Colorado Road Trips

Saturday

End of Summer Road Trip 2014 (part 2)

Read 'End of Summer Road Trip (part 1)' here

After the night of camping at the UFO Watchtower and saying goodbye to my little blue alien friend, it was time to work on checking another location off of my road trip bucket list (much like the rest of this trip, an impromptu decision), and make a few other detours along the way.

View of the Sand Dunes

The first stop of the day was in Blanca, CO which not-so-surprisingly is located at the base of Mount Blanca (the 4th highest mountain in Colorado). Blanca has about a 2 block 'downtown' area with a few shops and a park. After stopping for an energy drink fix at the little convenience store my friend through a zigzag of dirt roads that I couldn't navigate again if my life depended on it, the 'scenic' route to San Luis. He used to live there and wanted to show me where he had lived.

Mount Blanca

After the adventure of zigzagging through the middle of nowhere, we eventually ended up in San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado. San Luis is slightly larger than Blanca, but is still less than 1,000 people.

Sangre De Cristo Catholic Church

San Luis, CO

I'll be honest, at this point I wasn't feeling much like exploring, I just wanted to get back on the road, the control freak part of me was also having a bit of a panic moment having to depend on someone else (who since he had lived in the area was very familiar with where we were going) and having no personal sense of reference to where I was. *note to self: get a real map, like the kind on paper, because google maps apps won't work when you have no cell phone service* So after stretching and letting the dogs out to stretch, we hopped back in the car to finish the trip to my next bucket list location.

To be continued...

Thursday

End of Summer Road Trip 2014 (part 1)

As summer is winding down quickly here in Colorado, it was about time for me to cross a couple of items off of my road trip bucket list. So, after a night of drunken planning (or a lack thereof) one of my friends and I packed some camping gear and the dogs in the back of my little yellow Subaru AKA Bumblebee and headed off towards the San Luis Valley.

I know it sounds odd, but I have wanted to camp at the UFO Watchtower for a really, really, really long time. For anyone not familiar with the UFO Watchtower:

"Have you ever wondered what a real UFO looks like? Have you ever wondered if there is life on other planets? Judy Messoline of Hooper, Colorado, has wondered the same thing.
Judy's favorite TV shows were "Sightings" & "X~Files". After watching show after show, she realized she was hearing things like "GREAT SAND DUNES" & "SAN LUIS VALLEY" on many episodes of these programs. With this in mind, Judy had an idea! She has created the first (that I am aware of) UFO WatchTower®" - http://www.ufowatchtower.com/

San Luis Valley

Entrance to the UFO Watchtower

After arriving at the UFO Watchtower we spent a little time wandering around the, for the lack of a better word, alien garden and the gift shop; and even bought myself and the other half T-shirts as he was stuck working and couldn't get away.

As you can tell, the store hours are a little hit or miss

They use the word 'tower' pretty loosely!

360 View of the UFO Watchtower and "Alien Garden"

I have always just though of the UFO Watchtower as one of those 'too weird to pass up' places and was determined to camp there at some point in life. Of course I didn't go there expecting much of anything besides a desolate campground in the middle of nowhere with amazing views (and a touristy gimmick) and the ability to tell people that I had camped at the UFO Watchtower, and it was everything that I had hoped for.

After unloading Bumblebee, setting up camp and finding out that the batteries to the air pump for the mattress were dead we set off the the one gas station in about a 30 mile radius in the actual town of Hooper. Since the town of Hooper basically consists of this gas station, they have no problem charging you $15 for 4 C batteries! After that adventure enjoying some beer and an amazing sunset was definitely in order. And, if you're more the weed type (since it's legal here in Colorado) about 10-15 miles north of the Watchtower there is a random dispensary sitting in the middle of nowhere, welcome to Colorado!

UFO Watchtower at Sunset (John Denver - Country Roads

is just what happened to be playing in the background

when I took the video)

The pictures don't even come close to doing that sunset justice! Of course after the sun goes down, it starts to get cold fast and no camping trip is complete without a campfire.

I will mention that even after spending a good part of the evening sitting on the 'observation deck' of the 'tower', there was absolutely no sign of a single UFO (not that I thought that there would be); however if you take video in the dark of the cars on the highway in the distance it does kind of look like UFOs.

So, if you're ever looking for something odd and random to do in Colorado, it's well worth the $10 to camp there just for the reactions you will get when you tell people that you spent a night there.

To be continued...