Colorado and Utah - Redux

Well, friends and neighbors, I made my road trip to Colorado and Utah this week and got back to Austin this morning at 2:30. I drove 16 hours the first day, to Cortez CO. The first half of the drive wasn't so bad; the bluebonnets were still in bloom all the way to San Angelo, where the ranches have apparently been replaced by wind farms. Oil is still King in West Texas for now, but let me tell you how windy it is out there...

The wind continued without letup on the drive over to Roswell - you know, space aliens and government coverups - up to Albuquerque and across to Gallup, where I had planned to stay the first night. But I wasn't tired and it might not be so windy if I got up to Cortez - and I could get an early start in the morning.

The second day's drive was from Cortez up through Dolores, following the Dolores River up Telluride. The town obviously caters to tourists, whether they've come for the skiing or the sightseeing. I think either audience would have to give Telluride an "A". When planning my trip using Google Earth, I found a few really nice pictures that had been taken on Last Dollar Rd., above the Telluride airport. The Exploration Plan had me following Last Dollar Rd. around the shoulder to the north side of the mountain onto CO Hwy 62. One thing Google Earth didn't tell me was that the road, which started out with a fairly well-maintained dirt/gravel surface, turned into a muddy disaster shortly after passing the driveway to the last vacation home. I decided that "Discretion is the better part of valor" applies in exploration as well as in war, so I backed out of the mire and backtracked to the highway.

The panorama above is looking South from the shoulder of the mountain. The town of Telluride is off to the left somewhere, behind the hill, and the airport is hidden between the hill in the middle distance and the mountain ridge. You can see Last Dollar Rd. in a couple of places, but the view suggests that this wouldn't be a bad place to live out your days if you've spent your last dollar. There will be more pictures. I just wanted to start with a couple of panoramas.

I spent the second night in Grand Junction, where the Gunnison River joins the Colorado. My drive continued the next day and I found myself following the Colorado River into Moab UT, then driving north, up onto the Colorado Plateau - the Island in the Sky - then south to the Needles district of Canyonlands NP, where my infatuation with this area began. I was considerably ahead of schedule and spent that night back in Cortez, from whence I could take a quick tour of Mesa Verde NP the next morning and head home.

This second panorama was taken from the Mesa Verde park road looking west over the Montezuma Valley. Cortez is down there somewhere - near the middle of the picture I think, to the left of the lake. The snowcapped mountain on the horizon - about a third of the way in from the left side of the picture - is the Abajo [11,360 ft], about 70 miles away and just west of Monticello UT. Also on the horizon, slightly left of the lake, is La Sal Mountain [12,721 ft], about 95 miles away and ESE of Moab UT.

By the time I'd finished with Mesa Verde, I was ready to get home and start working with all the new pictures I'd taken. I figured I'd probably get as far as Lubbock, but by the time I got there I'd gotten a second wind and opted to drive several more hours back to Austin rather then spend the money for another night in a motel.

Like I said, there'll be lots more pictures but you have to give me a chance to go through them and see what I've got. I don't bother to look at the pictures on the camera, because the screen is too small. I don't even like to look at them on my laptop, because that screen is too small as well. I don't really get a chance to study them until I get them home, where I can see what I'm looking at - with my nice, big monitor.