Flaming Gorge NRA

Flaming Gorge is gorgeous!
John Wesley Powell thought so, too.  He named it in 1869.

The Gorge is on the Green River, straddles the UT/WY border.

Flaming Gorge Dam, 502' tall, forms the lake seen in the above pix.

Dinosaur Nat'l Monument

This cheerful specimen, a female that just had her eyebrows done at the salon, 

greeted us as we entered Vernal, UT.  It's a pinkosaurus. 

The Carnegie Quarry Hall encloses an area of rock wall 150' wide and 30' high.

These embedded dinosaur bones are at eye level; you can touch them and are encouraged to do so.  When first discovered, it didn't look like this, of course.  The covering rock and debris was chipped away to expose the estimated 1500 dinosaur bones from about 100 different animals

This sign explains why so many dino-bones came to be in this area 150 million years ago.

The above shot shows about 1/3 of the quarry wall.

The black and whites are camosaurus; they won The Most Bones in the Wall prize.  The toothy fellow in lower right resembles a t-rex but is another carnivorous species: allosaurus.  The camosaurus is, obviously, the common ancestor of zebras, Holstein cows, painted ponies and dalmatians.

There are over 700 known dinosaur species and recent discoveries/research indicate that there may have been twice that many.  Trish and I agreed that the Quarry wall was the biggest WOW! of our travels so far this summer.

Farmer's Market

On Thursday evenings, 5:30 to 8:30, there's a farmer's market in downtown Grand Junction.  We've been in the area nearly 2 weeks but hadn't toured downtown or gone out to dinner until last night.  We started our outing with a dim sum platter at a Chinese restaurant, preceded, in my case, with a cup of hot and sour soup; delicious chow, lousy service.

We strolled through the farmer's market after dinner, 

admiring the many neat sculptures along the way.

  

It was 94 F degrees last night so we didn't dawdle much and I didn't bother noting

 the names of the sculptures - nor the artists' names, nor the asking price. 

This piece, with all the detail and various shapes, must have taken years to complete.

Trumbo*, a prolific screenwriter (Exodus, Spartacus, many more) who won 2 Oscars, 

hailed from Grand Junction, liked to write in the bathtub.

I love 'junk' sculpture!

Ribbit!

This chubby fellow, obviously a prince, probably gets lots of kisses.  

Didn't get one from Trish though - which, I assume, indicates she's not seeking 

an upgrade from her current prince

Right rear: beautiful buffalo sculpture, chrome I think.

Center: drumming/dancing/martial arts group gave impressive performance. 

Front:  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!  I'm sure that guy felt enormously relieved when he finally 

straightened up.  We didn't hang around to find out, though, having just eaten dinner. 

*Trumbo bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Trumbo

Colorado National Monument

The Monument is just a few miles west of Grand Junction.  It was carved out by the Colorado River, which is in my view, the best darn carver there ever was.  We toured it a few days ago.

We're liking the GJ area a lot and decided to spend another week here.  Not exactly here (Island Acres) though.  We're moving to a private RV park 12 miles closer to the center of town - closer to cycling trails, pickleball courts, restaurants, wifi sources.

Above: looking back at the road we took to the first overlook, town of Fruita in background.

Below: the balanced rock, zoomed in, from second overlook. 

Above/below shots were taken from the visitor center viewing deck.

Independence Rock, above and below, is popular with rock climbers. 

These formations are called the Coke Ovens because they resemble the masonry kilns used to convert coal to coke back in the day.  This was not the type of coke you snort.  Well, I suppose you could snort it; it's probably less damaging to one's system, and less addictive, than the regular snortin' stuff.

Grand Junction, CO

We intended to tour this area 2 years ago but chickened out because the pickup was acting up, going spastic at high altitudes.  That problem seems to have gone away, so here we are, camped at Colorado River SP/Island Acres Recreation Area for 7 days.

Artie, dog tired from his navigation efforts, takes a well deserved break.

Our trip planning software threw us a curve on the location of this campground, indicated it was right on the edge of town - which is where we wanted to be for quick access to pickleball venues, bike trails, stores and good cell phone service.  Instead, it's 18 miles north of town.  Bummer.

Grand Junction is where the Gunnison River flows into the Colorado River.  The area has dramatic geological features, some of which are visible from our campground.  The 'biggie' is Colorado National Monument, which has beautiful rock formations.  So, you can look forward to even more pictures of rocks - although by now you're probably thinking good grief; enough already with the blankety blank rocks!

These bluffs, across the Colorado River from where we're camped, 

look very similar to those in WA state where the Columbia River carved its path.

Both Rivers used to have massive flows and caused much flooding but have now been tapped and sapped into placid pussycats.  The rich soil of the former flood plains, both here and in WA, now support lush vineyards and orchards.  Today, we'll be stopping at a local fruit stand for fresh cherries and peaches and whatever else looks especially appealing.

Royal Gorge, CO

Last Saturday, we did the Royal Gorge Train ride which starts in Canon City, CO.  It's a short ride distance-wise but the train goes dead slow, about brisk walking speed, so it takes a couple hours.  We had a nice breakfast along the way.

Waiting to board the train.  L to R: Trish, Lisa, Terry.

The Gorge was carved out by the Arkansas River, which the train track parallels.  

Hundreds of rafters floated by as we journeyed down the track.

The train had 2 open cars, great for taking pix.

Above and below, the Royal Gorge Bridge, highest suspension bridge

in the world, 1000'+ high.  Below, you can see people standing on the Bridge.

The Gorge is extremely narrow in some areas.  Don't stick your arms out.

Looking back at the Bridge, more rafters in the River.

A couple of young women in each passenger car did waitress duty and provided sporadic historical comments.  I should say they commented on the history; it's highly unlikely that the comments themselves will go down in the history books.  

I'm always curious about the names of things, who named them, and who or what inspired the name.  Sure enough, one of the sweet young things said, 'You may wonder how the Royal Gorge got its name.' She then proceeded with an incoherent spiel about some dude who was panning for gold, no connection to anything royal whatsoever - at least not that I heard.  When she finished, we looked at each other in puzzlement: huh? 

Maybe the prospector's name was Royal.  Yeah, that must be it.  Royal was his last name, first name was probably Ralph: Rotten Ralphie Royal, the infamous Arkansas River gold prospector.

If you happen to know the real story about the Royal Gorge name origin, please share it with me. 

    

Florissant Fossil Beds NM, CO

Above and below, Eleven Mile State Park (CO) borders Eleven Mile Lake,

a man-made lake on the South Platte River.  We camped here 3 nights while visiting

Cripple Creek and Florissant NM.

Our Cougar is in the lower left above, with Terry and Lisa's Sunseeker behind it.

What the sign doesn't say: volcanic activity caused this area to be entombed in 15'

 of super hot mud.  It happened very rapidly, capturing multitudinous specimens of

 flora and fauna that lived here 34 million years ago.

A giant redwood that was 16' in diameter when the volcano blew its top.  

Now, it's petrified wood, one of many such stumps in the area.

We've had thunderstorms every afternoon for several days.  Yesterday, a funnel cloud was spotted across the lake so the park rangers were hustling around, warning all the campers and fishermen to be aware of the danger.  They told everyone to beat feet to the brownstone vault toilet buildings for shelter if we saw a tornado approaching.  We didn't and apparently no one else did either.  

Interesting scenario though, huddling up in a odoriferous little hut, making all kinds of new friends, hoping none of them got the crap scared out of 'em. 

Cripple Creek, CO

Until recently, I didn't know squat about Cripple Creek.  I was aware of the name, of course.  Up on Cripple Creek, the hit song by the band called - would you believe - The Band, is to blame for that. The CC referred to in the song is in VA, but CO has it's own version.  It was a mining boom town in the late 1800s, is now a tourist site with several casinos.  We visited the area yesterday with friends Terry and Lisa, had a late breakfast that cost 49 cents each - plus beverages.

Cripple Creek main drag.  Population was 35,000 in 1900, is now 1200.

Most of the wooden structures burned down in 1896, so they rebuilt with brick.

Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company, a huge, modern, mining operation, is still going strong, pumping out a million dollars a day in gold - with a small side dish of silver.  The tailings are massive, a major landscape feature, even when viewed from the Pike's Peak summit, 15 miles away. Victor is the name of a little burg 4 miles from CC.

Bronco Billy's Casino where we had brunch is a block long, 

is several buildings joined together.

Classic old hotel.

This crosscut view of one of the mines is in a museum near CC.

Looks like an ant or termite farm, huh?

Pike's Peak

Waiting for the train to Pike's Peak in Manitou Springs.

We were going to drive to Pike's Peak summit but decided to take the train instead.  Travel time one way is about the same whether train or car: about 1.5 hours.  Good call on choosing the train though, more relaxed, narrated history and highlights as a bonus.

Above and below pix taken en route to the top.

Back in the day, maintenance crews would spend the entire summer in this building, and walk up and down the track doing their thing; elevation 12,129'.

We made it!

  

Mr Pike, however, did not.

He and 3 others tried to climb it in November, 1806, but the snow was too deep and his expedition was unprepared for winter travel.

Pike's Peak inspired Katherine Lee Bates to pen America the Beautiful.

The rock wall behind Trish is all that remains of the original weather station/lodge built in the late 1800s.  The cog train track was built in 1891.

The train is Swiss built, runs on cogs,

A plaque honoring Mr Pike.

Our rail car.

The driver/engineer (left) has 2 powerful diesel engines and 3 independent sets of brakes at his command, keeps in close touch with the engineers of the other cars ascending and descending to coordinate timing.  It's all single track except for 3 places where the cars can pull off into a side track to allow bypass.

PS: I'm fully aware that in common usage, it's called Pikes Peak rather than Pike's Peak, as used above.  Call me a rebel, a purist, a butt-head, a picky little shit, whatever.  It should be Pike's.