October 2-9 and October 15, 2022
We were finally out of Colorado, before the winter snows started, and the weather was still sunny and warm. Warm until we drove over Wolf Creek Pass, that is. There are big mountains in southern Colorado between Walsenburg (where we started) and Bloomfield (our destination), and the most direct route wouldn't work for our big motor home. So, we went through Pagosa Springs. We had lunch first, and then we headed up.
The scenery was gorgeous. It was a beautiful drive, and a last glimpse of the beauty Colorado has to offer. The Colorado mountains gave way to New Mexico deserts and farmland, and then we were in Bloomfield. We found a lovely campground to call home base while we toured the area.
First, we had to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park (a.k.a. Chaco Canyon). Monica had visited Farmington with her dad a few years before, and they saw a lot of the area. She couldn't wait to see it all again. Chaco Culture is special, a location way off the beaten path. You drive to different sites where you can see large and small structures built by the Ancestral Puebloan people. It has one of the most impressive of these buildings, Pueblo Bonito, about halfway along the loop drive. We spent a lot of time walking around it and enjoying the big scenery in the canyon.
It was like an appetizer, Chaco Canyon, for the next month or so as we explored the Grand Circle of the southwest that goes around the Four Corners.
Of course, we rarely travel anywhere unless there is a lake nearby. This was a big one, Navajo Lake. It's a long lake that has the southern end near Bloomfield in New Mexico, with the northern end in Colorado. We were on it a few times, and the photos are a collection of both of those trips.
Our first trip, we zoomed from the southern end to the northern end. It took almost an hour, and it's a lovely 360-degree video.
On a solo trip that Margot went on, she found a sandy area for the boat that she called Lacey's Beach (does anyone know the real name of the beach?). Lacey loved running around in the sand. The next time when we were all together, we visited her beach again and stayed a while. She played and got into the lake a little bit on her own, and we enjoyed some lunch and relaxation with our toes in the sand.
It was going to be a great trip!
