Trading Post and a Good Deed
A few cups of coffee with Jean in the morning and then on the road again by 7 AM. Target is getting to the Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site by 11 AM for a guided tour. Took the interstate to make good time and stopped in Pueblo for breakfast at McDonalds (a developing trend). I ate my breakfast outside on the curb due to the very large number of very loud teen inside. After breakfast I had the opportunity to do my good deed for the day and help a lady sort out how to get her car into reverse. She wasn’t real confident with first gear either. I hope she made it safely where she was going.
Stopping for breakfast put me behind schedule but I managed to skid into the site parking lot with four minutes to spare.
The following is the blurb off of the National Park Service app:
“In the 1840s the Arkansas River was the border between territory claimed by the United States and Mexico. Located along the river, Bent’s Forst was an adobe trading post on the Santa Fe Trail, where traders, trappers, travelers, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes came together in peaceful terms for trade. Today, a reconstructed fort allows visitors to explore the front line of Westward Expansion.”.
The entire trading post is reconstructed from drawings and narratives from various visitors. All the material within the post is period authentic and is either known to have been within the post or was found in other posts of the same time period.
After the tour I was heading towards the Amache NHS when I passed a Colorado state campground. After a quick peek (and complaining about the need for an annual park pass) I decided to set up camp early. It was a primitive campsite but it did provide shade for a seating area as well as a decent pad for the tent. A second part of the campground was less primitive but had a corresponding increase in campers.
I used a bit of the afternoon to do a little birding. Not a whole lot of birds overall but three were new to me – Burrowing Owl, Northern Mockingbird, and Scaled Quail. Also spotted Greater Roadrunner, Turkey Vulture, Cliff Swallows, Rock Wren, Western Meadowlark, and American White Pelican.
Between the trading post and campsite I did spot an additional plate – Arkansas. Appropriate since we were near the Arkansas River?