Dobbs' Desert Trek 2010

Today was a leisurely travel day. After traveling 1200 miles in two days, we were beat and took our time getting up. As usual, I was the first showered and dressed, and ate some breakfast at our Holiday Inn Express. Now a quick aside about "free" hotel breakfasts. They are generally pathetic and the Alamosa Holiday Inn Express lived up to those expectations. Why, oh why, can't they make Real Brewed Coffee. I guess to keep the general theme, that nothing is real: The eggs aren't what they're cracked up to be, the bread products were all frozen and look very unappetatizing, the "juice" comes a machine. Really, they could go for less and get more. Please America, stop trying to pass off instant coffee as "fresh" and "gourmet." We're supposed to get a free continental breakfast tomorrow in our expensive Durango hotel. We'll see how it compares.

Cheryl and Amy didn't bother with breakfast today, they each just had balance bar and called it a morning.The drive was wonderful today. Cheryl took the wheel since I'd done the lion's share of the driving the first two days. It was nice to sit back and snap photos out the window, mess with the music on the Zune, and navigate using my iPhone. The scenery was fantastic as you will soon see. We drove up along the head-waters of the Rio Grande and then crossed the continental divide and picked up the San Juan river for company. Along the way we saw . . .Well a pictures worth a thousand words so here are a few:

Just a little past the continental divide, on highway 160, we took a scenic view pull out and took some really fun shots. There was a waterfall visible from the turn out which we got closer to a little further down the road. Here are some photos:

We stopped for a picnic lunch in Pagosa Springs and watched the rafters taken on a small rapid. By the way, there are song birds all over the place and I just love listening to them. I can't always spot them but did see a Raspberry Finch singing his heart out today.

We pulled into Durango by 2:00 or so and got situated in our nostalgic hotel room. We spent the afternoon poking around in shops (reasonable prices for a tourist spot), and then poked around the Durango and Silverton railroad Depot. There is an excellent museum there and after touring it, I'm very, very excited about our excursion tomorrow. To whet your appetite, here's a video of the train pulling into the station. The sound of the steam train is worth the price of admission.

Enjoy,

Mark