The SW Colorado Ride - The Collegiate Peaks and the sights enroute to Pagosa Springs

July 10, 2009 was day one of a long overdue week long vacation with the family. My loving wife chose a timeshare in Pagosa Springs, CO and booked it many weeks ago. Work continues unabated at United Airlines, but my manager said I could still go.

Anyways, I worked all night and through the early morning the day of the trip, grabbed three hours sleep that morning and was on the road by Noon. Traffic was bad, couple that with a couple of spots with construction-related lane closures but I still made pretty good time. Riding on US285, I made it to Poncha Springs by 3:30 PM and checked in with the family. They were in the minivan and about two hours ahead of me.

Before I got to Poncha Springs, I went by Mount Princeton on US285 and spotted a sign for Chaffee County Road 162 which seemed to head straight for the gap between Mount Princeton and Mount Mamma. I deviated from my highway run for 30 minutes and came upon the town of Mount Princeton Hot Springs, some kind of spa resort apparently. I went past the small town and took these pictures: 

Looking west on CR 162, just beyond Mount Princeton Hot Springs

The foothills of Mount Princeton, to the east of the Mount Princeton Hot Springs
 

A panoramic view of Mt Princeton and Mt Mamma

I proceeded south on US 285 and encountered a bit of stormy weather as I cruised towards Saguache and US 160. I did end up getting rained on a couple of times, briefly, but each time I was able to outrun the rain and the warm weather dried me out nicely each time.

I was riding directly at this weather pattern
 

A closeup view of part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range
 

While Brigitta was shadowed by the rain clouds, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains were nicely lit
 

Looking south on US 285, somewhere north of Saguache

The requisite pass picture of Wolf Creek Pass
 

The view one sees when starting to descend from Wolf Creek Pass
 

The valley below, from the Wolf Creek Pass scenic overlook.
 

The riders in the pictures blasted past me just before I got to the overlook, moving way faster than I was, and yet we ended up in the same spot, same time.

Another panoramic view, showing the cool rock formations at the base of the overlook
 

I rode on down into the valley, and was soon in Pagosa Springs which was about 20 miles away. Again, it rained on me briefly as I neared the timeshare's location. Here's where the only real danger of the whole ride existed. Clueless car drivers wandering about lost inside the timeshare complex trying to find their units! Truly amazing these people were able to pass driving tests.

No matter, I reunited with my family at our timeshare unit, safe and sound. Dinner was almost ready and my loving wife had the wine handy. What more could I ask?

I got to Pagosa Springs at 6:30PM so it was about six and a half hours of riding with picture stops. Brigitta's odometer was right on 76,000 miles when I parked her for the night.

There's some truly beautiful scenery in this part of Colorado so far. The next few days would prove to be some great riding!

More to follow....

Ride Safe, Ride Aware