Pueblo is a strange big town. It doesn’t seem to be fully aware of what it wants to become. But, the downtown river park is a good beginning of perhaps a revival. The downtown core outside of the Riverwalk area is rather dismal without much to recommend it from a touristy viewpoint but there was some massive construction going on in the core that should help the looks somewhat in a year or two.
The KOA RV park I was staying at is like a 20 minute drive from the downtown core of Pueblo but I had found a brochure about the River Park and I wanted to see that, despite the long drive. Many of you long term readers know I’m not a big fan of KOA’s at all due to their excessive charges for plain RV sites and that was true this stop, but like I said last time, my first choice was full, and it had been late when I arrived in town so sort of had to stay here. And then there was the wind storm that was heading through the area. I had first paid for 1 night but the reasonable speed internet along with the wind storm forecasts had me stay for 3 nights total. Anyway, I headed downtown for a tour of the River Park…
I was able to find a parking space just across the street from where the Riverwalk starts so that was nice. And here’s a few pictures of the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk. 
The river walk actually loops for a mile around and over the river. Here’s a look at the river…not very wide or deep at all. But it was what made people decide to live here back in the day.
And here’s some of the fancy architectural improvements made to the riverbank. 
Fancy brew pub there, but no coffee so didn’t stop by. 
There’s a man made island with bronze sculptures representing the wildlife that use to make this area home. Long gone now of course. 
Very nice horse and foal sculpture.
There are some excursion boats but they were not running (floating? boating?) when I was there. But really, the riverwalk is only 1 mile in length and these boats don’t go anywhere you don’t walk by so they’re really not all that exciting. They should get rid of them in favor of 2 to 4 person self powered boats. That might be more attractive to the casual visitor. 
That last picture of the falls is just after this pond with these fish. There were bunches of them. Carp I think? They hung out in the shade next to the wall. 
And here’s a shot of some of that downtown core construction I alluded to earlier…
After leaving the Riverwalk area in my car I was almost immediately in the dicey area of town. There were several cops parked here and there around that area just off the downtown core. Lots of unauthorized artwork around, dilapidated buildings, dive bars, fences cut open, that sort of thing.
So after that nice visit I headed back to the KOA and visited their little store. And it seems as though they have pizza for sale. Just $5 for a medium. Ordered one and headed home. They delivered it 15 minutes later and I gotta say, GREAT PIZZA! I never would have guessed that RV park pizza would be so good. Not only tastes good, but didn’t give me intestinal distress the next day from an overabundance of soy filler. It was big enough for two so I only ate half of it and froze the rest, and those pieces were still very good when I got around to eating them days later. Yum. 
As you can see, the park’s looks and facilities don’t really justify the high prices but whatever, not much we can do about it other than avoid them whenever possible. 
This town is popular for a couple reasons and one of them is that they don’t get much snow despite being in the mountains. It’s really a high desert here. Does get cold though. Here’s a couple shots of the desert type country that surrounds the RV park. The RV park is just north of Pueblo.
Wasn’t sure where, but perhaps Pike’s Peak is in this shot way off in the distance. Dunno. Kinda sure it was off that direction though. One of the stories about Pike’s Peak is that it would be shrouded in clouds so often that many people didn’t even believe it existed. Pike climbed it to prove it was there or something.
Next day went back downtown to take another look. 
Ended up back at the Riverwalk place. Think I stopped for a cappuccino. 
After that tour, tried to find the steel mill Pueblo is famous for towards the south of town. Didn’t find much so came back and got a few more shots of the KOA’s backyard. I found it fascinating. But I’m partial to desert country. 
Very boring RV site. Certainly not where I’d want to stay long term with no shade in the summer. 
The wind has let up (surprisingly, downtown didn’t have much wind to speak of) and I’m already itching to get back on the road, the one there in this picture.
Next morning got back on the freeway and just 10 odd miles outside of Pueblo was this giant staging yard. These are brand new cars off loaded from the train that brings them from the west coast and they are distributed from here. Nothing around but farms for miles and then, ‘boom’ giant car yard.
Four and a half hours later, I’m in Ogallala, NE. Stopped at the Sunshine RV Park. It’s a Passport America park so I liked that. Not a bad park at all. No worse then the KOA. Wifi was pretty good.
After getting set up, it was still early so went into town and found this old graveyard.
After that boot hill visit, toured around the area and did find some old mansions from the 1880’s or so. Not much happening in this little town anymore. Time has passed it by.
The town has it’s share of old homes and buildings but could not get any pictures without the sun screwing them up.
Forgot to get a picture of the RV park but only stayed two nights…the extra night was to wait out the wind which was being fickle. My next stop on the way towards Forest City, Iowa was to be in Burwell, NE as it’s midway between Ogallala and Sioux Falls, SD.
And that’s where we’ll pick it up next article. In the small town of Burwell.
Thanks for visiting!