I’ve been preoccupied with prep for our fast approaching trip back to Australia so I apologise for the lateness of this post. With this submission I’ll only be one behind (Denver, Colorado) before we head home for 6 weeks. Then we’ll return to the USA to continue our trip. But now I’ll continue with the blog.
From Santa Fe we drove north on I-25 to the town of Raton, New Mexico. There’s not a lot there but we did (eventually) find our way to a reserve where bison still roam. I say ‘eventually’ because we took a wrong turn out of town and ended up on a dead end road at Vermejo Ranch after travelling 40 miles through some very scenic country. The scenery and the buck deer wandering across the road made it worthwhile but we then doubled back all the way into town to restart our journey to the bison reserve.
At last we found the bison right beside the highway to Cimarron which because of the time lost in our earlier misdirection was a good target for a lunch stop. I was surprised when I looked at a local map to find we were not far from Taos Pueblo which we visited only a few days earlier. But we had come out to see bison and bison we saw. We stopped, as did several other carloads of tourists, beside the highway and after a short while (and confidence gained watching another couple) I wandered over to the fence to get a close look. I’m not sure if all bison are so docile or if it was just that this herd was used to ‘goofers’ taking their photo, but this mob were pretty quiet. Here’s a short video of the Bison that we took (https://youtu.be/eev4dOeVIas) That was it for Raton and after 2 night’s stay we shot off north again to our next stop, Pueblo, Colorado.
It wasn’t long after leaving Raton that we passed the “Welcome to Colorado” sign on the state border. Further north we passed a huge hill of rocks which was Huerfano Butte. After short photo stop where we chatted with a lovely couple we continued to Pueblo. We’d never heard of Pueblo city before and were surprised at its’ size. Despite that, getting into an RV Park was difficult and we ended up some 15 miles west of town and sat down to relax.
You can see in the first 4 photos of this next gallery the RV Park was pretty much in the middle of nowhere but just the same it was friendly and quiet. Next day we got into our car only to find the GPS was kaput. It was days short of the 12 month warranty so we drove into town to a “Best Buys” store (the chain where we bought it in LA) and to their credit it was exchanged for an updated model in minutes thanks to a tremendously helpful staff. While in town we looked about and found Pueblo has a “River Walk” similar to one of our favourite cities, San Antonio, though it is much smaller and a closed waterway rather than SA’s flowing river.
Our (Shane agrees) next comment here is semi-political so you are warned. As Aussies we are often dismayed at the gun culture here in America. Statistics from around the world back the stance of most of the Western World towards gun control but the propensity of Americans to turn guns against their own people continually astounds us. Driving north from New Mexico to Pueblo we passed a turnoff to the “Site of the Ludlow Massacre” and we wondered what that was about. In the Pueblo Museum we found this disturbing display of which we’ve only included 5 pictures. In 1914 a paid militia (recorded as the Colorado National Guard though in reality it was mostly paid mercenaries) opened fire on union backed coal miners who were protesting incredibly hostile work conditions. In the melee 18 people died of which 12 were children. The militia summarily executed 2 union leaders right there in the field and left their bodies there as a warning to other unionists. Though exonerated John D Rockefeller was widely considered to be behind the assault. Rockefeller’s story is worth reading here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller).
In light of the American Civil War (750,000+ dead) and the current repetitive mass killings in the USA (one of which happened near to us here just last week) one wonders what it will take to reverse this trend of self-destruction.
Enough of the negative. On our trip to the city we found out about a place called Canon City and Royal Gorge both of which sounded to good to miss so off we went the next day. This day was about a rail journey along the banks of the Arkansas River through a 1000 ft high narrow gorge on the Royal Gorge Train. On a funny note here and in the State of Arkansas the word is pronounced “Arkan-saw” but in Kansas it is pronounced “Ar-Kansas”. The photos from this day out start with the photo of the Visitor Centre building before shots of the train and the wonderful journey it took us on. In this section of the gallery there are 5 photos I have labelled with a red train stamp in the top right corner. These are the only shots we have used ever in our blog that are not our pics (apart from the obligatory souvenir photos that are taken at most locations). This 5 were taken by the railway company themselves.
As you can see in the gallery the trip through the gorge was spectacular. The staff (including the conductor) welcome you and are always tending to your needs. Shane was happy there to sip a beer sampler as we proceeded but after a decent meal (included in our ticket) we headed to the open top car which was surprisingly not as chilly as we expected. As the train snakes its’ way along the banks wildlife is often seen. On this day we saw Bighorn Sheep and deer but occasionally a Black Bear or a Mountain Lion will be spotted. Each carriage has staff on it to give a running commentary on what we’re seeing. At the end of the gorge we passed under “The Bridge to Nowhere” which is 1000 ft (330 mtrs) atop the cliffs. The train then reverses and returns to Canon City where we hopped into the car to drive up to that strange bridge.
On top of the cliffs half an hour from Canon City is Royal Gorge Park. It is a private facility which contains the bridge, a cable car, zip line, bungy swing (out over the edge), a theatre, restaurants and a few smaller attractions. The bridge truly is a “Bridge to Nowhere” with no roads on the opposite cliff except within the complex. The story is that the bridge was built after a local had a bet with a rich Texan that a bridge couldn’t be built across the yawning gap. 7 months later, in 1929, the Texan won the bet but it still goes nowhere. We took a gondola ride over to the other side than walked back across the bridge before watching some hummingbirds feed which gave us the hunger pangs for a food stop ourselves. Shane wouldn’t do the zip line across the gorge with me so I didn’t do it (I didn’t want to leave her alone).
After a great day we drove home and saw some military aircraft on display outside (Phantom Jet, Cobra Attack Helicopter, Huey Helicopter) a small local airport before witnessing another fantastic western desert USA sunset from our RV.
Well that almost catches me up with the blog. We fly home for a 6 week sojourn with our loving family who we miss terribly in just 4 days. I have only Denver to post and I’ll probably not get to that till we get back. But remember to keep watching for our posts on the next leg of our USA “Griswold Road Trip”.
Cheers for now
Garry and Shane.