The trip starts the way every good Colorado trip does: a windshield full of mountains and the radio low. We came in from the east through Wetmore, climbed CO-96 up out of the foothills, and watched the Sangre de Cristos sawtooth up on the horizon. By the time the road tipped over 8,700 feet the air had that thin, clean high-country bite to it.
Wetmore, Colorado
- Wetmore sits in Custer County at the junction of State Highways 96 and 67, in the foothills of the Wet Mountains.
- It lies in the historic Hardscrabble area, long a favored spot of Ute, Cheyenne, Sioux, Kiowa, and Arapaho peoples.
- In 1870 twenty-five wagons from Spring Garden, Illinois, founded the settlement of Hammil at the site, the seed of today's town.
- It was renamed for government surveyor Billy Wetmore, who in 1880 offered settlers his land on the condition the town bear his name.
- The Wetmore post office was established on April 19, 1881.
US-50 Arkansas River Scenic Highway
- US-50 hugs the Arkansas River as it snakes through Bighorn Sheep Canyon between Salida and Canon City.
- The canyon walls are sheer cliffs carved by millions of years of erosion, easily visible right from the road.
- Drivers regularly spot bighorn sheep, part of one of Colorado's largest herds, grazing on the cliffs near the highway.
- To the west the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise like a 14,000-foot sawtooth wall on the horizon.
- Historic canyon towns like Wellsville, Cotopaxi, and Howard line the route along the river.