Saturday, the 4th of July, began with a drive to the airport to get Margo back home to Catonsville. Dad was helping with another Kiwanis pancake breakfast so Ellen and I took Margo to Denver International. She got home safely, and early!
In the afternoon, we loaded up the car to go to Broomfield to Steve and Gina's for an Independence Day gathering. Gina's mom and dad and sister and brother in law were there, along with Jayden's cute cousin Katie. Several of their friends also showed up with multiple kids in tow, so Jayden had plenty of playmates and a large audience! He's not yet very good at sharing, as he kept taking toys away from Katie, who is 9 months younger than him, but he'll learn, I'm sure. Once home again in Loveland, I started packing for hitting the road again.
Sunday morning started out somewhat overcast and foggy east of Loveland. I said goodbye to dad and Ellen - they'll be coming back east in September so it's not goodbye for long - and turned east on route 34 towards Greeley, Fort Morgan, and Brush, CO. In Brush, I turned south on route 71 to Limon (passing through Last Chance on the way!) and then to Rocky Ford and ultimately, Trinidad, CO. I passed through Comanche National Grassland, but other than that, there wasn't much to see other than wide-ranging plains, a few cattle here and there, and a coyote that crossed the road ahead of me. I did learn, however, that just because there are towns shown on the map in an atlas, that doesn't mean that they are actually what we would consider towns back east. Between Rocky Ford and Trinidad, there was nothing but a few ranches far off the road and some long abandoned buidings that may have once provided services to travelers, but not much else. I was so glad to see a gas station in Trinidad that I didn't even mind the light rain that started to fall as I pulled into the pump. From there, I called Margo to see if she could check the weather on the internet for me. I knew I was only 25 miles from my hotel in Raton, NM but I also was looking at dark clouds moving in over Raton Pass on I-25 and I wasn't sure if I should make a run for it or wait a while. I decided to go for it! And of course, it started raining again about halfway there. It wasn't too bad, though, and I missed the worst of it - as I parked my bike at the hotel, there was a huge thunderclap and lightning flash, and shortly thereafter, pea-sized hail! Nothing better than fortunate timing!
I took a nap for an hour or so and by the time I got up, the rain had passed and the sun was shining again, so I jumped back on the bike for the 27-mile ride east to Capulin Volcano National Monument, a 10,000-years extinct cinder cone that rises 1300 feet above the surrounding valley floor to a height of 8182 feet above sea level. The road curls conter-clockwise around the mountain, spiraling all the way to the top at the lower side of the caldera. From there, you can either hike around the rim, a mile round trip, or descend into the crater, 105 feet down. I chose the hike around the rim, and I was definitely feeling the 8000-ft plus altitude! But it was worth it - from the highest point on the rim, you can supposedly see five different states, but you can also see other (mostly smaller) extinct volcanoes, including Sierra Grande, a million year old, 8700-foot, extinct shield volcano that rises 2200 feet above the plains. I didn't see much wildlife up on the volcano, except for the swarms of ladybugs that arrive each year, covering the branches and trunks of the scrub oaks and other vegetation - I have never seen so many in one place! On the way down the road, I saw a pair of mule deer - the female had already crossed the road and the buck was about to but he turned and ran as I approached. There were also a few pronghorn antelope in the fields flanking the exit road. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for the ride to Oklahoma City tomorrow.
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