US Road Trip 2024 – Day 2
Day 2: Colorado Springs to Durango via Dulce.
An early start on the long 300-mile run south across the state border into New Mexico via Pueblo, Colorado City, Fort Garland and Chama and a bucket list visit to the first nation Jicarilla Apache Reservation town of Dulce, near the Archuleta Mesa. Sadly, not enough time to visit Roswell or Los Alamos. 👽
Dig deep away from Google and you will see numerous records of a famous firefight here between special forces and tall grey aliens in a deep underground operational hybrid facility where up to 60 lost their lives.
There has also been frequent evidence of unexplained cattle mutilations in the area.
From Dulce, it was back across the state line into Southern Colorado and an off-beat 150-mile route through rural upland and wilderness on Highways 84 and 160 via stunning and rain-soaked Pagosa Springs to an overnight stay in the heat and sunshine of Durango and dinner in Chimayo.
Horrendous weather once I crossed the Great Plains on the run south and headed into and across the southern Rockies with dense fog on the final climb out of Colorado and through the vast wilderness of the San Juan National Park. Sadly, the 13 14000ft peaks were in the cloud.
Spent most of the day above 7,000 feet – I can’t imagine some of those roads in the winter – in addition to crossing two 10,000ft passes in the rain and fog. The rain eased in Dulce and then began again on the run into Pagosa Springs for a late lunch stop.
