From Manitous Springs, Colorado to Los Alamos, New Mexico

 

June 21 2023 Wednesday

We enjoyed our stay in Manitou Springs, well everything except the Garden of the Gods. It does have some nice rock formations, but it was just over run with people. Our campground, our campsite site, amenities were all top notch and all the personnel we encountered were pleasant and helpful. Garden of the Gods RV Park is right in the town of Manitou Springs and is convenient to everything.

Too crowded for me.

All the trails were crowded with tourists.

We departed at our usual 9 am, drove a few miles east past all the marijuana dispensaries and merged onto I-25 south. It’s the only real option for going south through Colorado. I haven’t been writing in detail about routes but about 80 miles south of Colorado Springs we took a new route to Taos New Mexico and it I worth noting.

Spanish Peaks

At Walsenburg we took Hwy 160 west at the time not knowing that it is a National Scenic Highway. They call it the Highway of Legends where it passes over Colorado Pass. The scenery is probably as grand as most National parks and it is virtually unknown.

Fort Garland of the 1800's

At Fort Garland we turned south on Hwy 159. Established in 1858 as an army post, it is now a dusty village with an eclectic community of 400 +/- artists, musicians, crafters and I’m sure a few crackpots. Speaking of pot, the village of a few hundred has two marijuana dispensaries! The drive south is not as majestic as the Highway of legends but still a very nice ride through mountain including one mountain pass. This road number changes to 522 when you cross the border into New Mexico and merges with Hwy 64 just before you get to Taos.

Taos New Mexico

We’ve been to Taos New Mexico several times so really just wanted a convenient overnight stop. That’s not to discourage any readers from visiting, it’s claim to fame is art and native American culture, it will be interesting on your first visit at least.

Trail is over my shoulder, the campground is in the distance.

We stayed on the out skirts of town in The Bella Norte RV Park and were pleasantly surprised at how nice it is. It is an owner/operator establishment so there is hands on attention to detail throughout the park. 

Our campsite at Belle Norte RV Park.

Our site was at the end of the row and offered an unobstructed view of the sunset. There is a large expanse of low evergreen brush out in front of the RV, the campground has a mile and a quarter trail out there. Millie walked a good portion of it but turned back as the sun was hitting the horizon.

June 22 2023 Thursday

We are only about 65 miles from Los Alamos so we didn’t depart until 10 am today. We took a route through the residential side of Taos to avoid the tourist traffic in town and were amazed by how many houses are there. There are a lot more people living here than I thought.

The road down to Espanola is dotted with small villages and much open range land. When you get to the Rio Grande Gorge the road follows the river for a few miles, it is very scenic.

We were surprised when we got to Espanola; the highway just north of town is still under construction.  I find it astonishing that they can drag out a job this long. The first time I came this way was around 2013 and they were working on it then.

We arrived at Millie’s daughter’s house around 12:30. They have a curvy downhill driveway, with a bump out for parking at the bottom. I found it relatively easy to maneuver our past motorhomes into that spot, but my first experience last year with the truck trailer combination verified my concerns about backing the trailer. The solution I came up with was to install a receiver hitch under the front of the truck. I can now operate the combination with one pivot point and it is in the middle which gives great maneuverability. 

The parking process went of without a problem, except for the cameras. I had temporarily installed a camera cable to the front of the truck and tapped into the onboard camera system. I now had left, center and right camera’s but the images were mirror images of the actual terrain. I found it more confusing than beneficial. I have to see if I can reverse the image in the monitor settings, as soon as I remember how to get into the setup menu, lol.

Kamp Kolman.