Our route: Taos, stop off in Durango to drop unneeded supplies off (hammock, inflatable canoe), quick visit to Grand Junction, and on to Denver.
Travel Note: highway 550 from Durango to Ouray=gorgeous. 1200 feet high mountain passes, occasional Memento Mori
Monument to snow plow drivers who have died in avalachnes. They go out solo...that was the sad part to me.
From Grand Junction to Denver take highway 70=stunning. Go through Vail, drive along Colorado river in tight gullies with the mountains jutting up right outside your car window.
This is our finished rig! Denny pulled it out of the junkyard and fixed it up; even painted it to match the car. So this is our fully retro ride down to Taos.
I have to confess that I was a little worried about going to Taos since everyone we've talked to seems to wish us good luck, hopes we come back alive, and warns us to watch out for the crazies. The southwest seems to be a hotspot for weird people in general; that people come out here to "get away from it all" and to fully indulge in all their idiosyncrasies. We've been here for about a week and yeah, I think we're going to pack it up and head north. Unfortunately I think Taos has been a bit of a bust.
And I don't think I'm a huge fan of the southwest landscape. I think huge trees that you can barely wrap your arms around and lots of green. I can appreciate the landscape here but I don't love it.
This is the Rio Grande Gorge; on the north side of Taos. We were just driving along lots of flat landscape, trying to dodge the tarantulas crossing the highway (just the little males, the females are the large ones that I always envision when I think of a tarantula), and then bam, a huge gash in the landscape called the Rio Grande Gorge. The wedding scene from Natural Born Killers was filmed right over this guy.
Conner took me on a walk around the 21-acre Finn property, which they call El Rancho De Bonehead.
There’s the bus they used to live in that Denny modified to be able to stand up in—beautiful wood and glasswork.
The renovated airstream trailer decorated in kitschy cowboy décor that they call the Cowboy Hilton and the “junkyard”.
All of it is super cute and an endless source of stories about the old days…but one of the things that I got the biggest kick out of was the deer poop. I’ve never seen it before! I started kicking this pile of what I thought was dried berries and Conner said, “Oh yeah, that’s deer shit.” Like what’s the big deal? But really, I’ve never seen it before! They shoot out like bee-bees when the deer gets frightened. Crazy stuff out here in Colorado.
