July 10, 2025

July 10, 2025

From Pueblo, CO we drove south until we reached the Spanish Peaks. These are two isolated peaks that represented the start of New Spain or Spanish America. We have one last rendezvous with Zebulon Pike. After the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson sent Pike to explore its southern boundary (Arkansas River) with Spain. After reaching the headwaters and then attempting to scale Pike’s Peak, he either got lost in the snow or purposefully crossed to the Rio Grande. The Spanish were wary of American expansion and were waiting for an incursion. We drove west to Alamosa, CO where Pike was arrested as a spy.

From Alamosa we continued up the South fork of the Rio Grande River and then over Wolf Creek Pass (11,000 feet) into the San Juan River valley. We stopped for a delicious Thai curry lunch in Pagosa Springs. We also checked out the source of the town’s hot spring. It is supposed to be the world’s deepest.

Afterwards we make a short detour to visit Chimney Rock National Monument. It is managed by the National Forest Service. Like the two other Chimney Rocks in the USA, it is a distinctive landmark. I thought this was going to be a quick visit, but it turns out to be very interesting and we spent a couple hours there.

After watching the park film, we drove a dirt road up the ridge to a mesa that is almost at the same height as the pinnacle. This flat top at over 7000’ surprisingly contains the ruins of a small Anasazi or Ancestral Puebloan community. It is complete with two kivas and a dozen rooms. It is a mystery why a Stone-Age culture would locate a village this high up and so far from any water source. To me the likely reason probably had to do with defense. One storyboard even said these Anasazi domesticated turkeys and used them as “guard turkeys” to alert for intruders. As always, the park ethos prefers to think it had to be either ceremonial or possibly astronomical related. No matter, Aimee and I are glad we made the stop as these ruins are in a stunning location.

Back in the car we drove across the tributaries of the San Juan and then down the Animas River to its confluence with the San Juan in Farmington, NM. Conveniently our hotel has a nice Mexican restaurant in the same building.