Cowboy Country!
The original plan was to experience fall in the Colorado mountains, but Mother Nature has thrown a wrench in the plan. Who knew that a tropical storm in the Pacific off of Mexico would have such impact on my travel plans, but it has. Rain has been streaming up from the southwest across the Colorado Rockies and that stream of moisture is predicted to hit a rare early fall plunge of Arctic air from the north and combine to produce cold temperatures and snow at higher elevations. Thus, I’ve decided to turn tail and run for the plains in hopes of a) dryer weather, b) warmer weather, and c) avoiding the incredible traffic hassles of the Denver metropolitan area during a storm. So the plan has changed (this is the best part about being retired, I can do what I want, when I want, and where I want) Wa-Hoo!!! Another adjustment is to the journal in that I will try to be a bit more specific about the roadways that I travel. Turns out that several Lunch Boxers (two from over-seas) are following my trips on a map and they would like to be able to find the roads, etc. So, a bit more highway information will be interjected into the narration. With all that housekeeping out of the way, let’s head to Cowboy Country! Like a string of pearls (or cowpies, given where I am…), the road is going to take me to Laramie, WY; Greeley, CO; Fort Morgan, CO. Limon, CO; and then to Pueblo, CO; completing a large semi-circle around the Boulder-Denver metropolitan area.
Laramie, WY
Laramie itself does not sit on the plains but rather in the Laramie River Valley, which opens up to the southeast towards the Great Plains. Laramie was founded in 1868 as a railroad town and the railroads are still an important part of the local economy. These days the big economic driver of the town is the University of Wyoming, which dominates the north side of town. The downtown area is small and lively, full of bars, restaraunts, and retail.
One of the quirkier aspects of the downtown area are the bicycle racks on every block. What a great idea to replace the old “jail bar” racks with little bits of sculpture!
I take I-80 east out of Laramie and after climbing over a small range of hills and breaks, enter the Great Plains just west of Cheyenne, WY. At Cheyenne we head south on Hwy 85 to Greeley, Colorado. I had been through Greeley once before without stopping, but this time I paused in honor of a good friend, the Queen of East Springfield, Ms. Edie Baker, who apparently spent some of her formative years in Greeley! I have to say it was a pleasant surprise…
Greeley, Colorado
A common theme throughout the West is the importance of water. Greeley was a planned community, founded by Nathan Meeker who advertised for people who were willing adhere to the same core values (“temperance, cooperation, agriculture, irrigation, education, faith, and home and family). 480 individuals moved west in 1870 to settle in a utopian farming colony between the Cache La Poudre and Platte Rivers. Agriculture is still the mainstay of the economy in the area, with the addition of the University of Northern Colorado and several high tech companies. The planned town originally centered around a large green square (Lincoln Park), with the Weld County Courthouse dominating the south side of the park and the downtown area just to the east. A compact entertainment district where restored historical buildings house restaurants, bars, etc., along with small businesses, fills the three blocks between the courthouse and the other architecturally striking building in town, the Chase Bank Building.
The ambience of the downtown area is enhanced (or not, depending on your point of view!) but numerous modern sculptures scattered around the park and downtown area.
After all that modernity Augie and I were definitely in need of a restorative place to have lunch and, thanks to a suggestion from Queen Edie, we struck gold. The university district sprawls across a hillside south of the downtown area and Glenmere Park is the crown jewel of the area. Thanks, Edie!
Leaving Greeley and heading east, we follow Hwy 34 towards Fort Morgan. The plains definitely unfold around us, brought to lush life by irrigation. Undoubtedly natives in the area would also comment on the “smell of money” in the air, while visitors probably just “sniff” about the odor of cows in the air. Feedlots stretch for miles along the highway east of town with millions of future Big Macs munching away… The plains roll by and soon the skyscrapers of the prarie, grain elevators, pierce the sky above Fort Morgan.
Fort Morgan
Fort Morgan was built in the 1860’s to protect the miners to and from the Colorado gold fields, but was abandoned in 1868 as the focus of military operations moved farther west to Fort Laramie in Wyoming. The coming of the railroad saved the small town that grew up next to the tracks and still serves as the commercial center for a wide area of farms and ranches. This is small town America, there is no mall on the outskirts of town, JC Penney still fills a storefront on the twelve block Main Street that runs from the train tracks to the interstate. I can’t take a picture of the most distinctive thing about Main Street, which is the recorded country music that comes from speakers on every corner! Every store front is filled and the place is bustling around 2:00pm as I drive through. Above all looms the huge grain towers…
Ten miles east of Fort Morgan we turn south on Hwy 71 and strike out across the wide open spaces of the prarie. The road takes us to Limon, where we turn west on Hwy 24 towards Colorado Springs. The prarie stretches endlessly in rolling waves in all directions.
Limon, Colorado
Liimon is a small town at the junction of I-70 and Hwy 24. The most noteworthy thing about the town is the landscape around it. Prarie as far as the eye can see in all directions. It’s worth noting again that normally this time of year the prarie should be baked, yellow, and brown, but this year there has been so much moisture during the summer and fall that even in the middle of September, it still is green (though not a tree in sight).
It’s a cloudy, rainy day but about 30 miles from Colorado Springs we get to have a “pioneer” experience. The clouds lift and all of a sudden, the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains rears before us, with Pikes Peak at center stage. The pioneers, after months of the treeless prarie, saw one of the storied peaks of Western legends before their eyes, as did I.
Colorado Springs sits at the base of Pike’s Peak and that’s where we pick up the interstate, I-25, and head south to Pueblo. The landscape undergoes a dramatic change as the mountains recede far to the west and the landscape is noticeably drier. Pueblo, our next destination, sits at the northwest edge of a tentacle of the high plains desert that stretches far into the interior of Colorado along the Arkansas River, a natural highway into the inside of the Rockies.
Next up: Larry finds true love on the internet…
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