I woke up to rain and sleet, not wanting to move for three reasons. One, I still wanted to sleep. Two, I didn’t want to drive in the dark in that kind of weather. Three, I did not want to get out of the car to bring in two water containers I put out in hopes would freeze overnight. They didn’t :-(

I got up again a while later and the weather started to clear up a bit so it made driving a bit nicer. In no time at all I was at Mesa Verde National Park, with plenty of gas to get to the next big town. Until I found out it was about 40 miles round trip to the top of the park. I did have my two gallon emergency gas jug with me (with gas in it), don’t you worry. The drive up was not as nice as the drive down, and that was only because of the overcast sky and the wind. Seemed like the sun came out just as I got to the top, perfect timing.

I watched the 25 minute movie to understand the history of the park, then I did a quick-ish tour of the museum as a lot of it was covered in the movie. I moved onto choosing a few places in the park to check out. The ranger at the visitor center at the bottom let me know a lot of things were closed due to icy conditions, but he pointed out some highlights he thought I should not miss . . . so I didn’t.

As I was leaving the park I was getting a little nervous about having to tap into the emergency gas. The Prius lies a little. It says you need to fill up when the light starts blinking. By my calculations, I still have three gallons. The light never went out and I made it to the gas station no problem. And my suspicion was close to correct. I filled up a little over 9 gallons and I have a little over 11 gallon tank.

I headed to Pagosa Springs and hit some snow on the way there. Nothing serious, but I was cautious. As soon as it started it seemed to end. I was pleasantly surprised that I had cell signal and a park right next to the closed for the day welcome center. Since it was daylight I thought I would go check out my camp spot. I returned to the park across from the visitor center to check out the hot springs. The water was nice and warm and only smelled mildly of sulpher.

While in signal range I decided to check the weather. Good thing I did as there was a winter storm watch in elevations 8,500 feet and above (I was at 7,500 feet) which would bring 8 – 15 inches of snow and blizzard like conditions. It firmed up the fact that I would be staying here for the night. I hope it will be clear to pass tomorrow, otherwise I will need to find an alternate route.