Never pass up a chance to sit down or relieve yourself. -old Apache saying

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Pueblo

We decided to make a side-trip to Pueblo, Colorado, a town of just over 100,000 on the "Front Range" of the Rockies.  I've been studying Pueblo along with a few other locations as a possible place to either retire to or have a summer home.  We plan on keeping the South Padre Island, TX property and build a house on it to serve as our winter home.

The trip from Telluride to Pueblo as the crow flies is 177 miles, but to get there on roads, it's over 225 miles and takes about 5 hours.  You have to drive over three mountain passes, including the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass, an elevation of over 11,000 feet.  


We left Telluride at about 9am and arrived at Pueblo by 5pm, again stopping several times along the way, including lunch in Gunnison. My poor wife was freaking out on the curves in the mountains.  Fortunately, we dodged all the rain that was falling in the mountains.



Pueblo is at 4600' elevation, much lower than Telluride and much easier to breathe.  It's flat and usually has lower humidity.  Pueblo claims to have the most sunshine of any US city except San Diego.   Pueblo also claims to have the lowest cost-of-living of any city in Colorado.  A frequent comment we got from Telluriders is "why would anyone want to live in Pueblo?"  Snobbish often
?

We toured an apartment complex, then drove downtown to look over the art district, then to West Pueblo, where the homesteads are huge.

aerial view of West Pueblo

 In West Pueblo, we took Purcell Blvd to the very end at the Pueblo Reservoir and sat atop a tall mesa in the twilight, with cool breezes, low humidity, the lake stretched out below, the city of Pueblo twinkling in the east and the Rockies standing tall in the west. Really nice.

from the high mesa atop the Pueblo Reservoir

After a good nights sleep at the Best Western, we set out the next morning west again thru the mountains back to Telluride.

No comments:

He's always watching

He's always watching