9 May 2018
Driving from Montrose to Ouray is boring. Driving from Ouray to Durango is nail biting. You go through two mountain passes to an elevation of over 11,000 feet with guard rails at least twice on the trip. Otherwise, it’s a sheer drop to the canyon floor below. In most places, the speed limit was 25 mph and at times I thought that a little reckless. Suffice to say others thought the same since no one was pushing to pass me on the road. The San Juan Mountains are impressive!
Horrors! Pagosa Springs has gone chic! The nice, quiet, quaint little town with a main drag has gone tourist. Even the nice, quiet, quaint part of town is now upscale. There’s an entirely new downtown section, and outside of town all the box stores like Walmart, Home Depot, etc. None of this was here 2 years ago when I passed through on my way to Mesa Verde.
I,at one time, thought I might like to live in Pagosa Springs. It was not too large, not too small. It had an interesting downtown and plenty of hiking trails throughout the San Juan Mountains. I even bought the National Geographic topographic map of the region
Strangest of all in Pagosa Springs is a Cajun restaurant on the old main street appropriately named The Lost Cajun. The owner of the franchise is originally from Barataria, Louisiana and moved to Colorado to open a single restaurant. It became so successful he opened several more throughout the state.
The first thing the waitress does is ask if you would like a sampler of gumbo. Of course! There were five and I chose a cup of seafood. It actually was excellent. The chef makes them from scratch every day.
For dessert, I had 3 beignets. They say on the menu they are like the ones in New Orleans only better. I disagree. You cannot beat Cafe Du Monde for beignets. However, I managed to choke down three of them. I now have a sugar fix for the next three days.
I have stumbled upon the most plush B&B. It’s called Elk Trace B&B and it is 2 miles outside of downtown Pagosa Springs. When I was researching a place to stay last year, this one kept popping up on the web. The photos looked good and I thought for one night, why not splurge.
This place is quite luxurious. The bedroom is huge with a couch and king size bed.
The bathroom is almost as big with double sinks and a massive walk-in shower.
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The great room is two story with a vaulted ceiling.
There is a wrap around porch and one couple and I have it all to ourselves.
There’s even a dog for each of us. One of uncertain lineage and the other a boxer that reminds me of Nicole’s Lexi, except a male.
It’ll be a long trip into town for dinner tonight but we the quiet of the countryside, I will not mind that.
My one disappointment is I will not get to visit Chimney Rock National Monument. They do not open until May 15th. I thought I had checked about the availability last year but either I did not or they changed the opening date for the monument (more likely since the NPS has done that several times on this trip). It’s actually run by the local Ute tribe and I was looking forward to the tour.
It is the most imposing feature either leaving Pagosa Springs for Durango or entering from Durango.
Of course, I looked at real estate prices out here and they are far in excess of Ouray, so Ouray, at the moment, is a bargain in comparison.
Tomorrow should be a short drive to Great Sand Dunes National Park for 3 nights.
