I'm up just before dawn...5:00AM...and the camp is very quiet. I brewed a thermos of coffee last night, so a cup is ready this early morning. I pull out my AAA "Trip-Tic" and look over the day's route. I'll be heading due south on Route 285, then west on Route 160 to Mesa Verde. I'll be going over five passes of over 9000 feet...Kenosha Pass (10,000 ft.), Red Hill Pass (9993 ft.), Trout Creek Pass (9346 ft.), Poncha Pass (9010 ft.), and Wolf Creek Pass (10,850 ft.)...now, can the Escape make it over those passes?
It doesn't take long to find out as, just south of Boulder, I head up Kenosha Pass. The Escape, camper in tow, huffs and puffs and struggles...but I make it. Soon, the thoughts of "I think I can, I think I can" become "I know I can, I know I can".
Route 285 is a beautiful drive up and over the Rockies. Coming up Red Hill Pass, I'm driving in the "high Plains" at 10,000 feet past cattle ranches, farms and small towns.
Just south of Poncha Springs, I decide to detour over to Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's very impressive with dunes hundreds of feet high. But...luck is not with me this day. There's been a serious accidnt in the area where you can get close to the dunes, and the road is closed...so...I can only view this wonder from a distance.
Not far out from that Park, I swing west on Route 160...another beautiful drive and one last pass (Wolf Creek) before Mesa Verde. I get to the Park around 5:00PM, and, I'm in luck, there are campsites available. It takes me twenty minutes, but I manage to back the camper into a nice spot. I've been driving for over ten hours and I am, to put it mildly, "whipped". Three quick Margaritas, a bowl of Ramen noodles, a little time around a campfire, and i'm off to bed at 9:30PM. It's been a long day...but a good day.
Oh...and I heard from Adam and Sarah...they made it to Florida in record time. They're staying south of Jacksonville for awhile before heading down to the Keys.
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