Here we are in Rawlings Wyoming. Just a few miles up the road from the most modern oil refinery in the west: Sinclair. There isn’t much here so we will move on tomorrow, but the ride to get here was a beautiful adventure.
We started out with more high plains in western Colorado. It was 58F when we left Limon. The sky was just as blue as it was yesterday, but the fluffy white clouds had been replaced with high thin ones tinged with gray.
I thought I had discovered a brand new horse hue, but upon closer inspection it was a white horse in a pink blanket.
I did find another kind of fence: a living snow fence. A double row of cedar trees.
Miles more of beautiful, slightly rolling terrain, unblemished by anything except an occasional farmhouse or a small herd of cattle. And then suddenly about 40 miles outside of Denver we started seeing large housing developments. Row after row of cookie cutter houses in the middle of nowhere. The only possible explanation is Denver commuters.
We bypassed Denver and went on to Fort Collins. What a charming town!
We stopped first at the Welcome Center where we met a greeter named Doyle. He was super friendly but he managed to completely misunderstand what we wanted to do. We spent the next half hour sorting out what he had told us that was helpful from what wasn’t. On the bright side, I found another horse hue.
At last we found our road. #14. A road that would wind up the Poudre RiverCanyon for miles to a summit of 10,276 feet and then send us plunging back down.
The temperature never reached 60F all day. It was breezy, but not blustery. Pure Heaven.
As we reached the end of the road we had mountains behind us and more in front of us. The Inter-mountain sage brush meadows took over.
Down in Rawlings, at a reasonable 8000 ft elevation, reality set in. We were hungry and exhausted! A quick stop at the grocery to pick up fixins for a fried chicken dinner and replenish the wine cellar and we were all checked in for a good nights rest and more adventures tomorrow.
Enjoy the photo dump. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures.
¡Buenas noches!
