Day 1 - Mesa Verde National Park Travelogue

It was about 2:30, three hours out of the estimated seven. We thought we were making pretty good time since we figured we were more than half way (based on the odometer reading), but had not yet taken half the time. After refueling, we continued on. Needing a rest stop now, we pulled into a rest area just before reaching the town of South Fork, and made use of it's facilities.

Having made ourselves comfortable again, we headed on through South Fork, and proceeded to the beginning of the climb up Wolf Creek Pass.

Here, we also reached the beginning of the construction area. As it turns out, they are doing some blasting farther up the road and the road is only one lane wide in that area. We reached the flagwoman and had to stop. We were at the beginning of the line, which became increasingly longer as the wait time increased. There was no traffic coming from the other direction either as it too was stopped. After a while traffic started coming from the other direction, so we knew we would be moving soon. Finally, after about a 30-45 minute wait, we were given the ok to continue on.

As we proceeded up the road, we went through the construction area. They had one lane blocked off and had construction and other vehicles in that lane. A little further on, we reached the blasting area. Either the pavement was completely gone, or it was completely covered in dirt and rubble from the blasting. It appeared as though they were blasting out a huge chunk of hillside by the road to make room for a wider highway. Or, maybe part of the hill had collapsed onto the highway and they had to do something about it - something major. This short stretch was very bumpy (like driving on a dirt road - which it was at this point) and seemed to have to go around the hill they were blasting. If we ever go back that way again after the construction is completed, it will be interesting to see what it is that they did.