Taos

A Fall ride.

I hope to see some Fall colors....

First I ride to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, spend a sleepless night there before riding for Taos, New Mexico.

On the way are spectacular Fall leaves...

And a cool long horn sculpture.

I can't pass the UFO tower near Center, Colorado without stopping and having a look.

The knowledgeable and friendly docent there tells me that this area is a hotbed for UFO sightings...I did see some, but not in the sky.....

....see, told ya!

"Is that a UFO??" I exclaim...  Sasquatch just rolls his eyes.....

Then to Taos where I spend an uneventful, but restful two days, after which I start my ride northbound for home.

I really like churches, especially old ones, of any denomination. The architecture, the stained glass and frescoes.....
I like to visit them whenever I get a chance.

As I'm northward on a road I've never been on before I see what looks like a church on the top of a large hill. As I get closer I see it is indeed a church, but old or not I can't tell.

So I decide to try and find the road up to the church, but I can't seem to locate it. I could ask for directions...(haha)... but I don't.... however while I was hunting for the road I noticed there is a pathway that zig zags up the hill and apparently leads to the church. 

So I park the bike, grab my hat and sunglasses and start off.  It is a bit chilly for just standing around, but perfect temps for a strenuous hike. 

And it is a good hike. After about 1/2 mile on the trail there starts to be bronze statues every so often say.. 100 yards or so between them. They are very nicely done and mounted in cement and rock stands. The statues are all depicting some moment of the Saviors ordeal of carrying the cross.

So there I am, enjoying the perfect weather and brilliant blue sky, on a nice trail on which I am completely alone. The morning is very peaceful and a calming quiet .... it is a perfect time to see these wonderful statues.

Eventually I come to the top of the hill where the church is located and one of the first things I notice is that elusive road.....  Darn it! I think to myself, if I would have looked a bit harder I could have ridden up here instead of hiked...but then my very next thought is; "but then I would have missed the beautiful time I had hiking up the trail past the statues.." 

Sometimes sweat is the water that nurtures the plant of Serendipity.

Looking up at the church
(The rocks say; Stations of the Cross)

Looking down from the church to the town

The start of the path

Some of the statues

The church

The town hall of St Luis (the oldest town in Colorado and where this church is located)

Then it was on to Zapata Falls near Alamosa, Colorado

I had happened to see 'Zapata Falls' sometime back when I happened to be perusing a map....if it had been named one of the generic names that folks give the different water falls I wouldn't have noticed it as much, but with a name like 'Zapata' I had to go see them.

Annnnnnd ............ a lot of highway miles, a bumpy dirt road, and another hike...............

I finally reach the falls;

this is my reward for 20 extra road miles, 3.2 dirt miles of  exposed boulders and countless baby heads, and the mile (rt) hike at 9300ft elevation....

Sometimes Serendipity is merely a dead weed to be stepped over before going on to somewhere else.

After my Zapata experience I spend a beautiful night star gazing and enjoying the peaceful quite in Pagosa Springs
(looking out the back door the next morning).

But most often, Serendipity.....just happens.

I ride the 450 miles to home the following day.

This was an INCREDIBLE trip (except for the road to Zapata Falls...) a tiny bit of rain and ...well ok, a LOT of brutal side winds - but still, an awesome, enjoyable, fall leaf watching 5 days!

Look well to this day, for it is life, the very life of life.

In it lie all the realities and verity of existence: the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendor of beauty.

For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow only a vision.  But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day, for it and it alone, is life!

Such is the salutation of the dawn.

-                  Sanskrit proverb