Burns' Go West: Part 2

From Kansas we headed into Colorado. I wanted to see a couple national park sites that I had missed out on when I lived in CO. Our first stop was Sand Creek Massacre.

Road to Sand Creek

It is down 8 miles of dirt roads. It was super windy and there were tumbleweeds blowing everywhere. We were the only ones there and the ranger gave us a nice little talk on the horrifying history of the site. There's really not much to do besides read a couple interpretive panels so we did that and headed over to Bent's Old Fort.

Bents Old Fort

Jess and I had previously driven to the fort but arrived just as it had closed so I was so excited to actually see inside the fort. I have been to a ton of forts in the national park system but this one was unique because it was not a military fort. Rather, it was used as a resupply post for travelers. I thought it was really cool.

Bents Old Fort

While grabbing some brochures I saw that our next stop, Capulin Volcano, was closed for repairs. I didn't want to continue to a site that we couldn't visit so I decided that we would head into Taos instead. The whole trip had been driving across the wide open, flat prairie so I thought Don and Amber would enjoy some mountains. We had finally glimpsed mountains off in the distance so we kept heading west towards them.

Colorado Mountains

We crossed over La Veta pass and then cut south into New Mexico. It was so neat to drive through the mountains again and be surrounded by snow covered peaks.

Taos Gorge

We went over the see the Rio Grande gorge in Taos and then spent the night in Taos. The next morning we checked out Taos plaza before driving down the High Road to Santa Fe.

High Road to Santa Fe

Chimayo

We stopped at a couple overlooks and in Chimayo before arriving in Santa Fe. We checked out the state capitol. Compared to IA and NE it was a very different looking capitol.

NM State Capitol

We wandered around the historic Santa Fe downtown and grabbed some lunch before heading down to Albuquerque via the Turquoise Trail.

Basilica

We drove up to Sandia Crest. Jess and I had done the drive previously but it was a cold, rainy, cloudy day so there was no view. This time there wasn't a cloud in the sky so the views were gorgeous.

View from Sandia Crest 

On the way into ABQ we attempted to drive the Singing Highway in Tijeras. Apparently if you drive 45mph over rumble strips it plays America the Beautiful but the rumble strips are so small that you have to align your tires correctly so we only heard the end of the song. We spent the evening in old town Albuquerque doing some shopping. It was a great way to end the trip. I had such a good time and was so happy that Don and Amber decided to spend their vacation with me. I loved showing them the country and exploring with them. The weather was absolutely perfect the whole way. It was sunny and in the 60s every day. I was sad to leave them at the airport but excited for the ranch season ahead!