From New Mexico to Colorado, from the Rio Grande to the Rocky Mountains

Wednesday, 18.20.3023, day 18

We started in Albuquerque and drove about an hour to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. Santa Fe is a really cute western town in the center that has preserved its original character very well. The Santa Fe Trail originally went here, a trade route between 1820 and 1879 that ran from Missouri to the southwest. A stone in the center of the village reminds us that this trail ended here before it was replaced by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1872. Old Western fans of the 1970s, like me, also remember the name Santa Fe Express.

Then we took a lunch break and held an online training session before continuing north east towards Colorado. We crossed the Rio Grande, which will later become the border river between the USA and Mexico. Ok, ok, the Spaniards probably had and still have a different idea of “grande” 😂. The landscape has changed, we climbed further and further up towards the Rocky Mountains to an altitude of over 2400 m. We bought chili peppers and a pumpkin along the way. We would have thought that New Mexico had no trees at all, but instead there were a lot of deciduous trees that were already shining in bright autumnal yellow. We didn't expect that. Towards Colorado and the Rocky Mountains the vegetation increased significantly and we even drove through a small forest, something we hadn't experienced since California. A treat after the desert and prairie landscapes of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. That's why we decided yesterday not to drive further towards Texas and marvel at even more desert and prairie, but to make a small loop from here, a little north, then west again and across Colorado towards Utah. With Colorado we have now reached the 5th state in the USA that we get to know. Now we are in Pagosa Springs, also a small western town that, like all the neighboring towns, is part of a large ski area, with a lot of snow in the winter, and snow chains are mandatory from September onwards as soon as there is snow. It's still around 21° here during the day, but at night it gets cold at around 3°. We'll stay here overnight and continue tomorrow along the edge of the Rocky Mountains.