Del Norte, CO

Del Norte is spread out along Grand Ave. We stayed at the County Family Inn & Restaurant. Nice place, with large rooms, for the price! The town has a sporting goods store, but no bike shop. The laundromat, grocery store, & car wash are east on Rt. 160. We ate twice at Boogies Restaurant - great food. The town has expensive gas.
BETH writes - This 64 mile day started with a thrilling descent through the craziest rock formations I have seen. The rock formations continued throughout the day. All of the rocks looked like they were formed differently. Maybe something this Science geek will have to research at some point. We saw two Coyotes this morning - they are much smaller than ours and are very light in color. The ride was fairly easy today and we got the 10,100+ ft pass out of the way early. The rest of the day was rolling, with a fun two track at the end. Mike and I had three concerns today. One was the thunderstorms and hail that we encountered all day, two was Mike's bike broke, and three was the little detour we took because we got lost. Luckily, we survived and made it to Del Norte to a motel, shower, and dinner. Mike will have to ride one of the bikes my Mom has had on the back of the car until the part for his bike can be shipped to a town near us. For those bike geeks, Mike broke the swing arms to his rear shock in two places - must have been the weight and a worn out part. Sweet dreams of our 11,900 ft pass tomorrow with full gear, 4 days worth of food and water will fill our heads tonight.
JAN writes - Tra-la, we're back to a motel (with showers and toilets) tonight in Del Norte, CO. Last night the coyotes were howling nearby several times, making it tough to sleep well. It seemed we had frost when we awoke, but it was just very cold with a heavy dew. It is amazing how fast it warms up, although it never hit 70� today. I drove to Del Norte on paved roads through the little town of Saguache (pronounced Sawatch). It has two really great museums. One is the county museum that has some fascinating artifacts. The Old Spanish Trail went right through the area. I also learned about the local cannibal, Alferd Packer, and the Ute Indians that reside in the area. The county is the largest in CO and is about the size of Connecticut, but has no traffic lights and a population under 7,000! Still high elevation and very arid, with amazing rock outcroppings that look like hugh picket fences. Its very interesting that when you go through towns there are signs that announce the town and its elevation, but no population. One town sign recently said, "Welcome to Sargents. Elevation high and population low".