No Thru Traffic

From Fountain, CO we headed southwest towards Mesa Verde National Park in hopes to have a cheap place to sleep and some cool cave dwellings to see in the morning.

The ride along 50 then south on 550 was probably one of our better rides yet. It snaked us through the Rockies and revealed some really cool little towns along the way. The weather was up and down pretty much all day – going from pretty warm, to rain, to very cold, and back again.

We went through two 10,000+ foot high passes so my bike ran like it had no power for most of the day. Approaching and then passing Red Mountain was something else. The river that flowed from the mountain was a reddish yellow and the ground was bright red. Apparently it used to be a pretty big mining spot that has since turned into a four-wheelin’ destination.

Mesa Verde National Park has a massive campground. It’s 425+ spots rarely fill up so a lot of them are starting to be reclaimed by the land. It’s a stark contrast to the amount of openings we are used to seeing. It was a perfect temperature for sleeping and in the morning we headed out to see some of the cliff dwellings the park is known for.

Some of them are a couple thousand years old yet still seem like you could live in them today. It was eerie and impressive to walk through the dwelling.