Pagosa farewell
August 3, 2009

Day six, our last in Pagosa Springs, and it rained. What else - it’s rained every day we’ve been here, although even when it rains, it tends to blow through once or twice a day and then afford some sunshine. Melissa informs me that Pagosa touts itself as having 360 days of sunshine a day, which must be Chamber of Commercese for “We see the sun most days at least a tiny bit if only for the few minutes it drops below the clouds just before it’s swallowed by the mountains.”

We’re finding it difficult to leave here. What a pleasant stay it’s been. Pagosa seems to be a friendly town in a state of flux, with some development completed and more planned, but obviously some economic stumbles, too. The primary attractions are the incredible mountains and San Juan National Forest, fishing, hunting, tubing and rafting, hiking, skiing, and of course the hot springs. There’s quite a plethora of time shares and vacation rentals. When I return, I will do the river walk, check out the National Forest for fishing lakes and tube the San Juan, plus lots more hiking. I plan to confine my visits to summertime, though: Chris says that Wolf Creek Pass averages 40 feet of snow per winter (how does he remember all those things?!), which probably means quite a pile-up here, too.

Interesting that the town of Pagosa Springs provides residential and commercial heating via the hot springs, even heats the sidewalks to melt the snow.

Yesterday, we breakfasted on quiche we had bought at the farmer’s market - roasted red pepper/green chile/cheddar cheese - scrumptious! It was a product of the local bakery, so with their coupon, we decided to lunch there today. A very small place with a very small menu, but quite good. I had a portobello/mozzarella/tomato/basil sandwich and Chris dined on chicken panini. Both were served with a side of quinoa and greens. We’ll finish off my sandwich for supper along with some more great Olathe sweet corn that we’ve been eating every day with a dessert of incredibly inexpensive fresh raspberries and cream. Good grief, you’d never realize that I’m not hungry at all; I just had to memorialize those excellent meals.

Elk Meadows is certainly a nice RV park to which we will return. I love the variety of “lawn furniture” scattered throughout, created artistically from scrap wood and natural logs.









Each day we were here, we “took the waters”, as it was formerly termed, in various of the 23 individual pools. This afternoon, my last pool overlooked the river. Some of them are arranged to allow folks to lean their elbows on the edge and gaze out over the San Juan, or to sit on the bench with water covering up to your neck. Today was one of those perfectly peaceful sleepy times, waist deep in the hot mineral water enjoying the activities just below. A warm day it was, which brought out lots of people to enjoy the river - a couple sitting on rocks with their feet in the water, children with buckets, loads of tubers floating by, and the ten- to teen-age group laughing and shrieking as they rode the chute of water created by rocks over and over, an occasional rafter or kayaker, people strolling along the river walk and a fisherman here and there. A more idyllic scene I would be hard pressed to imagine.

Much of today was taken up by necessaries: some seriously serious cleaning, laundry, paperwork, bills and the like, then a bit of touring old neighborhoods (one of my favorite pastimes) and the springs.





























































Yesterday, the light bulb went off in my head when I realized we hadn’t returned to photograph the trumpeter swan, so we drove over to that little lake. When I didn’t spot him, I was so disappointed that I hadn’t gotten a picture. Then I saw his head where he was partially obscured by the bank and was ecstatic. As I approached the shoreline, I suddenly saw a second swan - even more exciting - but the best was yet to come. It was a pair, and they had a baby! The three of them posed nicely for me; they are so beautiful! What a wonderful sight!