Day 8: Alamosa, CO

Stop 6:  Alamosa, CO

Todays trip was about 188 miles and involved crossing the Continental Divide through a 10,850' pass (Kristen had hoped to take a picture of the elevation and/or Continental Divide signs but we never saw either).  Our little Chevy Colorado really showed its stuff today.  I'm not saying that we never got into low gear but the little truck that could just chug-chug-chugged it's way over the pass.

Up until we reached the pass, everything was green and beautiful.  The other side got dryer and dryer and windier and windier.  Kristen keeps reminding me to talk about the beaver so I will.  At one point today, we had to slow while a beaver waddled its way across the road in front of us.

 I picked Alamosa because it's the closest town to Great Sand Dunes National Park.  I should have stopped to think about what it is that makes "great sand dunes".  Alamosa is a bit of a blowing dust bowl (I don't recommend it).  When the dust clears, we can see the Great Sand Dunes in the distance, piled up against the snowy mountains.  There is so much sand blowing over there that we made an executive decision to blow off Great Sand Dunes National Park and take care of some chores.

Kristen did some laundry while I ran over to Walmart to get some gages that will tell us how full our propane tanks are (Gallup, NM and Alamosa have the biggest Walmarts that I've ever seen).  I also rearranged things on the back of the Trailer.  Someone pulled into the RV Park after us today to tell us that they'd almost rear ended us when we slowed to turn in because they couldn't see our brake lights.  I've move the spare up to the truck bed and centered the bike rack.

Finally, a better picture of our site:

-J-