DAY-32, 248 miles, Taos NM to Colorado Springs CO. We took Rt. 64 and then I-25. Rt. 64 east from Taos is an exceptionally scenic drive through the mountains, rising to near 8,500 feet. The beautiful forest vegetation (mainly evergreen) begins within 3 miles of town. The 2-lane road is excellent but winds continuously like a snake, requiring the driver's full attention every second. But there was virtually no traffic and the drive, all 94 miles leading to I-25, was delightful. There were deer right beside the road and antelope resting in the tall grass.
In contrast, traffic on I-25 was very heavy near towns and became stop n' go as we approached Colorado Springs. In my experience from previous trips, I-25 is always crowded and slow the closer you get to Denver. We stopped at a Burger King in Pueblo CO for lunch.
Arrival at our hotel in Colorado Springs was not pleasant. The Hyatt is just off an extremely busy highway in a complicated tangle of service roads with no signage. But making it even more unpleasant was a thunder storm, followed by a hail storm and then back to pouring rain. Our phones received emergency flash flood warnings.
But we're settled in now trying to figure out where to get some grub.
Hopefully the weather will calm down by tomorrow when we plan to visit Garden of the Gods, a spectacular area of other-wordly rock formations on the outskirts of town. We'll be here for 2 or 3 nights.
Please take care folks. Miss you all.
I should mention that after 31 days on the road, largely in desert areas of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, the wet, stormy weather we experienced upon arrival in Colorado Springs was the first of the trip, which is now over 4,000 miles. We have NO complaints about the weather!
ReplyDeleteAmazing that you’ve had such great weather! That’s great. Sorry the storm hit just as you were arriving at the hotel though. We had some very rainy days... and today is rainy, but we did have a couple beautiful days mixed in.
ReplyDeleteBen and Rachel had fun trying to identify all the animals on the postcard you sent. :-) I would have taken a video but was driving at the time.