Road Trip

Denver, CO

1344 miles from home.

Today’s road trip consisted entirely of I-70 across Colorado. Normally I consider Interstate driving the epitome of boredom, but this drive was anything but. When you start in Grand Junction the north side of the road is shadowed by 1,000′ mesas and soon that is joined by mesas on the other side. The road slowly rises in altitude and the flat tops turn into peaks. Now you are in a narrow valley twisting between mountains and the road keeps rising. Most of the time the pass is filled only with the Colorado River, I-70 and a set of train tracks.

We had originally intended to take I-70 partway and then dip down south following another route that would take us into Colorado Springs for the night. Try as I might using Google maps I could not change the route to go through Aspen. I checked road conditions and found out why, the road was still closed for the season. We then planned a slightly different route, but as it turned out we didn’t use that either. We only made it to Glenwood Springs (less than halfway) by lunchtime due to our usual late start and bush beating adventures, so the decision was made to just stay on I-70.

Donna decided that she wanted to help out driving, but she picked an inopportune time, soon the climbing got serious, there were numerous spots for trucks to pull over to put on their chains. We think that the road actually had 3 lanes as it wound it way upward, but the lines were worn off and there were deep ruts from said trucks and chains. She found a sort of sweet spot, but the slower trucks and faster cars made her nervous. Ever the trooper she made it to the next place where there was a rest stop and pulled in to let me drive, the top of Vail Pass at 10,600′. We used the restrooms before changing drivers and that in itself was an experience. There was snow piled 5-6′ high from clearing the parking lot and the facilities themselves were cave like as snow still covered almost all of the buildings windows.

From there the road smoothed out and the elevation actually dropped for awhile before starting to climb to the Eisenhower tunnels at over 11,000′. Once through the tunnels the road turned downward dropping to a more civil seven thousand feet or so and then dropping into Denver.

Four for four on caches today. That total might have been a few higher, but the route change removed quite a few from our list.

P.S. Can you tell by the length of this post that I had a bit more time to write about our day tonight than I have had the last couple?

Grand Junction, CO

1536 miles from home.

Today’s highlight was Arches National Park (photos are near the very bottom of this gallery) and we could only manage to do about a third of it before the sun, wind, altitude and shear beauty did us in. You need at least 2 days to do this place justice. I’m no longer upset that we didn’t get to Monument Valley, Arches puts it to shame.

Four of five in geocaching today.

Cortez, CO

1530 miles from home.

We started off for Monument Valley by taking a cool county road west out of town. Got about to the Utah border when I realized I wasn’t feeling the greatest, so we opted to cut the day short. Donna has had the sniffles the last few days and I finally caught it.

We did make it to the 4 Corners Monument. I walked up to a guy standing in front of the bronze plaque and mentioned that I had read that the marker is 2-1/2 miles off and he said, “I’ve seen that too. Oh, well.” I replied, “Well, I guess that’s close enough for government work.” He chuckled. We ate a Navajo Frybread and bought a couple of souvenirs before heading back to the B & B.

Just two caches today, the Virtual one at 4 Corners and another just down the road from the B & B.

Cortez, CO

1530 miles from home.

We had a “fun” day geocaching. The first one went smooth as silk and then part way towards the next cache the PDA went kaput. Didn’t realize how dependent we were on it. It is kind of tough to find something when all you have are just it’s coordinates, but I’m sure some advanced cachers relish that challenge, not us. We did manage to find one other one near Farmington, NM in a field near an elementary school.

We did manage to snag two mighty fine meals today. Lunch in Farmington at a place called the Deli Factory. Donna had a beef, green chili & potato soup and I had a Tortilla Hamburger. The hamburger needs some explaining, it was a tortilla on a plate with a thin beef patty (almost as large as the tortilla) on top, covered in shoestring french fries, then smothered in green chili sauce and topped with cheddar cheese. Dinner was at the Dolores River Brewery in “downtown” Delores (pop. 857). We split a Selfish Salad and a great thin crust pizza.

One of the places on the agenda for tomorrow’s drive was to visit the Four Corners Monument, but it turns out that it is not in the right place: X doesn’t mark the spot1. Still going anyway…

Santa Fe, NM

1389 miles from home.

From yesterday’s pure white sands to today’s black lava. We stopped at the Valley of Fires Recreation Area outside of Carrizozo. When you get about 3 miles away you notice the dessert floor looks darker than the surrounding land, almost like there is a big cloud in the sky, but there are none, it is the lava covered in dessert vegetation.

We are passing through Santa Fe from last nights southern New Mexico Stop to tomorrow nights southwestern Colorado stop and are back at the same HIE as last Friday. Donna was looking in the phone book for a place close by to eat and came up with the Plaza Cafe at only 3 blocks away. OK, I’m game. Turns out it was mighty fine food. She had a gyro and I had fish and chips. Both were great, they each had a bit of a southwestern kick that was just right.

5 out of 6 in geocaching today.

Alamogordo, NM

1398 miles from home.

We have reached our furthest point south today, White Sands National Park outside of Alamogordo, NM.

It is also the lowest in elevation we have been in a while too, only 4,334 feet. We no longer get winded bending over to tie our shoes.

I hope Scully and Mulder aren’t too disappointed in us. On our way south, a stop in Roswell was scheduled, but a late start due to a great breakfast and congenial hosts, plus the fact that it was over 90 miles east of our track, making for almost a 200 mile detour, caused us opt out of eating at the UFO Diner and trying to find Morris Fletcher for them.

Three for three on caches today.

Placitas, NM

1412 miles from home.

Woke up this morning and there was a light coating of snow over almost every horizontal surface. Donna and I left the Inn at around 6:30 for a walkabout. The sun was just clearing the east ridge, but the fog was ascending fast. I snapped the above photo of the Blue Horse Inn from the end of the driveway. By the time we had walked a 1/2 miles visibility was down under a quarter mile, but we kept on. The road went from paved to dirt and still we walked right down the middle of the road. The lack of visibility didn’t really bother us because we passed very few houses and besides it was so quiet that we would hear a vehicle coming or miles.

After the walk we drove the 60 miles to the Lone Mountain Cattle Company ranch to wait in line nearly as long, time wise, as we did for our rental car to get a 100% waygu beef burger. While the burger was tasty, it took almost 6 hours to digest. And it almost seemed a waste of the fine meat after it was placed on a bun, covered in mustard and ketchup, layered with lettuce, tomato and onions, because the sample slices of rib eye meat they gave out while standing in line were fantastic.

It was time for the big finish, the auction. It was fast and furious and interesting to me for a very short time. After 4 of 72 lots (2 more than Donna) I left the tent for some cold fresh air. We walked back to the bunkhouse with brother Scott, nephew James and 15 month old Logan and said goodbye and making tentative plans to hook up on Monday when we pass back through on our way north.

No geocaching today, but tomorrow on the way to Roswell we’ll probably attempt a few.