Colorado - Sand, Plains and Prairie Dogs

From Oklahoma, I cross north into Colorado and the town of Trinidad, along the historic Santa Fe Trail.  There's a nice small visitors center with interesting displays on the local culture and history.

Ouch - poor cattle!  But the heart one is cute.

 

I take some time to peruse the town newspaper...hmmmm....

 Then it's on to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Millions of years ago there was a great inland sea here.  When it dried up, sand deposits were left which, over time, the wind built up into these great dunes, the tallest 750 feet above the desert floor in the San Luis valley, west of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

 

A sunrise hike up the dunes - it was hard going uphill, I can tell you!  But what a great spot for breakfast.

 

See the hummingbird?

Now do you see the hummingbird?  The campground hosts gave ma a feeder that another camper left behind, so now I've got company for breakfast and dinner!

 Here's the start of a 3.7 mile one-way, literally uphill 1700 feet all the way, to Mosca Pass.  Well, might as well see what's on the other side of the mountains...

Oh, just kill me now.

An evening storm came up that turned the sky into a palette of colors, and made the dunes seem so ethereal.

Time to say goodbye to the sand dunes and head for the hills...well, mountains.  Cheyenne Mountain State Park near Colorado Springs, where I'll be meeting my friend Susan, who'll be joining me for two weeks.

Walsenberg, a town of shops and businesses, and where I got some delicious Colorado peaches.

There's little Aflo, at the foot of those big hills!

Really?

Bunny came to visit me for breakfast, right at my campsite!

This little cottontail refused to get off the trail!

I'm OK! in Oklahoma

From Kansas, crossed into northern Oklahoma for a two-day journey across the northern part of the state and the pan-handle.  So, this is, I can safely say, the most mind-numbing part of the trip so far, flat and straight. I find myself paying attention to the most bizarre things: natural gas pipes, oil rigs.  Flat, roadkill (what kind was it?) oops, there goes a roadrunner!  Did I say flat?  Small rodeo towns, Buffalo, OK, home of the world champion bronc rider.  The 4-H club of Freedom welcomes me, how nice.

FINALLY!  Arrive somewhere -

Camped along the river under the cottonwood trees where cool breezes blow.

Alabaster Caverns State Park is the site of the largest gypsum mine in the country, and the only one in the world open for tours.  No photos allowed....darn!  Three forms of gypsum were mined here and the tour is a nice 45 min. in the 57 degree temps.  Although, I wish I'd worn my 4-ionch stacked wedgie platforms like the other woman on the tour.  Silly me, thinking sneakers were appropriate cavern footwear!

What, you never heard a person "Meep" before?  Made you look!

A flicker

Make mine a MOKA - that's Missouri and Kansas

Woke up to rain - and learned the 9" fell in this area yesterday.  But I'm hoping to get through it by heading west, across the wide Mississippi near Cape Girardeau, another important stop on the Trail of Tears northern route. 

This is definitely a tough way to travel!

It's all Cherokee to me!

????

Big Springs, with a daily output (256 million gallons) enough to fill a major league stadium every day!

Finally, I decide two nights camping in the rain (and roads flooding) in Missouri is enough,, and I head for Branson for a  night of "civilization."  I'll let these photos speak for themselves, just let me say now I know why there's always timeshare vacancies in Branson...who in their right might would spend a week there?

I am struck by how much nicer I'm finding Kansas than the first time I crossed the state.  Perhaps keeping off the Interstate and going through the southern part is all the difference!

I was so happy to find this small town, Baxter Springs, in southern Kansas which still has a segment of the old Route 66!  Had a wonderful lunch at this small cafe, run by a couple who've lived here their whole lives.   The town was an important mining town, the original Kansas "cowtown" where huge herds were driven through on their way to Texas, and an important place for...baseball; Mickey Mantle grew up just three miles down the road.