Land of the Pine

Alright, now to answer the question you all were dying to ask:  "Meg, did you love Colorado?"

Answer: YES.

But before we get to that... the fun stopover activity of the day - and polar opposite of the Enforcer in Arkansas the day before - was a quick little drive and walk around a volcano.  Hmmmwhat? Volcanos in New Mexico?  Yep, we found one.  Capulin Volcano.  Almost hit some cows that decided they'd rather stand in the road than on any inch of the MILES of grass around the road but we drove up a volcano just to look around.

Jimmy learnin' up about volcanos

And then we hopped back in the car and rolled back down the road, steering clear of all four-legged animals once again.

While the drive to Colorado through northern Texas and New Mexico was ridiculously flat, kind of boring, and rather hard to stay awake through (see picture for reference):

Yes, that's a welcome to Texas sign that the Texans themselves have destroyed

When we finally did roll into Colorado, even though we were greeted with more rain, it was an explosion of terrain, curving roads, and PINE TREES.  And then as we got closer to our campsite we found ourselves on this road lined with perfect cliffs and pine trees everywhere.  I had this odd realization that THIS terrain is what everyone tries to mimic in those "frontier town" exhibits in Disney World.  I had this realization over and over again while in Colorado.  It was just so beautiful.  I mean, you could argue that the reason why I loved Colorado so much is that after a few days of intense heat and dry, flat land, the sight of pine trees just made me so happy and made me feel so at home that I instantly fell in love with it all.  It's ok, I'll accept that argument.  It's probably at least half true.

We stayed in Colorado for two nights just so we could really take advantage of the landscape.  And the fact that mornings were actually cool, the days weren't overbearingly hot and the air was just so fresh.  We went for a hike the next day in search of black bears.  No, just kidding.  We didn't see any sign of black bears at all while we were there.  Went for a hike jus'cuz.

Oh and then we stuck our tired feet in this river after.

We made burritos for dinner that night, since we were getting so bored of pasta and chili. Fun fact: fresh veggies are super refreshing after a day of hiking.  Actually, scratch that.  They're always good.

Blast, I wish I could write more but we've already been at this internet cafe for a while and we're about to leave Arizona... Jimmy's getting a little antsy with me and all my typing.  I'll try to type while we're driving or something creative like that.

Hugs and kisses to everyone!
Meg