If I'd been standing here 500,000 years ago,
I'd be on the southern shore of Lake Alamosa
watching mastadons and saber toothed tigers.
Instead,
I'm here now
with my wife
and I only feel 500,000 years old
We are at the first bridge
above the Rio Arriba section
of the Rio Grande
We are tourists here
They are tourists here
But the bridge has no name
no plaque
Not even a Go Slow sign
or a posted weight limit
The Colorado Tourism Bureau
has missed a sure bet here
See how much Cyndi enjoys touristing here?
Or is she displaying symptoms of
Cabin Fever Mania ?
Let's go back to the beginning
500,000 years ago
When Lake Alamosa was the northern most
of several land-locked, salty lakes along
what will become the Rio Grande Valley
Volcanic activity a few million years ago
damned up whatever drainage there had been
and created these lakes
that grew and shrunk along with glacial cycles
Until sometime after I imagine having been there
an exceptional glacial cycle
caused the lake to overflow the basalt dam somewhere around here
The water flowed down the top of
what we now call the Taos Volcanic Plateau
finding cracks in the rocks along the rift
and eroding away the rock to leave
the Rio Grande Gorge.
For reference
here is the gorge a bit downstream from here
While here, now
it looks like this
not as dramatic
but much nicer
and headed down this very nice Colorado county road
Camino del Lovato
a place well loved by sportsmen
the World's Smallest Volcano
