We were enjoying very nice weather as we left our campground at Blue Mesa Outpost and headed straight east again on Highway 50. While we've been enjoying the cool temperatures at our current elevation, we're heading straight up into the really tall mountains in our drive today.
Mark has driven many mountains passes in the motor home, but this seemed to be one of the longest. Hats off to the school bus that passed us and was ready to make the curve up ahead. The signs warn of the steep grade for the next seven miles as we headed to the top of Monarch Pass.
Our 35-foot motor home is a little under-powered with its 340 horsepower Cummins diesel engine. That long and steep grade slowed us down to 30 miles per hour by the time we got to the summit at over 11,300 feet.
It's a little disappointing that the only views we got at the top were of some antennas. We really enjoy hikes that start at highway passes like this, and we probably should have stopped at the top. We found out later that there is a trail and a tram ride to go even higher than the 11,313-foot views we saw at the pass.
We had just made it to the top, when we saw the sign warning us of the 6% downward grade for the next 10 miles. Sheesh! We didn't get to enjoy the top very long! We could see the ski runs of the Monarch Ski Resort as we started the long trek down.
The views were beautiful, and we were sure glad for our diesel exhaust brake for the long and curving drive off this mountain.
That's a long steep grade, and we could see from the tracks in the rocks that the emergency truck ramp had been used several times lately.
It's sad to see that nice cool elevation disintegrate as we headed downhill. We went all the way down to 7,083 feet by the time we rolled into Salida, Colorado. Someone had added a mask to the biker in the mural downtown welcoming visitors.
Our destination today is Salida's Walmart parking lot. It's obviously a well-known place for RVers to spend the night. We had more than a dozen neighbors for the night. It's one of those great Walmarts that welcome RVers to their parking lot surrounded by mountains.
It also connects to the city's biking trail. So after we found a spot in the parking lot, we set off on a bike ride.
The bike path leads all the way to downtown Salida, where the river walk starts. It's a nice path along the Arkansas River.
This section is also popular with sport kayakers. A racing route is laid out with gates . . .
and man-made white water.
The historic downtown area has cement barriers that turns it into a pedestrian zone with lots of outdoor seating. Who knew that Salida was such a cute little touristy town?
It's nice to know that there is a level bike trail in the middle of the mountains. We literally had mountains all around us as we neared the big white building that is our Walmart campground.
Walmart will let RVers stay for 24 hours, so we are going to use the rest of our 24 to do some exploring in those mountains. It was a full day of conquering Monarch Pass and checking out Salida, Colorado.
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