It's a steady climb beginning with the foothills.
We followed the North Fork of the South Platte River (now, that's a confusing name.)
And went over a couple of passes.
After the second pass, the road takes you 'down' to 9500 feet and into South Park. Surrounded by mountains, South Park is a 1000 square-mile grassland basin. It just strikes me as very unusual.
We stopped for the night in a lovely pull-off about 1/4 mile off the road.
The next day we continued on US 285 over a lower pass
And down into the Arkansas River Valley (in the distance.)
We settled for several days in Salida, one of my favorite towns, at 7000 feet. We usually stay on BLM land in the hills to the west of town, but this time we joined Nancy, Randy, and Jeanne in the free BLM campground just east of town. (Sorry, no pictures of them, but you can link to their blogs.)
We haven't been on the road in many years. Glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI wish we had some free lands to boondock here in the East. I'm a little bit green with envy at all the wonderful sites you find to overnight in. ;c)
ReplyDeleteOne of these years we are going to have to spend a chunk of the summer in Colorado!
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