Tres Piedras Canyon

There were remnants of snow on tops of cars and shaded areas as we awoke to a cold but not freezing morning. It wasn't raining and so we decided on visiting the Taos Pueblos. The Pueblos are considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States. We paid to enter the site and it was fascinating to walk around and explore. However it felt odd to be wandering around an area where people live whilst looking at their houses and taking photos as though in a fishbowl. It was a worthwhile visit although brief as we had to hit the road again.

We were driving to Durango in Colorado and it was a four hour drive away. After an hour nothing remarkable occurred and then we had to cross the San Juan National Forest which involved a number of mountains. As we climbed the mountains and got higher and higher the snow on the ground became thicker and thicker. Before we knew it we were driving through pelting snow. It was like we had entered a mini winter wonderland at the mountain top as we drove up and down and round and round. There were hardly any cars around adding to the sense of isolation and it felt like we were on the dark side of the mountain, hiding from the rising sun. It required quite a lot of concentration to navigate the roads but whenever possible the snowy scenery had to be glanced at and admired. The car even warned us that the outside temperature was minus two. Ever since we've driven the car, all the messages appear in French with no apparent way to change the language and so Alice quickly translated the message with her phone and we were relived it wasn't alerting us to an emergency. As we descended, the snow stopped falling and the surrounding snow thinned out. It was a relief to not have to drive through those conditions for much longer, although the scenery was fantastic.

The rest of the journey was fine and we reached our motel before the early evening. We went for an easy option for dinner, a pizza restaurant five minutes away. Apart from the long wait for the food (we were hungry and so time seemed to stop) we were very pleased with our huge and heavily topped meal. We finished our beers and made our way back to the motel.

Song of the Day:
Madonna - FrozenRead more