Mammoth to Colorado, Day 4

 Thursday 9 September 2021

Santa Fe, NM to Navajo State Park, CO
planned time: 4:14
Actual: 5:16
Stops: 12-minute refuel in Aztec

Here's what I wrote at the time:
Inexplicably bummed the last day. Partly because the restaurants were fails.
Very scared about no diesel gas available on route. Taking the 4:01 route instead of the 3:40 one because it looks flatter. Hope that's a correct decision.

Some pics of the Santa Fe Skies RV park:

 

 And off we go! Wrong way at first--

Now back on track:

The route was okay. Going southwest toward Albuquerque at first was a bummer--we were going almost in the opposite direction we needed to be going--but once we got going north it was fine.  There was elevation change, of course, but mostly gradual and bearable. The road was 4-lanes most of the way; at one point we got off on a 2-laned "county road" for a while--damn google maps!--and it was scary. But it joined back into a major road that was 4-lane with a median, and so went on until we had to get off to go down to the park. We got to see some mountains during the afternoon--the southern Rockies of the San Juan National Forest, around Silverton.

It was still a long, tiring drive. Ed ran with the generator on for the air conditioning, which kept us colder than I liked--I had to move the vent fan off me to survive and still be uncomfortable. It seems that I can never be at a right temperature this trip--when the air conditioners are on inside, it's freezing cold at about 76 degrees. In the daytime its' unbearably hot at 90 degrees, which is silly because it's been a lot hotter this summer back home. 90 degrees should be just find for me. When I went out to look at the stars at night, the outdoors was still pretty warm. But on Friday morning it was 50 degrees outside and a little windy.  I was freezing.

The campground is very nice, well maintained and fairly spacious.  It was only about half full on the weekday we arrived. The good spot between us and the lake was vacant--the campground has a road running alongside the lake with RV sites on either side, and we were on the site away from the lake. I know that when I made the reservations, all of the lakeside spots were taken. So I have to assume the empty spot will fill up on Friday. But I'm fine if it stays free, just a little annoyed that I couldn't get it.

On the southern end of the camping loop, there were about ten walk-in sites.  They were all empty, making a nice little place for Zack to have his exercise. It was very dry and dusty, with scattered vegetation and small, scrubby trees, but lots of flowers. The place has clearly seen a lot of tramping feet over the many years. A few lizards. A few birds but none I was able to get a good look at.

 

The lake was very low, greenish and murky from a very great distance. It's way, way down on a sleep slope from us. Kayakers down there looked like specks; I couldn't tell an eagle from a gull--and without the binoculars, couldn't see the eagle at all. I just happened to notice it when I was looking at some crows flying by. Some brown humps on the other side of the lake were revealed by the spotting scope as horses. 

I love the deceptive distance of the west. The air must be clear because it's drying, and far away things look close...until you catch the details.

And thus ends the seventh anniversary of the day when all that was best in my life was taken away from me.