After some necessary chores on Sunday morning (mowing the lawn of the house we’ve been watching all summer), a tingle of excitement went through me as the lone text message on my phone read:

“You wanna go cliff jumping?”

Yes! I shouted, and waited a few moments before remembering that this was a text message, thus necessitating a typed response rather than a yell. It was only while typing this response that I realized that the message had been sent to me a 30 minutes prior to returning from mowing, and I was concerned that perhaps this would equate to me being left behind.

Fortunately, Pam (the message sender) was still within service, though about 25 minutes away in Monte Vista already. Oh well, it’s a nice day, and this sounds like way too much fun to pass up, I figured, so decided to head out and try to meet the gang in Alamosa Canyon at Platoro Reservoir. Pam texted me directions, but didn’t get them all out before she lost cell service. This was confirmed later, and certainly my thought as the directions included “turn left at the DQ in Monte (Vista)”, “there are signs on the right for Alamosa Canyon and Platoro Res”, and then ended abruptly with “stay left at the y”.

Still I figured it shouldn’t be too hard to find. However, I always grossly overestimate the amount of signage and direction I’m going to find while driving forest service roads. Once getting to the dirt road that I fgured meant I was closing in on the cliff jumping location, I stayed left at about 10 different Y’s, before realizing I was probably really lost. Still, I decided to keep driving, not wanting to do what I usually do when unsure and turn around way too early, so this time I erred on the side of waiting way too long before turning around. Still, as hard as I tried, I couldn’t convince myself that I was too lost since I was still picking up Alamosa’s top 40 radio station clearly and the Topaz was handling the gravel roads superbly… well, as superbly as it handles any road, which really isn’t saying much.

It was when I heard the Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera hit “Moves Like Jagger” for the second time since leaving Alamosa, on the same station, that I decided it was probably time to tuck my tail in between my totally lost legs and head on home. Normally, I wouldn’t have spent nearly this long meandering around with no real clue as to where I was, but the views while driving through the canyon roads of the Rio Grande National Forest were pretty stunning, especially when they would open at time to views like this:

This was one time when getting lost truly was a very scenic route and not something I minded at all. Yea, I would have preferred not to have used up so much gas while driving around, but that’s small beans compared to the good that the tour of the area did for my spirit. I know it sounds weird, but having been sidelined from heading into the mountains to go running, even the chance to drive near and through the mountains excites me anymore. True, I probably would have gotten these same scenic views, plus the excitement of jumping off rocks into the water, had I not gotten lost - but let’s not think about that, shall we?