water cube had rolled around and opened itself a bit, and has completely soaked my suitcase with Hot Springs water.� bummer :(� So there are articles of clothing spread all over my little room, drying out.� Another crummy thing happening to a crummy-feeling guy (whine, whine).�

 

I know there is a lot of super-cool stuff to do in this area, but I don't feel like doing any of it today.� Foremost is Bandolier Monument - on that 70's trip, I took psychedelic drugs, hid from the rangers at closing and spent the night in one of those hollowed out holes in the cliff wall that the natives used to use -- now THERE's a memory :)� But I just pass it by today.� The road cuts outside the park were the same kind of really soft volcanic tuff as I slept in, so I at least got a little reminder of the feel of the place.

 

Another great thing I didn't do is take the turnoff for Puye Cliff Ruins.� I loved this place three years ago, I found it to be the most spiritual of all the Indian ruin type places I've seen.

 

So I took the scenic route in to Taos, ate a piece of pie, then took the scenic route out of Taos.� Really nice drive, up to 9,000 feet, a big wide mountain meadow.� I guess all I have energy for today is sitting on my butt in the truck watching the scenery go past.

 

The neatest part of the day turned out to be the drive due north from Taos to Fort Garland CO, then due west to Alamosa.� It's a wide flat plain with the Sangre de Christo mountains on my right, and some unknown Colorado range to the left about 50 miles away.� Beautiful sunset!

 

I crossed the Rio Grande, which flows through downtown Alamosa, and took a room right downtown, so I would walk from the motel and check out the 'hood.� There were a couple of coffee houses, a cute little hippie store and about five Mexican restaurants.� A nice little town, all in all.� I'm getting more and more into taking rooms downtown whenever possible.� No matter how tiny the downtown, it's a lot more interesting than being out there on the fringe in a Motel 6 with the McD's and Pizza Hut and strip malls.

 

 

Friday Nov 3� Alamosa CO - Pagosa Springs CO

 

Last night I was at 7,600 feet and thought I was really high up.� But it turns out that Alamosa and this whole darned plain is at 7,600 feet!�

 

My destination tonight is Pagosa Springs which is only about 100 miles away, so I decide to treat myself to a wildlife refuge this morning!� I backtrack across the slightly frozen Rio Grande about 6 miles to the Alamosa Wildlife Refuge.� It was really nice.� The sound of Canada geese honking in the wild is just one of those special things.� There was a nature center with a really novel display:� a collection of animal parts you could pick up and hold!� There were the expected bones and antlers from various critters, but the really amazing (and slightly ghoulish) items were the bird wings!� There were eagle wings and owl wings.� They were pretty big, a foot or foot 1/2 long, and incredibly lightweight and sooo soft!� But it was a little gruesome to hold this piece of a real bird in your hands, with the rest of the bird missing.

 

There's another refuge about 20 miles down the road that is alleged to have whooping cranes this time of year, but I don't take that turnoff.� All this itime in Colorado I have been inn the San Luis Basin, 7-8,000 feet, the largest high altitude basin in the world.� There are lotsa marshes and prosperous-looking farms, and impressive ranges of mountains in every direction.

 

I follow the Rio Grande up the end of the valley until it is just an itty bitty creek at the side of the road.� I continue upward into a 25 minute road construction wait, then through light snow at Wolf Pass (about 10,000 feet), then down the other side to the San Juan River valley, heading to Pagosa Springs.

 

What's the big deal with Pagosa Springs you say?� The springs, of course!� It's another one of those geothermal wonder places, with steam and hot water just bubbling out of the ground here and there all over the place.� On the banks of the San Juan, right in the middle of town is a spa called The Springs, that I discovered three years ago, and that I like enough to have zigged about 150 miles out of my way to visit.� It has 14 tubs, and is really creatively designed.� The outflow of the upper tubs flows into this little lake that steams in the winter.� The outflow of the lower tubs flows directly into the river, which you are welcome to treat like a fifteenth, very cold tub if you are so inclined.

 

I slithered from pol to pool for about three hours.� Wonderful.� I had sort of thought I'd drive to Durango for the night, but I'm so wasted that it seemed smarter to stay here.� I almost didn't get a room.� It's hunting season, and the places was almost sold out.� Hunters seem to be a pretty crusty lot, from what I've seen at the restaurants around here.� Guys getting into their guy-ness can be pretty gross for the rest of us sometimes.� :)

 

After getting my room I walked the mile or so back across town to party down at the Bear Creek Inn, which was alleged to be the place to go by the towel bunny at The Springs.� It was a fun place, but it turns out that three beers was too much for me -- who knew??

 

 

Saturday Nov 4� Pagosa Springs CO - Durango - Dolores - Monticello UT

 

Hey, it's my birthday!� hmmm...� so here I am, hung over and still wallowing in the malaise I've been in since it got cold.� not very birthday-like� :(

 

But the show must go on.� I followed the San Juan River out of Pagosa Springs, as the valley gradually got wider and turned back into the high plains.� I drove through the outskirts of Durango, and onward.� The land was agricultural for a while, but gradually got more high desertish.

 

I drove past the entrance to Mesa Verde without checking it out.� I've seen it before, and the idea of seeing it again just didn't turn me on.

 

I did take a little side road to get to US 666 (honest there really is a US 666!), and as luck would have it, that detour took me right past the Anasazi Cultural Center, which was a really cool place.� There were ruins of a Anasazi village from 1100-ish at the top of a hill from which you could see forever.� The museum was cool also, and coolest of all, I arrived 40 minutes before a presentation about Navaho code talkers, with one of the last living code talkers there to yak for about an hour.� It was really cool listening to this old guy talk in his cool Navaho cadence.� About every third sentence he would say "and that's the way it was", like he was at the campfire telling the story of First Mother and Laughing Boy.

 

It was noticeably cooler and cloudier when I came out, but clear in the direction of Utah, where I am headed.

 

I get to Monticello UT, find my cheap room, drive around the town (about 8 blocks total), notice the library and find that it's open till nine tonight.� I drive a bit up the gravel road into the Abajo Mountains to watch sunset, then order a pizza, and go "home" to eat, then walk over to the library till closing.� See, that downtown thing pays off again!

 

So that's my big birthday Saturday night.