Day 9 The Rocky Mountains Colorodo
xc2022/day-09
<!-- Title: Day 9 The Rocky Mountains Colorodo Date: 2022-07-19 12:00 tags: xc2022, travel, Summer2022 galleryroot: media/galleries galleryfolder: xc2022/2022-07-19 bannerimage: startday.jpg --> ## DAY 9, Dalhart TX to Grand Junction UT [[#ENDSUMMARY]] Todays Goal: Get over the Rocky Mountains. Gonna be a long day. Woke up in Dalhart TX. Did my morning coffee run. I noticed yesterday and today so many small mom and pop Donut shops in northern Texas. They also prominently have these things called **Kolaches**. I never really heard of them. Basically a sort of dough stuffed with anything, meats, fruit, etc. Somewhat of a cross between a donut and a danish. Turns out [Kolaches are an Eastern Europe Czech Republic origin](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/11/28/502088150/the-czech-pastry-that-took-texas-by-storm-and-keeps-gaining-strength). Apparently Western Texas has a rich history of Czech immigrant communities during the 1880’s. ### Dalhart, TX This is a fascinating history and story about Dalhart TX. And it is mostly tied to the [Rail Road](http://txrrhistory.com/towers/004/004.htm) and somewhat to the [XIT Ranch](https://www.frontiertimesmagazine.com/blog/the-transformation-of-the-xit-ranch). In the 1880s, it was the largest ranch in the world under the fence and at one point had 150,000 cattle. During the 1920s the XIT Ranch was broken up, sold, and thus was divided into smaller ranches. It no longer existed as of then. Since 1936 cowboys and their families who worked the XIT Ranch have been gathering at an annual reunions to reminisce about life on the ranch. These reunions have been held in Dalhart, where the addition of a rodeo and a free barbeque have been opened to the public and continue to this day. It is 2 weeks from now, but we are leaving today! Sorry to miss the free barbeque. [Find out more about the annual reunions](https://xitrodeoreunion.com/). ### RATON, NM On our way from Dalhart and about 130 miles to Raton New Mexico. It is all still flat through this part of the trip and as you approach Raton we start to see the Mountains. First Real Mountains. Raton is just about six miles from the Colorado border. We stop at the visitor center. We are at an elevation 6,680 feet. Dalhart was at elevation 4000 feet and by reference yesterday morning in Kilgore Texas we were at 400 feet elevation.. I guess it wasn’t that flat of a ride, but seemed like it! Shooting for Top of the rockies, which by the route we are taking, will be about 12,000 feet. Raton Pass was one of the most treacherous locations on [The Santa Fe Trail](https://www.nps.gov/safe/index.htm), which spanned 1,200 miles from Franklin, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico passing through deserts, mountains and forests along its route. And apparently there were lots of rodents or raccoons living up in the mountain nearby and the town is named after them. ### Pueblo, CO In 10 short miles we were in colorado, continuing North on Route 25. Posted speed limit here is the highest on our trip: 80 mph. Our next stop was about 2 hours away in Pueblo Colorodo on the Arkansas River. So expecting to see “Pueblo” ruins. No, this is simply a town with a Spanish name meaning town. (el pueblo). Yes the Arkansas river does end up in the Mississippi river in Arkansas. Looks pretty tiny right here in the city. From the highway and on off ramps into Pueblo you can believe Pueblo is one of the largest steel-producing cities in the United States, and has a regional nickname as the "Steel City" Stopped downtown and it is a great modern town. The [Pueblo River Walk](https://www.puebloriverwalk.org/) is a jewel in the center of town and the arkansas river.. Of course it was during COvid, and was fairly empty when we where there. The gallery photos shows a short respite from the heat in the shade of a bridge at the riverwalk. ### Colorado Springs, CO OK, this is where we are going to TURN LEFT and head up and over the Rockies via Route 24. Didn’t do much here except get something to eat and plan the route over the Rockies. Pike’s Peak is visible from here. Colorado Springs is at about 6,000 feet elevation. That’s about the same as we were in Raton, NM 3 hours ago. Pikes Peak is a little over 14,000 14,000 feet, about or about 8,000 ft (2,400 m) above downtown Colorado Springs! Our route will take us over the rockies at about 12,000 feet above sea level. ### Manitou Cliff Dwellings Ten minutes outside the city on the way up is [THE MANITOU CLIFF DWELLINGS](https://www.cliffdwellingsmuseum.com/). It is an accessible pet-friendly museum that captures the majesty of a cliff dwelling settlement. This is a private museum and not affiliated with the national park system. These ancestral pueblo ruins were MOVED AND RECONSTRUCTED HERE in 1904. The original ruins date back 800 to 1000 years. THis was fantastic from our perspective of probably never going to have a chance to hike into other cliff dwelling sites. ### The Route <img title="Rockies Route" src="../%galleryroot%/%galleryfolder%/combine_images2.jpg" class="img-responsive" align=left style="float:right; max-width: 100%; width: 500px; margin:10px;" /> ### Pike’s Peak Wonderful View of Pikes Peak during the first hour along Route 24. We did not take the route up to stop at the peak. Just a Driveby. They say that the [views from the summit inspired the words to “America the Beautiful”](https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/places-of-katharine-lee-bates-and-america-the-beautiful.htm). I.e. the “Purple Mountain Majesties” or being able to see the multitude of other 14,000 feet mountains from the top of Pikes Peak. We keep going up on route 24 and get to [Wilkerson Pass](https://www.uncovercolorado.com/activities/wilkerson-pass/). From here you can look back east to Pikes Peak and West to the Continental Divide. The elevation here is about 9,500 feet. That is 3,500 climb since colorado springs and well below the peaks around us of 14,000 feet still. We continue on 24 through trout creek pass. Trout Creek Pass is at elevation 9,346 ft. So almost a flat passage across the last 2 hrs. After trout we really start going down into the town of Buena Vista (‘beautiful view’ in Spanish) at 8000 feet. This seems like a huge plateau that sits between the Collegiate Peaks and the Arkansas River. The flat expanse is a welcome relief from the circuitous and tight roads until now. We got here late around 6PM. Our goal is still to get down from the rockies TODAY! In any case we walk around the town. Enjoyed a meal and filled the gas tank and ran route 24 in awe at some of the [collegiate peaks](https://www.coloradodirectory.com/maps/collegiate.html). Getting to Granite got us up another 1000 feet and After a few hours and twilight coming we make it to [Tennessee Pass and the Continental Divide](). This is elevation 10,500 feet give or take. This is the highest we are gonna be on this trip! So we are going down from here and we’ve seen dark clouds coming for over an hour. We make it through [Minturn](). I nicknamed it MAXturn. Route 24 is not interstates! And shortly after that the sky goes story and nightfall comes in as we snake our way down to route 70 at AVON. I d0on;t mind dark and rainy as long as we are on an interstate. I couldn’t do route 24 anymore!. At Avon we are down to elevation 7,400 feet. It’s raining and dark. Our goal is to find a hotel by 900PM along route 70 preferably at Grand Junction UT which is only 2 hours away on a good day. After an hour, we realize that darkness and tornetial rain and wind aren’t going to let us do it in 2 hours! We end up at the [Exxon Truck Stop in Pallisades](https://goo.gl/maps/fAf3FLR7tf7fQePD9), because all affordable hotels we tried till then were booked. Slept for 2 hrs in the car, rain stopped, then get to Grand Junction and checked into a hotel at 2AM in the morning! ### Glenwood Canyon We drove thru Glennwood canyon in that rain before you get to grand junction. In the dark and rain it was scary. Based on web searches and re-driving that route on google maps) this should have been a gorgeous and awe inspiring natural wonder and manmade highway wonder as well. [Glenwood Canyon is a narrow canyon carved by the Colorado River with towering granite cliffs rising on either side up to 2000 feet straight up](https://nederlandliving.com/?p=1323). Wish we had seen it! For me I felt like driving in a tight pitch black box! ### Gallery Then RATON Colorado Springs ### STATES: TX, NM, CO, UT ### Gallery [JSCgallery folder=%galleryfolder% rootfolder=%galleryroot%]