It was never my intent for this series of posts to be a slide show of our adventure, but the scenery has dominated every moment of this trip. We spent the day traveling from Sante Fe and heading towards Colorado Springs. Once again, we were traveling via back roads. Stopping for gas, we asked the lady behind the counter whether we should continue on back roads or get on the interstate and try to make up time.
"Where are you from?" she asked. After explaining the nature of our adventure and our journey so far, we informed her that we were from North Carolina. She was adamant. "If you will take the road to the left . . the back road as you call it, you will see things you have never seen before."
Even though this sounded like a line from a cheap horror film, we knew she was sincere. So we pointed the car toward the unknown of the smaller red line in our Atlas leaving behind us the safety of the larger yellow line marking the interstate.
It was the best advice she could have offered. We drove through the Cimarron Canyon, one of the continental divides, and the Garden of the Gods.
We passed through the same scenery that I had heard stories about from my father. I got to see the trails, canyons, and plains that he had ridden his horse through decades before. Through my old eyes I got to relive the sights my father had seen through his young ones. The lady in the gas station was right. We had never seen anything like this before.