Another 200

For a Sunday drive today we elected to go northeast from Raton, NM.  A few miles out of Raton we crossed into Colorado.  The big difference between NM and CO in this area is

water.  There is a lot more of it in Colorado.  In Trinidad, CO we picked up the Purgutoire (French spelling, in English Purgatory) River, and followed the old Santa Fe Trail--US 350.

We looked for pronghorn, but only found a few.  This one was startled by the bike and started to run at an angle that would take it across the road.

  

Duane had only seconds to hit the brakes and slow down enough to just miss it!

It hit the other side of the road

 and kept on going.

 There wasn't a whole lot to see in the grasslands, but I did spot this.  It looked like a huge pile of cotton, or a cloud, or maybe a pile of snow.  I decided that it was a ridge of white rock.

One hundred miles later we arrived at our turnaround point.

27 stars on this flag

We had hoped that there would be more reenactors and demonstrations for the holiday weekend, but were disappointed to learn that there were only two or three volunteers and no demos.  

The fort was very well built of adobe in a rectangular two level shape around a central open plaza.

All of the rooms could be entered from the plaza and were connected inside by adjoining doors.

Outside on two sides was an alley that connected with the corral so that goods could be dispersed to various rooms without disrupting the guests and traders, and so that horses could led right to the blacksmith shop for shoeing.

Corrals

Bent's Fort was not built to be a military fort but was primarily a trading post that gre to include guest quarters and activities like formal dinners, dances and a pool room.

The store then

and now.

Duane made himself right at home in the blacksmith shop.

My favorite room was this one.  It held fresh water, and down these steps they stored ice for cold drinks.

Our tour finished, we hopped the bike to retrace our route home.  Unfortunately the wind had picked up and was blowing crosswise from the southeast.  It kept whipping our heads around and pushing the bike so that Duane had all he could do to keep it on the road.  We had to actually lean into the wind so it wouldn't push us off the road.

It limited our pronghorn spotting to one side of the road, so that we only saw a couple.  Mostly Duane drove and I pasted the miles by holding onto my helmet and watching the sun chase cloud shadows over the grass.

Once back in Trinidad, the mountains kept the wind to a minimum as we rode back through Raton Pass (elevation 7830') and back down to into New Mexico and on to Raton.

We enjoyed our 220 mile ride, but today proved to be rather hot.  The Colorado side of the pass the elevation dropped to 4000'  with temps in the 90's.  We were glad to get back to the coolness of Raton.

Tomorrow--a shorter ride.

Louise and Duane