Last Days in Pagosa Springs

 

Although it is not yet officially Autumn, fall is definitely in the air in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. We’ve had several nights of mid to upper 30’s, and the aspens are beginning to turn yellow at the higher elevations. Time to begin our slow pilgrimage to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

We took it easy the past couple days, enjoying our quiet boondocking spot. The beaver pond down the road leads to a closed forest service road where we’ve walked a couple times. We finally went to the end and discovered what appears to be wreckage from a Pepsi truck that went off the overlook on Highway 160 coming down from Wolf Creek Pass.

We can see the overlook from our site.

I Googled it and found an article about a trucker who went over in 2011 and was killed, but it didn’t mention his cargo. There were dozens of broken but unopened Pepsi cans strewn down the side of the mountain, and lots of debris from one or more vehicle wreckages.

Jim and Elliot had lots of fun exploring.

Yesterday we went to Pagosa Springs one last time to take a walk along the river and up Reservoir Hill, a nice area overlooking town with several miles of hiking and mountain bike trails.

A dead tree that has been carved into a bench.

Pagosa Springs is another Colorado town famous for it’s natural hot springs. The tourist brochures claim that “pagosah” is an Indian word for “healing waters”, but I read elsewhere that it really means “stinky waters”. That makes much more sense, since the smell of sulphur and other minerals is definitely evident in the air.

There are several resorts along the river where you can go and soak in the stinky, healing water.

 

We also stopped for a late lunch at Farrogo Market Cafe. Now this is a place that knows how to make a great veggie pizza. It was a fitting way to cap off our summer in Colorado.