Day 2 - Trinidad Lake State Park

As good as the first day of our awesome adventure was, the second day was even better.

The drive was about an hour shorter, and we were glad about that part because the Texas panhandle was about as flat and boring as it could be. It seemed there were cattle ranches that ran for 20 miles for the entire width of the panhandle.

We got to stop at the Texas sign and take pictures at a small pull-off area. We did make a stop at the Gray County Westbound Rest Area, possibly the nicest rest stop/information center

I've ever seen, which is a part of the Texas Safety Rest Area Program.

We had an awesome overlook view of one of the giant ranches, the Johnson Ranch.

Once we got through Texas, we entered New Mexico and started to see some rolling hills. We were only in New Mexico for about two and a half hours, but we did stop and get a picture with the state sign.

By the time we got near the New Mexico/Colorado border, we were getting a little tired of being on the road...and then we saw some snow capped mountains in the distance and our excitement level went up a few notches.

For the rest of the trip to Trinidad, CO we got camera happy and took a ton of Rocky Mountain pictures.

We did make a quick stop at the Wal-Mart in Trinidad, CO (some things never change) and then we were back on the road to Trinidad Lake State Park. We arrived early enough to go to the park office to get our campsite and get me a Colorado fishing license. Our campsite was on a ridge and had a wonderful view over Lake Trinidad from high above. We set up camp and I went down to do a little fishing, where I actually had a smallmouth bass up on the bank before it flopped off the hook and back into the water. The evening was very restful and the temperature perfect. We got to see another amazing sunset on a lake, and when we woke up, we saw an even better sunrise than on the first day. Once we watched the sunrise and packed up again we were on our way to Grand Junction, CO.

From Katy-

the sunrise at Foss was absolutely incredible!!!!!!!

Day two was a pretty nice drive. It is really amazing to Dean and I that the speed limits are 65 and 70 on most roads in other states so far. It still takes forever to get anywhere though.

We drove through many, many ranches and they all pretty much looked the same. The call Montana Big Sky Country, but so far I'm pretty impressed with the big skies we have seen in Texas.

One of the highlights of the day was when we saw the Capulin Volcano in New Mexico.

The rocks were so weird. The landscape in New Mexico was slightly other worldly in its strangeness to what we had seen earlier in the day.

I was super pumped when we saw real mountains! It was seriously awesome. I don't think I could get tired of seeing them and their snow capped peaks. Trinidad is an interesting little town.

I thought it was cool that the Wal Mart was laid out almost exactly like the WalMart off Harkrider in Conway (I mean if it wasn't for the Rockies in the distance behind the building anyway).

I love our campsite. The view of Fisher Peak was perfect. I even got to see a bald eagle just off our campsite flying over the lake. A great end to a great day!