New Mexico to Colorado

Our ventures continue to New Mexico and Colorado. From the warm getting hot to colder weather.
We departed San Antonio for an overnighter in Fort Stockton, TX then proceeding to Carlsbad New Mexico.

We seen some amazing things during our 5 day stay in Carlsbad. We stayed at a KOA campsite about 17 miles north of Carlsbad, where the coyotes could be heard howling during dusk and night. We had a pool directly across us at the site and surprising to us stayed ice cold due to the significant drop in the nighttime desert temperatures. Except for the dusty roads at the campsite, we enjoyed the stay there.

                                                            Click on photo to enlarge

Doris and Tequila chilling out

Sunset at the camp

One of our day trips was to Artesia and Roswell, New Mexico. Artesia was a town know for its street statues and shops. The day we visited, most of the shops were closed, but we were delighted to see the street statues. After a couple of hours in Artesia, we continued on to Roswell, not really knowing what we were going to see. We  both heard of the relationship of aliens and Roswell and was eager to explore this angle. What we found in Roswell was a small town with about three square block dedicated to alien fun stuff. Replicas of aliens, shops outfitted for tourist looking for a good laugh and fun around the so called aliens. Many displays of aliens. Mostly fun stuff, but nothing of real significance. We both enjoyed Roswell and had many good laughs.

Alien holding Doris's purse

Friendly aliens

Street Art in Artesia

The jewel of our visit to Carlsbad was the trip through the Carlsbad Caverns. Outrageous, stunning, awesome! Photos don't come close to a trip through the caverns. We were 700 ft below the surface and walked 2.6 miles through the caverns. A definite bucket list item.

Sitting Bull Falls was one of our short hikes. I was a little bit disappointed in the falls. Due to the drought the area was suffering, the falls did not represent the falls we saw in the brochure describing them. Overall, it was good, for we did get some needed exercise.

Bentley Lake State Park was located close to the campground and we took Tequila there for her hike. She, as always, enjoyed her hike.

Five days in Carlsbad went by pretty quick, but I was ready to move on.

After an overnighter in Las Vegas, New Mexico we headed to Colorado Springs, CO. We both never heard of Las Vegas, New Mexico. We did enjoy some outrageous New Mexican food. Hot but tasty. Our stomachs both paid for that night into the next day.

Great New Mexican food with green and red chilis

Oh, yes Colorado Springs, Colorado. Beautiful! We had a great 5 day visit.
Doris was experiencing a really bad cold with high fever that lasted the first and second day. That didn't really slow her down. We decided on the second day to visit Pikes Peak. We both wanted to so badly get a hike in and looked at Pikes Peak. The total mileage from the bottom to the top was around 17 miles, which was way too many miles for us. In addition, we haven't hiked as much as we want to this trip. So we planned on hiking the last 2.5 miles to the summit and back to down to where we started. We started driving the dually up Pikes peak for a hair raising trip up a road that contained several switchbacks, lack guardrails in areas where you didn't want to look down. Beautiful scenery! Got to the parking area where we were going to start our trip and geared up. Once I crossed the road to the trailhead, I turned around because my ears and face were already frozen. With winds 35-45 miles per hour and temperature around 32 deg F, it equated to around 15-17 degrees below freezing. Doris quickly concurred that we should not do this hike, because we were not outfitted for that type of weather. We would of died. So we took the rest of the trip to the summit in our truck. Summit height was over 14,000 ft. Around 10,000 feet I started to experience altitude discomfort. At 14, 000 ft I was dizzy and had difficulty breathing. After a couple of donuts, and a cup of coffee, I started to feel better. I really didn't get back to feeling normal until we got back down below 10,000 feet. My scarred lungs from a double pneumonia years ago really had taken a toll on me at higher altitudes.

Bigfoot

You can see the switchbacks on the road leading to the summit

On our third day, we experienced our first ever blizzard camping in our RV. Winds were measured up to 75 mile per hour gust with snow 4-6 inches in the campground. We stayed nice and cozy in the camper, but missed out on a day of exploring the area. It was nice being back in a winter wonderland for a restful day. The following day it warmed up and the snow quickly melted.

During our stay in Colorado Springs, we also visited The Gardens of the Gods, Broadmoor Seven Falls, and Red Rock Canyon Park. All were beautiful places. It would take years to explore all that Colorado Springs has to offer to adventurers.

Hi, my name is Tequila

After a great 5 days in Colorado Springs, we headed for Cortez, Colorado. We have setup camp here and looking forward to exploring this area for 5 days before heading out for the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Below are some of the views we experienced during our 360 mile road trip from Colorado Springs to Cortez Colorado

Until the next update!