Colorado/Utah/Colorado
Again Hi,
Well, I'm back at it once again. We have been zig zagging all over the place. We're currently a few miles south of Montrose, Colorado and only about thirty miles north of Ouray, Colorado, where we were ten days ago. We're doing circles and trying to hit as many polka dot roads as we can. The polka dots mark the roads on the map that are scenic and we're hitting them all!!
When I last wrote, we were on a scenic drive that circles from Durango, Colorado, up through Silverton (where we sent the last email from) on to Ouray and then south again towards Telluride. What a beautiful drive. The mountains are spectacular to say the very least.
Telluride is in this box canyon with huge walls and a giant waterfall....would love to ski there sometime. They were having a blue grass festival when we drove through so there were zillions of people everywhere. Our route took us almost back to Mesa Verde where we visited the cliff dwellings but we headed off to the west into Utah.
We wanted to see Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. We would up staying in Canyonlands most of the time as it's a much larger park and Arches was totally by reservation so no joy there for us in that department. We hardly ever make reservations.
Canyonlands has a south and a north entrance and we went to both. As well as spent one day in Arches which is really pretty. The south area of Canyonlands is called Needles and we took a hike to remember. It was eleven miles and the terrain was totally different from any hike either of us had ever been on. The rock formations in this area are part of the trails and are marked by piles of stones called cairns. Without the cairns you would have no idea which way to go....or to return. We were told that the valley with the best views was called Chesler Park. We didn't know if we could make it that far but it was the kind of hike that sucks you in. "Just only more canyon away" we kept thinking. It was hot and up and down and through slots, gullies, etc. There was one place about a quarter of a mile into the hike where we were afraid if we went down it we could not make it back up. No kidding.
It was right over the edge of a big smooth rock. Mike hunted for an alternate route in case we needed it for the return before I slide down the thing. We made it back up on the return but just barely. No way could I have done it if my husband wasn't pulling me so I didn't fall back down the stupid thing.
Anyway, it was a beautiful and interesting hike. We were pooped though. We both agreed that it was the most challenging hike we'd been on....including the Mt. Whitney portal trail which was no picnic.
I've just been going through all the photos, of course, for this email. It's very tough to take photos of these rocky places. There is no way to show the depth and dimension of the places we're in. A huge mountain of a rock can look the same as a little boulder in a photo. So...I'm suggesting that if you're interested in seeing Canyonlands and Arches National Parks you either come see for yourself or take a look at some professional photos. Both places are amazing. Though I'm personally ready to see some trees, if you know what I mean.
In order to get from the south to the north entrance to Canyonlands, it's necessary to drive through Moab, Utah. Moad is a wonderful little place and is famous for lots of things, but especially the river raft trips that start here to travel down the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon to Lake Powell. Mike took one of these trips years ago and has talked to me about it many, many times. He was excited to see the area again and to visit the two National Parks that he didn't have much of a chance to see years ago. He claimed he'd never been to Canyonlands but realized that the river trip he took goes right through the park.....though with a much different view than we saw it this time.
The last couple of days we spent in the Moab area, we camped about seven miles out of town along the Colorado River at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campground. While in Canyonlands in the north area called Island is the Sky, one of the viewpoints is called Shafer Canyon. This part of the park is all on a huge mesa a couple thousand of feet above the desert below. And the desert below is probably another 300 feet above the Colorado River. It's quite spectacular. Anyway, there is a road that goes from Moab up along the Colorado river and climbs to the desert and then climbs all the way up to the level of this viewpoint inside the National Park. It's a huge elevation gain. I know it's about 6,000 feet in the park and about 4,000 in Moab. Anyway, this road is a four wheel drive type of thing with steep cliffs and all the lousy road you'd ever want to drive on for sure. It used to be a trail to take cattle down to the river and back up to the mesa top long ago. Then because uranium was found in the area, they made a road. I don't think anyone has worked on it since then and that was eons ago.
Anyway, we dropped the camper at the BLM campground and drove the road. Whew. Another unforgetable experience. In retrospect, we should have done the road from high to low instead of the other way around. One of the hairpin turns we actually couldn't make it around without backing up in the middle of the turn, twice. I'm anxious to see the video I took of that wild ride.
OK.......so we headed back to Colorado along the beautiful Colorado River in a deep canyon on hiway 128 which is another scenic drive. Loved it. We stopped by and spent the night at Colorado National Monument, which is another beautiful and rocky place.
We then drove to the Grand Mesa which was just another polka dotted road along the way. Well.......this mesa is very grand and has mountain lakes. Mike took one look at those and announced that it was time to buy that long anticipated fishing license. We really didn't have the water and certain of our tanks were not prepared for us to stay out for a couple more days....but we did it anyway. We camped at one of the 300 lakes in the area......called Island Lake. And Mike fished.
And he improved his technique to the point where he caught his limit this morning. Yesterday he caught three which we had for dinner last night as well. So he's all excited and I'm glad he's getting his $56 worth out of his Colorado fishing license. We had to go buy more flies today at Walmart. It's serious. We may never leave! Actually, we will but not for a bit. We've got reservations at Rocky Mountain National Park for the 11th and 12th of July. We're going to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park tomorrow. Tonight we're at an RV place and I did laundry, defrosted the refer, wasted water on cleaning sinks and toilets, we're charging cameras and toothbrushes and all the fun stuff.
I talked to my daugher today.....I'm so looking forward to seeing her in July. She is in Philadelphia though I think they're on a flight home by now. Rachel had a job for Urban Outfitters and Kristin was out walking around and was having a ball while Rachel was working. It will probably be a recurring job so maybe I'll get to take Rachel one of these times? This travel stuff gets in your blood. I like it!!! That's it for tonight.
Mike is sorta asleep but is having nighmares or something. Perhaps he losing the trout of a lifetime or the game warden told him his license was no good or something. Being a fisherman is tough.
Aloha, Gayle
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