Rode through the other Las Vegas in New Mexico - not quite the same!

No neon lights here!

We always had the vision of Cadillac Ranch being in the middle of the desert in Texas. In fact it is in a muddy field alongside the old Route 66 which is now about 100 yards from Highway 40 going into Amarillo. But hey - it still looks impressive!

 

 

The cars have now spent many more years in the ground than they ever did on the road!

Is this the way to Amarillo??

It was sad to leave Colorado today as we have enjoyed the beautiful scenery and wonderful roads.

We are now in New Mexico. Had to smile when we saw below when passing through the small town of Chama. This echoes a lot of what we are hearing over here.

 

 

Had a cold ride through the Rockies to the town of Taos. We now see a total change in architecture with the Spanish and Mexican influence.

 

The historic part of Taos is mainly shops selling local paintings. Very commercial.

Managed to find a little pub out of the way which sold home-made beer and great pizza!

 

 

We travelled the 'Million Dollar Highway' from Ouray to Durango yesterday. Fall has arrived and the scenery was wonderful although very cold and showery. We stopped at Silverton (above) for lunch - typical cowboy town with old buildings and wide streets.

 

Today we visited Mesa Verde National Park (a World Heritage Site) where you can see dwellings that were built inside the canyon walls 1400 years ago. They were only discovered by 2 cowboys in 1888.

 

Its hard to imagine how these dwellings could have been built on the sides of these canyon walls.

 

We have seen photos of these dwellings before but to see them close up is absolutely amazing.

 

Today we rode up to Pikes Peak, which has an elevation of 14,100ft. This mountain is famous for holding an annual race for both cars and motorcycles, known as the 'Race to the Clouds'. There are very few barriers along the edge of the road and we watched a YouTube of a car going over the edge (same corner as in the 4th photo below). Luckily the guy climbed out unscathed after rolling down quite a long way and completely destroying his car.
At the top there were frequent loud hailer messages advising people to travel down in a low gear and half way down there is a mandatory stop for cars to have their brakes checked to ensure they are not running too hot!  

We left Snowmass Village which was a pretty ski resort approx 7 miles from Aspen. We

followed a scenic route through the Rockies and the below photos were taken over Independence Pass.  We reached an elevation of over 12,000 feet and autumn has arrived at this level with the trees looking beautiful with leaves of orange and yellow.