The End of a great Fall Break

After our drive on the loop, it was still snowing/raining as we arrived back in Durango so we decided to stay at the Holiday Inn again.  We walked around downtown, did a little souvenir shopping and ate pizza at a quaint little restaurant.  Monday we plan to retrace our path back to the east side of Colorado, including the Highway of Legends, before heading back to Arkansas.  More fall pics:

We arrived back at Raton around 3:30 and headed southeast for Arkansas.  We drove as far as Shamrock, Oklahoma which is right on the Texas/Oklahoma line.  We were home-sweet-home on Tuesday by 4:40 pm.

Helping with a cattle drive in Dolores Colorado this morning

We saw a cattle drive in Dolores Colorado again!  Phillip and I were talking as we were traveling this road about the last time we came through here and saw the cattle drive.  Click the link here where I blogged about it before.  We could not believe our luck when we hit a cattle drive again (yes, I thought it was lucky that the road was blocked with cows).  There were several young cowgirls, but this time a couple of young men were helping.  

This little girl was so cute.  She was busy watching her Momma, but when she saw that I was taking her picture, she looked at me and grinned so big!  I think that she has done this before :)

Last time we saw the drive it was spring and there were lots of young calves. The calves were not so little this time.

I think, but I'm not sure, that this loop had the best fall colors.  It is hard to decide because everything was so pretty.  We saw snow in the upper elevations and in fact it was snowing while we were going over the passes on this route.  This is the route that is VERY scarey!  Right out of Ouray the road climbs a pass and it is very narrow with unbelievable drop-offs on the passenger side.  I need to remember that next time we take this loop we should start on the east side of the loop out of Durango so that we are not on the outside ledge for the scarey part.

Fall colors in Colorado.

Phillip and I headed to Colorado to view the fall colors this year.  We headed out late on Thursday and drove to the west side of Oklahoma City.  We got up early Friday morning and we were in Colorado around 2:30.  We drove the "highway of legends" which starts at Raton.  It was beautiful.  There are several pretty lakes along the drive.

We stopped at a little western town - Cuchura - and ate at Timbers restaurant.  The food was wonderful!  We drove a little further after dinner, enjoying the scenery.  We camped at the Circle the Wagons Campground in LaVeta Colorado.  It is not what we had in mind, but all of the National Forest campgrounds are closed because of the government shutdown.  The campground was clean and so were the restrooms/showers.  We ate breakfast at the restaurant at the campground because it was pretty cold the next morning - 27 degrees - and windy.  Thank goodness Phillip had bought a little heater to stick in the truck and we had electricity because we were at a campground.

After breakfast Saturday morning we headed to Pagosa Springs with Durango as our destination.  We arrived at Pagosa Springs a little after lunch and stopped at the visitor center next to the springs.  I was wishing I had brought my bathing suit so we could swim and so was Phillip.  Then, as luck would have it, the lady told us that the springs has "loaner suits."  We asked and the lady said they were low because it was pretty busy that day, but we could take a look.  They had about three women's suits in the drawer and one was just my size.  Now, it is not surprising that Phillip could find a suit that would work for him...men don't have the kind of fitting problems women do.  But I tried that suit on and it fit perfect!  We had a great afternoon moving from pool to pool.  They had the temperature marked on the pools so you could find one that was just the right temperature.  I didn't take my camera in with us, but caught this picture on the way out.

We arrived in Durango around dinner time and checked into the Holiday Inn and  headed to the downtown historic district (about 1/2 mile from the hotel).  We explored a little then ate dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant before heading back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we went to Jean Pierre's for breakfast.  Last time we were here we ate at this restaurant twice it was so good.  We were not disappointed this morning.  We enjoyed our leisurely breakfast and then hit the road again.  Sunday we are making the loop from Durango to Dolores,Telluride, Ouray, Silverton and then back to  Durango.

Lunch with the Johnson girls