Colorado hiking trip day 1: Adventure on the high plains.

I decided to go and hike the San Juan Mountains in Colorado because I heard that they’re having a historic “super bloom” due to extreme snowfalls the previous winter along with an early and reliable monsoon season adding more than adequate moisture for flower growth and bloom.

There are a few trails that I’m wanting to hike that I’ve never hiked before.

On my way to the San Juan’s in SW Colorado, I decided to put myself on a photographic assignment of photographing ghost towns along the old Santa Fe trail out on the high plains in Colorado. Taking different routes through Colorado, off of the interstates, helps to break the monotony of traveling 500+ miles each way of Kansas and Colorado plains. There’s actually a number of neat features to see in the high plains, if you’re willing to journey a ways off of the interstates. My journey to the mountains took me along I-70 to Limon, Colorado. From Limon, I headed south along HWY 71. Some thunderstorms had developed in my immediate vicinity, so I decided to go on an impromptu stormchase!! What have I got to lose? A storm chase on the isolated Colorado high plains will take me along roads that I would have never traveled otherwise. My only goal was to see and photograph some cool storm structure, which is often visible in the low humidities of the high plains.

I closed in on a severe storm. There wasn’t a real town within 40 miles of me. I can only say that I was on a long dirt road somewhere off of HWY 71, a ways south of Limon, Colorado. I was watching this storm about an hour before sunset when, to my amazement, there was a lowering in this storm!! About 20 minutes later, I was astonished when I saw a funnel forming, then a tornado!!! This tornado was brief, lasting only 20 seconds before dissipating. There was never a tornado warning with this storm.

My trip continued south down 71 after this surprise of a storm. Darkness descended and other storms began to fire up. I pulled off of HWY 71 in the Comanche National Grassland, just short of my ghost towns. The ghost towns could wait until tomorrow. They’re not going anywhere. I ended up following another random dirt road with the name of a letter.

HWY 71 ended up terminating, and I ended up photographing lightning on HWY 350, in the Comanche National Grassland.

I really enjoyed being out in the middle of nowhere, watching this picturesque electrical storm moving in, towards me. Not one single car drove by in the hour and a half I was photographing or watching this storm. Temperatures were comfortable, in the lower 80s, with rather low humidity. The only sounds were crickets all around, a few birds chirping their warning chirps somewhere behind me, breezes blowing along the stunted prairie grass, and the ominous sound of rolling thunder, making itself audible about 10 seconds after a highly visible lightning strike. There is absolutely nothing to impede vision out on the high plains. Watching an approaching storm is like watching an enjoyable movie! The air smelled fresh, with the breezes ushering in the smell of ozone, rain cooled air. I absolutely loved being out here all by myself. The Oregon Coast Trail taught me to be content being all by myself. I enjoyed this evening’s reprieve from any human contact!