Blowing into Paonia
by Joyce Wycoff
It started with an invitation to
With fellow Substacker
Allegra Huston …
Imaginative Storm
home
2,273 miles round trip
I quickly parlayed that into a week long roadtrip to a place I had never been.
“It’s October” I said … “fall colors! and I can stop at Mesa Verde.”
Paonia
In Fredonia, Arizona, a million miles from the ocean, the swim team is known as the “Killer Whales.”
A land beyond time and trivia
Sunset at Far View Lodge
Mesa Verde National Park
Ancient Pueblo people built and lived in these amazing cliff dwellings without horses or wheels beginning around 1190 CE.
They grew corn-beanssquash on the mesa above them. After an extended drought (26 years), they moved south and were gone by the late 1200s.
Gratitude to the CCC
Apparently a lot of the excavation and restoration work, as well as the paths that allowed us to tour the structures, was done by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s and 40s.
The tour requires navigating a steep down and up trail that they cut out of solid rock. At 7,ooo’ it was a scary challenge and I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the workers who carved the steps we walked on.
Without the work the CCC did, we would not have access to this incredible monument.
CA - NV - UT- AZ- NM-CO
And, suddenly, just outside the small town of Dolores, CO, on State Hwy 145 (perhaps my new favorite road), YELLOW EXPLODED!
I was so excited when I first saw all the color that I stopped on the shoulder-less road and apparently made a UPS driver a bit irritated … I could almost hear him yelling something about crazy old lady tourists.
It was worth it (for me, anyway) and I didn’t realize just how amazing the next few hours would be. It changed my whole trip plan.
As the color just got better and better, I started planning to come back next year and then reminded myself that I can’t count on next year … so I changed all my reservations in order to return on this same stunning road.
Paonia, a small town of about 2,000 people. Lots of artists, wineries, a bookstore/coffee shop where everyone knows your name. AND, murals on almost every building with a bustling farmers’ market in the town park.
In another life, I might live here.
One lane bridge
Halloween is big in Paonia … and I had never seen warty pumpkins.
The local UPS driver stops for lunch and serenades the picnickers.
In Nancy Kelly’s inspiring home, we wrote, stimulated by Allegra’s prompts, read to each other and bonded over our words and stories.
No, we didn’t have to chop our own wood.
As I left Paonia, it began to rain. The trip I had originally planned involved higher altitudes (snow) so I was delighted that I would now have a few more hours winding back through aspens, cottonwoods, and willows soaking up more of that lovely yellow.
And now I’m home, greeted by my still alive celery plant and the wide Pacific.
You can see more of my writing, photos, and flipbooks at Wild Beauty
Joyce