To MESA VERDE!
Sep. 14-17 2013
PART 7
Biz I-25 uses surface streets in Walsenburg, Colo. It appears as if this replaces an older road at right, but it also appears as if the old road is now completely cut off from other roads, with no way to access it whatsoever.
The 1973 Pepsi logo lives. This is northwest on Main Street (Biz I-25) in Walsenburg.
US 160, with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains up ahead. The Sangre de Cristo range is where our bag of potato chips exploded.
US 160 again.
I'm pretty sure this mountain is Mount Mestas.
Hunt Avenue in Alamosa, Colo. It's closed up ahead at the rail crossing.
Main Street (US 160 west) in Alamosa.
This road in northern Conejos County is called CR AA.5. Section line roads here are CR AA, CR BB, etc., so this road that's halfway between section lines is CR AA.5.
Returning to Alamosa on US 285.
US 160 west and US 285 north use Main Street here in Alamosa. Sixth Street comes in from the left while Main becomes two-way.
An alley in Alamosa.
Main Street again, where only US 160 west uses it. Notice a restaurant here called Oscar's. Sesame Street has an Oscar.
US 160/285 in Monte Vista, Colo., as Park Avenue becomes 1st Avenue.
First Avenue at Adams Street in Monte Vista.
US 160 continues west of Monte Vista.
CO 149! Now that was an interesting road! Here we're crossing the Rio Grande in South Fork. We kept encountering these antique cars along this road - which runs along the Rio Grande up towards the Continental Divide, and the Lake Fork tributary of the Gunnison River for much of the way back down.
CO 149 in South Fork. The log structure at left is just a minor device over a side road.
The Rio Grande bumps up against CO 149.
CO 149 continues.
Keep in mind that CO 149 wasn't completely paved until 1977.
A rail bridge over the Rio Grande.
CO 149 again!
This is only mile 9 on CO 149. We've almost reached the clouds!
Although CO 149 is 118 miles long, it has no junctions with any numbered highways along its entire length, except at the beginning and the end.
"Into the clouds we go!" Remember that song from music class in kindergarten? I used to think that was hilarious because it seemed to describe a physical impossibility. But it wasn't nearly as funny as the song that went, "On 5th Avenue..." Now that was uproarious! (And it has to do with a road!)
To think there's a whole part coming up that deals entirely with CO 149 and its offshoots.