Road Trip continued.....

SUNDAY, MARCH 25

As we packed up camp, Jane noted with some alarm the "mystery tracks" around our tent, all evidence clearly pointing to some fearsome beast that had skulked through camp in the night. After pointing out the striking resemblance of the "tracks" to the feet of our camping chairs....we moved on. Much of our day followed state highway 160 west across southern Kansas, including the Gypsum Hills scenic byway. The rolling hills and plains were punctuated by actual tumbleweeds, deer, and armadillo roadkill.

Faded glory of Grenola, KS

Gypsum Hills area

Skirting south at the far side of Kansas, we followed highway 54 through Liberal, KS, and back into the "finger" of Oklahoma. The prominence of oil wells and cattle grew, and quickly we had passed into the northern reaches of Texas. Highway speeds increased to 70mph, not bad for normal roads. The open, flat landscape was home to many beef feedlots, as far south as Dalhart, TX, where we again turned west, this time for New Mexico.

NE New Mexico

Gaining an hour, we entered New Mexico, and the scenery improved dramatically. We carried on west through scrub desert and long hills, until we hit the I-25 at Raton, NM, where we turned north. This carried us through scenic, winding canyons (a bit of a struggle for a Honda Civic loaded down with stuff) and into Colorado, where we stopped for the night at the picturesque foothills town of Trinidad, CO. We found a beautiful campsite at Trinidad Lake State Park, where fortunately the camping was open for self-registration...but unfortunately nothing else (like the showers) was.

We cooked burgers over the single burner, and enjoyed some Killian's Irish Red Lager, as we spent a crisp night under starry skies while charging our video camera in the park washroom!

Campsite at Trinidad Lake, CO