Way Too Windy

We spent a very windy night at Great Sand Dunes, and
even though we planned on staying a second night, we
decided to break camp and look elsewhere to camp for
our second night. We read the weather forecast at the
Visitor's Center and there were to be wind gusts of up
to 60 mph this evening. Even though our tent did well
last night, we didn't have that great of a time because we
couldn't sit outside and enjoy our campsite. We decided
to head west in hopes that the weather would be better.
Along they way, we saw a large elk herd that reminded
us of when we lived in Estes Park upwards of 200 elk
would gather in our yard at the same time.


This part of Colorado has quite a few farms where bison
are raised. It was interesting watching them and it's
quite relieving to know that they aren't as endangered
as they were even a generation ago.


As we drove west, through southern Colorado, we traveled a
few roads through country we hadn't visited before. We went
through Pagosa Springs and when we got to Durango, we
stopped at the Public Lands Office to check the weather.
We had thought about stopping for the night near Dolores
and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, but found
that it was going to be even windier there than at Great
Sand Dunes. We even thought about staying at Hovenweep
National Monument, which is even farther west. It was very
windy there as well. It seemed at times that the whole state
of Utah was blowing east into Colorado. The skies had such
a hazy, dusty look. We decided to cut our losses and head
home for the night. We headed north and visited the small
resort/ski town of Telluride. We decided we would visit
later in the summer since it looked like a pretty neat place.
Later, we drove the the small town of Ridgway where we
saw this old firehouse and fire truck. They also have an
interesting railroad museum there that we might check out
at a later date. Overall, we spent a long day in the car, but
it was fun to see so many places we hadn't seen before.