| After Mesa Verde we
headed for Durango where we spent the night. It is a very pleasant campsite
right next to the tourist railway. |  |
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So in the morning we lined up to watch the morning steam train hauling
tourists to Silverton about 50 miles to the north. |
| We paused at the
supermarket where displays for Halloween are now taking pride of place
despite it being over a month away. |  |
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It is a fairly lonely road as we climb up to the plateau and head for
Denver. We spotted this llama along the way. The roof of the hut is designed
to let the snow fall off it. |
| The roads are long and
straight and surrounded by hills and mountains. |  |
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We crossed three separate passes over 10000ft. This is a snowshed ie it
keeps the snow from blocking this part of the road. I
would not want to be up here in winter. |
| This high up, the fall
comes early. The yellows come from the aspens which will lose their leaves
soon. |  |
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The roads become major engineering feats with use of tunnels to pass the
really tricky bits. |
| We have what the
Americans call a mini motorhome despite it being 31ft long. But this
demonstrates what that means. |  |
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The high plain is pretty barren and flat but the mountains are still several
thousand feet higher. |
| The roads seem to go on
for ever. This is one of our longest travel days covering about 340 miles. |  |
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Although the trees are mainly pines and aspens, some stretches have more of
one than the other. |
| Manitou Springs lies over
there - somewhere. |  |
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But we do have some way to go yet. However we are turning right here onto
the final leg. |
| It is still barren with
the hillocks in an otherwise flat landscape. |  |
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It is only by driving between the cities that you begin to understand how
vast and empty this country is. Civilisation is the other side of those
hills - really... |
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