Some 75 miles southwest of Poncha Springs, the potato-farming town of Monte Vista is home to the Movie Manor (719/852-5921 or 800/771-9468), a combination drive-in movie theater, restaurant, and Best Western motel at 2860 W. US-160. You can watch movies (for free!) from the comfort of your motel room, though the screen is so far away it’s about the same size as watching movies on TV. Fun, though, and unique, for sure; where else can you snuggle down beneath the covers, gazing out the window as the sun sets and the lights come up on the big-screen figures swaggering through their latest Hollywood hits against a backdrop of snow-capped, 14,000-foot peaks?
Other good reasons to loop south from US-50 include the Great Sand Dunes National Park, and the even more unlikely sight of hundreds of alligators enjoying the geothermal hot springs at Colorado Gators (daily; $6; 719/378-2612), an hour south of Poncha Springs on Hwy-17, near the turnoff east to the Great Sand Dunes.
