It was so hard to get up this morning when my alarm went off at 05:00 am. I had good intentions of making coffee and creating a plan for today. Instead, I laid curled in my warm bed until after 06:00 when I dragged myself out of bed and headed to the National Park. There I bought a ticket to tour the Cliff Palace dwelling and the drive there was about an hour long. Since the road there is up a mountain with sharp corners the park actually had a parking area for trailers so I unhitched my baby and headed out. Let me tell you, driving on the twisting mountain road without a trailer felt wonderful! I was flying high and enjoying the little bit of freedom I had without the trailer. The drive itself wasn't the best mountain drive I have done but it was still beautiful to see and I just love driving thru tunnels.
Arriving at Cliff Palace I waited with all the other tourists for the ranger to show up. The guy we got stuck with I really liked for he was interesting and hilarious but also made sure to be very informative. Once we began the actual tour we walked down a narrow stone path to the dwellings and it was interesting to learn that the holes I thought were windows in the "buildings" were in fact doors! When the tour ended, about an hour later, I leisurely drove around the park stopping here and there to take a few random pictures. Soon I lost interest and drove away towards The Great Sand Dunes National Park.
I have to interject here for a moment and say that the weather in Colorado is worse than a woman on her menstrual cycle and believe me I would know! This morning it was 60 degrees out and warmed to 80 degrees which is normal and what I expected. What I did not expect was for the temperature to go from 80 degrees down to 53 degrees and back up to 78 degrees in less than a two hour time span. Then to top it all off, when I reached the national park it dropped within less than thirty minutes to 50 degrees and started raining and hailing with gale force winds! Like what the fuck is mother nature doing!!
Now that I got that out of my system lets get back on track. Since it was raining I ran into the visitor center to ask a few questions and to verify that the BLM land I was interested in camping on was indeed there. With the verification that I needed I headed to the said BLM land with the hail and rain pounding down all around me. Since it was raining so hard I sat in my vehicle until it subsided some so that I could get out and read the sign to make sure I was at the right location. From there I drove up a dirt road and half of the road soon became a rushing river! I feared that my vehicle would get stuck and I would not be able to make it to a campsite; however, I persevered and found a site to camp at.
Due to the prevailing winds and the rain I sat in my vehicle talking to my dad in Florida while running short trips to my camper trying not to be knocked over. Eventually, I had everything I need in my camper and climbed on in out the rain. I had planned to cook some rice for dinner and possibly some beans; however, the weather decided that one for me. Instead I just ate the last of my lunch meat and cheese since I also had no bread. During this time frame I took to updating my blog and adding pictures now that I had cell service once again. Before I knew it it was time to go to bed.
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| Cliff Palace |
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