Western Colorado (STR-2022-23)

Tuesday, 16 August

Our destination for the night was McPhee Campground, a San Juan National Forest Campground located above the McPhee Reservoir. The campground has 71 sites, with 24 of them having electric. And only a few sites occupied tonight. Pretty basic - just a few water access points, and the dump station has been closed for years.

After dinner, we hiked to the McPhee Reservoir Overlook about a mile away. There we learned McPhee was a sawmill company town located in what is now the reservoir. A fire destroyed the sawmill which was never rebuilt due to declining timber in the area. The skies were clear providing great views of the reservoir and the Colorado and Utah Mountains in the distance.

Looking northeast

To the southwest, you could see Mesa Verde.

Wednesday, 17 August

With the higher altitude and passing rainstorms, Sprinty enjoyed a cooler than expected night. While he had an electric site just in case, his humans enjoyed the fresh air instead of the air conditioner.

Again, we got to play a golf course we played last year: the Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez, CO. Cortez only has two golf courses - the other being a 9-hole executive course. With a 8am tee time, we enjoyed cool temperatures for the first nine holes. Despite being a busy course, play moved along quite nicely - we finished 18 holes in under 3-1/2 hours. A very nice course - definitely recommended if you are in the area.

After a brief stop for groceries and Starbucks, we headed up the San Juan Skyway to Ridgway State Park in Ridgway, CO. We drove this route last year in the other direction - definitely a scenic drive. With the increase in altitude, clouds, and rain, the temperature dropped almost 30 degrees from Cortez. And traffic seemed to mosey along allowing Sprinty's driver to take in more of the scenery than usual

Sprinty is enjoying the hospitality of Ridgway State Park for the next two nights - a state park he visited last summer. He received a surprise at the entrance gate - for the month of August, veterans get free park passes ($9/day savings). He has a nice electric site in the Elk Ridge loop which also hosts the cell tower. Lesson learned from last year - cell signal was nearly non-existent in the other loops. The sites are well spaced, a mix of back-in and pull throughs.

Thursday, 18 August

We started the day driving the 20 miles north to Montrose, CO, to bike ride with Bob Dombrowe, a friend of Darrell and Brendas that we met last year in Silverton. Bob lives part of the year in Montrose and also has a Rad ebike, a 2016 fat tire River model (he was an early adopter). He took us riding all around Montrose, mostly on bike paths, sharing history and information that only a local can provide.

We rode along the river walk where we saw someone surfing on the Uncompahgre River.

We rode up to the cemetery overlooking the city and by a remaining piece of track from the Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge railroad built in 1882 to connect Denver and Salt Lake City. We rode through various neighborhoods. 20.78 miles total.

Montrose is greener than some of the surrounding area due to the Gunnison Tunnel, an irrigation tunnel constructed between 1905 and 1909 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Montrose County, Colorado. The 5.8-mile-long tunnel diverts water from the Gunnison River to the arid Uncompahgre Valley around Montrose, Colorado.

Bob treated us to lunch from Heidi's Brooklyn Deli which we ate at the city park near where we saw the surfer earlier - a beautiful venue for a picnic lunch. After lunch, he asked if we had been to Cimarron - which we had not. Like most folks, we drove past it as we drove US 50. Bob was excited to show it to us, so off we went.

Once we arrived, we understood his enthusiasm for Cimarron. As you turn off US 50, you drive in a canyon. At the end of the short road is the Morrow Point Dam and Powerplant completed 1971.

Morrow Point Dam was the first large double-curvature, thin-arch concrete dam to be built in the United States-469 feet high, 740 feet long, 52 feet wide at the base, 12 feet wide at the crest and containing 360,000 cubic yards of concrete.

One of the dam exhibits mentioned a visitor center, so we wandered in that direction, only to encounter a locked gate. One of the workers came up to the gate to do a project, and answered our many questions. The Visitor Center was closed due to increased security after 9/11, like many other dams. The hydroelectric plant produces electricity and is controlled down at Lake Powell as part of the Colorado River Storage Project.

The canyon was impressive - and easier to access than the nearby canyon of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

One of the exhibits explained how the canyon was created over the millennia.

The Denver and Rio Grande Western narrow gauge railroad originally passed through this location. Promoters called this the "Scenic Line of the World" to entice travelers to see western Colorado by rail. Standing on the original rail bed, one imagined the steam locomotive chugging through the narrow canyon, the steam whistle echoing off the canyon walls. The steel truss bridge built in 1895 over the Cimarron River stands at its original location and supports the locomotive and railroad cars today.

A fine day exploring Montrose, CO, with a "local". As we headed back to Ridgway State Park, we stopped by the Amazon Hub Counter in Montrose to pick up a package.

Friday, 19 August

We played golf at Black Canyon Golf Course, one of three golf courses in Montrose, CO. We played this course last year as we passed through Montrose. You might note a theme - Sprinty is leveraging his planning and lessons learned from his time in Colorado last year.

We had a more leisurely start with a 9am tee time. The weather forecast called for rain starting around mid-day. We both played pretty well, and the skies to the south looked very dark the last few holes. We finished before the rain.

Our campsite for the night is at Mountain Valley Meadows RV Park in Hotchkiss, CO. Selected so we would have the option to play golf over the weekend, weather permitting.

Saturday, 20 August

We treated ourselves to breakfast this morning. Interestingly, the place with the best reviews within 20+ miles was Zack's BBQ in Hotchkiss, CO. We took it as a positive sign that the early morning clientele seemed to be all locals, weathered in appearance from decades working farms and ranches in the area.

We drove northeast on the northern section of the West Elk Byway to Carbondale.

The West Elk Byway is a 205-mile, two-lane highway through rural and historic Western Colorado. It passes through three Wilderness Areas and thousands of acres of National Forest.

We crossed over McClure Pass at an elevation of 8,755 feet. After the steep downhill, nearing Redstone, CO, we saw a sign for Hays Creek Falls. We stopped to check it out.

Also in Redstone were the remnants of the Redstone Coke Ovens, right by the highway.

The coke ovens were built at the end of the 19th century by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Two hundred were built, because the coal in the surrounding mountains was ideal for refining into coke. At their peak, they were producing almost 6 million tons a year.

Within ten years of their construction the ovens fell into disuse when the mines closed. Their support steel was removed during the scrap metal drives of World War II, and later they were used as living space by hippies who moved into Redstone.

We continued to the Carbondale Town Hall to access the Rio Grande Trail - a 42-mile Rails-to-Trails trail that runs from Glenwood Springs to Aspen (www.rfta.com/trail-information/). The trail is uphill from Glenwood Springs to Aspen. Carbondale, CO is near the mid-point. We rode about 9 miles towards Aspen to the Pitkin County line at Emma Road in Basalt (only Class 1 E-Bikes are allowed from Emma Road to Aspen). Total of 410 feet of elevation gain, we started at 6,175 feet elevation, and turned around at 6,597.

Along the ride, we passed a herd of goats which are being used to fight weeds. Colorado has 78 species of noxious weeds - and goats prefer trees, brush and weeds to grass, making them well suited for weed control projects (www.aspenpublicradio.org/2016-09-06/goats-fight-weeds-on-rio-grande-trail).

The ride back to Carbondale was downhill - almost enough to coast most of the way. Before loading up the bikes, we cruised the downtown area of Carbondale

Tonight, Sprinty is spending a second night at Mountain Valley Meadows RV Park in Hotchkiss, CO, in the hopes the weather will cooperate for golf tomorrow. The forecast seems to change every few hours.

Sunday, 21 August

The forecast changed again, so we decided to take a chance and play golf. As we headed to Delta, CO, we saw a double rainbow. As well as rain to the south and northwest. We pressed on.

We played Devil's Thumb Golf Course in Delta, CO. We played this course last year when we stayed at the golf course as a participant in Harvest Hosts. That was also the day Darrell wound up with his hand in a cactus.

The starter shared that he used to live in Ridgway, and he and his buddies came all the way up to Delta to play Devil's Thumb Golf Course. He said it was a nicer course and a better value than the course near Ridgway and the three courses in Montrose.

Shortly after we started, it rained - enough that many people canceled. We continued on, and the rain quit after a short time. We were treated to a full rainbow - one where we could see both ends.

After golf, we took the scenic route (Colorado Highway 92) to Gunnison, another part of the West Elk Byway from Hotchkiss to Gunnison.

Colorado Highway 92 passes by the north side of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. From the Crystal Creek Scenic Overlook, you could just see the east end of the Black Canyon.

From Hermits Rest Overlook, we were overlooking the Morrow Point Reservoir, almost directly across from Cimarron that we visited a few days ago with Bob.

Hermits Rest Overlook

An interpretive sign provided an explanation of how the canyon was carved.

We continued on Highway 92 which wound along the canyon walls. We stopped at Pioneer Point which had several viewing pints of the canyon.

In what is now a lake, the Denver and Rio Grande Western narrow gauge railroad ran though the canyon. Curecanti Needle towered over the rail line that operated between 1882 and 1949. It was placed prominently in the railroad's logo.

Curecanti Needle to the left

Scenic Line of the World

Our camp for the night is at The Palisades Senior R-V Park Campground in Gunnison, CO. Sprinty enjoyed his stay here last year.