Hello and welcome to the newest edition of From The Vault! The series where I go back and dredge up old lost or unwritten stories of my travels. In this edition I’m going into The Highlight Reel and pulling a mini story to retell in more detail here. This trip has an Official Plan, but unfortunately it’s written in my trip journal…that I left at home this year. Despite this setback, I felt it was fairly easy to reconstruct the complete trip. Hope you enjoy!
Lets start things off with me driving from Philmont to Taos. On the outskirts of Taos, past the Rio Grande Gorge bridge is a junction. If you go right you head north to Colorado. Straight brings you to the highway through the Carson National Forest. Left Takes you south towards Española (the long way I think). I went right towards Colorado.
Once you get past all the New Mexican villages you can see the Colorado Rocky Mountain Range waaaay in the distance. The farther north you go the bigger they get. The plan for today was a simple day trip and maybe a National Park site if I’m lucky. I don’t really do trips like that anymore because I’m so focused on collecting all the stamps.
Once I reached the Colorado border I still had a ways to go. I was headed towards the UFO Watchtower! I had seen it on my AAA map and just had to go investigate. “What the heck is that?! Cool! I must see” is my usual reaction. It is about a 3.5 hour drive from Philmont, which makes it a short day trip.
My initial reaction when I saw the tower was that it was sort of like some crazy person’s house with a bunch of junk outside on the lawn. However, when I went inside the woman wasn’t crazy and in fact was super nice. There was a small museum lining the inside outer wall with alien artifacts and alien related stuff. The small donut shaped desk in the center was made of display cases that housed alien souvenirs. The lady was in the middle directing traffic as it was fairly packed inside.
On one wall there was a table with a guest book so of course I signed it. It wasn’t often that someone from Boston came to this part of Colorado! To go on the alien viewing platform itself you needed to pay a small fee. I suppose coming at night would be better, but the area seemed a bit sketchy at night so I went durning the day. The theory from the skeptics is that the alien sightings are actually just planes and stuff from the local air force base. Until I see something with my own eyes, I think there’s a chance there were the classic UFO’s that you think of here.
From the top of the tower you get a great view of the Rocky’s as well as the alien garden surrounding the tower. Let’s take a look at some of the most exceptional pieces of extra terrestrial art on display.
First we have what looks like Superman surrounded by shoes. There was also many coins scattered around. I spy a cassette tape, a fidget spinner, two pairs of sunglasses, a padlock, and a ‘brianbrain’ sticker.
2nd up is a yeti that seems to be holding a wad of currency. I’m not sure what animal is in the middle, but I’m sure it’s seen better days. More coins as well. Not really sure what else there is to say!
3rd up is an Apeman! Up to this moment I’ve never seen one in person. BB8 just had to get a picture with him. In the background you can see the structure of the watchtower.
4th is an alien head that fell into the ground. The expression it has is the perfect ‘traditional alien look’ I think. The eyes are reflective and at night I bet they shine brilliantly giving off a spooky vibe.
5th is what it looked like when the aliens first landed I bet. That spaceship looks pretty authentic to me. The sunglasses on them are great as well haha.
6th is a pile of trash….eh….I mean hubcaps! Why? I don’t know. I can’t imagine someone looked at their car and thought “man I could really use just 3 of my 4 hubcaps, lets part ways” lol weird thing to find here.
7th is something that looks like a ghost from the Ghostbusters movie. There is also a UFO above it that makes this whole piece look like a mushroom.
8th is some sort of gremlin or something with he majestic mountains in the background. I’m not sure what that thing is off to the left. This creature also has it’s own collection of goodies including another fidget spinner! Popular among aliens I hear.
Finally you have an alien that has lived a full life and is happy about it. Look at all the trinkets he has collected! I’m wondering how long it took to amass a collection this big on most of these figures. Probably ages I’d say.
I didn’t bother seeing some of the more basic stuff because I didn’t think it was worth it. Three years later now there maybe more ~junk~ piled around them or perhaps even new exhibits? I could look at those mountains all day.
This is what the dome looks like from the top. The shop vaguely resembles a UFO in appearance and obviously took a lot of time and effort to build. The watchtower is built around it on three sides. It’s not that high up though so I hesitate to call it a true watchtower every time.
Lastly a picture to tie it all together. I’d say overall this place is worth visiting just for it’s weird factor alone. The mountain ranges with snow are a plus. After the UFO Watchtower I headed north to Brown’s Canyon National Monument. At least that’s what it said on my map! It technically wasn’t in my National Park Passport, but when I see a potential stamp it is hard to ignore the urge to collect it.
Once there it became apparent that it was all a lie! There were a bunch of R.V. hookups, a boat ramp, and a river. I think to get to the monument you have to take a boat down the river. I said as much in my google maps review and since then it has become my most helpful review. I guess a lot of other people share the same sentiment. Very disappointed I made it back to the highway and headed back towards Philmont. It was getting late in the afternoon.
Rather than taking the same highway back through Taos, I decided to cut through the mountains and head back a different way. I went through a bunch of sharp curves first and eventually (because of traffic) I made it to highway 69 where I was greeted with a long straight road on the opposite side of the same mountains I saw earlier.
It was quite the day, but I successfully made it back to Philmont without being abducted or getting lost. One thing I missed was the alligator farm (aka gator park) right next to the UFO tower. My roommate just went last week and had a blast. You get to hold alligators, see snakes, feed turtles, and learn how to wrestle an alligator. I hope to do that eventually. For now I’ll stick to posting this. Anyways, I hope you got a kick out of this place just like I did. Goodbye!
Stats:
Estimated miles driven: Not sure because the original estimate is in my trip journal at home.
Actual miles driven: 393? (google maps wasn’t as accurate at tracking back then)
Number of aliens typed into this post: 13
Would I go back at night now to alien watch?: Perhaps…
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