Well, best laid plans and all that... My return to Denver didn't go exactly as I'd expected because about 1/3 of the way into my planned explorations the gov't closed all the northern New Mexico National Forests (due to severe fire threat), severely crimping my camping options. Could have gone down to the BLM land in the Rio Grande valley but there's not much shade there and the temps were still high (mid 90s). Meanwhile Denver was getting a blizzard. So, deciding the universe was telling me to save the rest of the trip for another time I hightailed it back to Mom's house. Silver linings! Click here for the play by play.
