Colorado: The Trip Back
During our trip to visit my in-laws in Ft. Collins, Colorado, I noticed a few things I found interesting.
First, they still have cowboys there. I guess I should have known better, since Colorado is a major ranching state. But I figured all the people wearing Patagonia and drinking organic THC-infused soy lattes would have pushed them out by now. It didn’t look like there were a lot of cowboys, but they’re sprinkled in here and there.
Janessa spotted two at a red light in Ft. Collins. They were in a pickup pulling a trailer with two horses inside. She figured they were real cowboys, not on account of their hats and horses, but because it was hot outside and their windows were rolled down, which she attributed to a broken air conditioner. Yep, those were real cowboys. I ran into two cowboys while filling up at the Love’s Truck Stop in Walsenburg, Co. I noticed they wear hats with a different crease to the brim than we’re used to in Texas – more of a curve than a crease, really. They also seem to wear suspenders rather than belt and buckle.
I noticed the people there don’t fly the state flag like folks in Texas do. I saw plenty of American flags proudly flying but very few Colorado state flags. It’s a shame, because they have a lovely state flag. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Lone Star Flag, but Colorado’s blue and white flag with the red C circling a golden disk looks great flying in the wind. They people love wearing ball caps and t-shirts emblazoned with the state flag. You see the bumper stickers of the flag on vehicles everywhere. But other than at government buildings, I think I saw the flag actually flying only once – at a car dealership, of course. The drive back was even better than the drive there. We left Ft. Collins on Sunday, Sept. 25. I had hoped to see some large wildlife like elk or bear. Just the week before, my brother-in-law Tim told us a bear got inside a Safeway store in Ft. Collins. But we didn’t see any wildlife during our stay. Estes Park is supposed to be a hotspot for elk activity in Colorado, so we decided to drive through on our way back home. The journey took us west past the foothills of the Rockies. The road was curvy and uphill. We passed a few “fourteeners” – mountain peaks with summits above 14,000 feet. Parts of the road were over 10,000 feet in elevation. Patches of aspen trees turning yellow looked like clouds in the forested mountainsides. There were warning signs for bear, elk and moose, but we saw none. From Estes Park we headed south toward a lovely little town called Nederwald, situated in the valley of several peaks. We then started downhill toward the Denver area. We stopped at the famous Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. We walked about half the trail around the rock formations. But we turned back at the site of a steep incline that we didn’t feel like climbing. We ate lunch at a Ted’s Montana Grill location in Littleton. I had the bison chili, and it was really good. Janessa had a bison burger. Ted’s is a nationwide chain, but it felt appropriate eating bison in Colorado, for some reason. We got on Interstate 25 and headed south back through the Raton Pass and into New Mexico. It was interesting seeing the other side of the mountains we passed on the way there. We made it back into Texas as the sun went down. We stopped in Dalhart and stayed the night at a Best Western. The next morning we drove through Amarillo and headed back to see the Palo Duro Canyon one more time. This time, we went through the town of Canyon to Palo Duro State Park.
It truly is one of this state’s crown jewels. The landscape is breathtaking. From miles and miles of the flat Llano Estacado, the land just drops beneath your feet. Driving into the park, it’s a good idea to keep the vehicle in low gear. The descent into the canyon is steeper, I think, than any road I drove in Colorado. We decided we’d have to come back for a camping trip one day. We scoped out a few sites so we can make reservations in the future.
It was midday when we visited. The canyon is so deep that parts of the canyon walls casted shade even at that time of day. I saw more wildlife in Palo Duro than I saw in all of Colorado – mostly mule deer and turkey.
The colors of the rocks were incredible. I never knew there were so many natural shades of red and orange. Look closely and you see incredible shades of blue and green in the rocks. Then yellow, but the shade of yellow that brings to my mind the Spanish word “Amarillo.”
We stopped at El Coronado Lodge on our way out of the canyon. This little building constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s serves as a park information center. The building is full of artifacts from the canyon’s former inhabitants – the Apache, Comanche and Kiowa. Janessa said the canyon reminded her of a sacred space, like a cathedral. Some of the rocks certainly reminded me of the flying buttresses of European cathedrals. But that’s not really what she meant. It’s the spot where the Comanche and Kiowa made their last stand in Texas. The Battle of Palo Duro took place on Sept. 28, 1874. We visited the place two days shy of the 148th anniversary.
“It almost feels like I’m trespassing in someone’s home,” she said.