Leaving Alamosa, we realized our route was going to take us over the southern part of the San Juan Mountain range, right through Wolf Creek Pass. We would later realize this was a dangerous route, one that many truckers lose control on.
After we drove over the pass, we understood why they say "Beware the Wolf."
Even so, it was a beautiful drive through the mountains. I kept telling the boys to look out the windows at the scenery. Jack would look and excitedly say, "A pond! I see a pond!" Umm, look up, child, we are surrounded by mountains!
Thankfully Daniel was in the driver's seat for this portion of our drive. The previous day I had been driving and had a moment where the engine was getting overheated. As we crested a hill, Daniel told me to speed up to allow the outside air to help cool the engine. On today's drive day we would experience the opposite problem.
As we came to the most dangerous part of the pass, we were making our way down a series of tight switchbacks, Daniel decided to stop and check to see how hot the brakes were. They measured 800+F. He hopped back in the car and said we would have to wait until they cooled down or risk losing our brakes and crashing.
So we sat. On the shoulder. With trucks flying past us.
Thankfully it was about 55F outside and it had started to rain, and the wind was blowing.
While we waited, the boys decided they both needed to pee. So we each grabbed a kid and had them pee on the other side of our rig, out of view of other cars. They were in shorts, it was cold, and raining, and we just did the best we could.
After waiting about 40 minutes, the brakes were cool enough that Daniel felt like we could continue down the mountain. At this point of the trip, we began to rely more heavily on our trailer brakes.
Coming off the pass, we drove through Durango where we saw the Chimney Rock National Monument from a distance. To get to Mesa Verde we drove through the Rio Grande National Forest and the Southern Ute Reservation.
To be honest, I had not actually heard of Mesa Verde until some friends took a trip out west a couple of months before we did. Had I not seen their pictures, we probably would have skipped this National Park, but I'm glad we included this stop on our trip.
We chose to camp at the Mesa Verde RV Resort, a small campground just outside of the National Park. We were thrilled to learn we could extend our checkout time until 3pm by paying an extra $7 for the stay.
Check back for my next post which will be about our day visiting the Mesa Verde National Park.
Trip Stats
Camping Locations: Pickwick Landing State Park in Tenn., Gore Landing City Park in Okla., Wallydocking in Guymon, OK, Family Base Camp in Alamosa, Colo., Mesa Verde RV Resort in Mancos, Colo.
States Covered: TN > GA > AL > MS > TN > MS > TN > AR > OK > NM > CO
Significant Stops: Black Mesa, OK (highest point)
Daily Miles Traveled: 227 miles ⎮ 445 miles ⎮ 403 miles ⎮ 325 miles ⎮ 191 miles
TOTAL Miles Traveled: 1,591 miles
Days on the Road: 6
From my Instagram Diary (the day of):
Utah Road Trip Diaries Day 5 cont.: When Daniel was ready we packed up and headed toward Mesa Verde. We made a brief stop for supplies and Jack helped Daniel fix our awning before heading on our way. Our route took us through the southern part of the San Juan Mountain range through the Rio Grande National Forest and Southern Ute Reservation. We crossed Wolf Creek pass and had to stop on the way down. Daniel checked the brakes and they were 800F. We had to wait in the rain on the side of the mountain for it to cool off. We pressed on to Durango and saw the Chimney Rock National Monument from a distance. The views continue to have us in awe. We are at another beautiful campsite and the night sky is majestic and clear. Another good day in the books and I’m sure we will all sleep well tonight.
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