Colorado - Day 16 - Grand Mesa

Crawford State Park, Crawford                                                                  Wednesday, 16 September 2020

Today I wanted to drive to Grand Mesa, which is geologically unique, so I took what the AAA map calls the scenic route.

It started being scenic before I'd even gotten out of Grand Junction.

Mt. Lincoln

That mountain looks immensely larger in person than in my photo - I guess it's the focal length of the camera or something.  It's huge and filled the whole viewing area of my windshield as I was driving out of town.

I had a hard time finding a name for it anywhere but think this is called Mt. Lincoln, aka Western Slope Lincoln, not the same as Mount Lincoln west of Denver.   That one is the 11th highest summit in the Lower 48 and one of Colorado's "fourteeners" - those peaks that are 14,000' and above.  This one only goes up to 6,600', but that's still tall enough to loom over the highway as I drove east out of town.  

All those folds at the base looked like sand to me, but when the road got closer I could see they were solid rock.  Those must have been some interesting geological processes that created this place.

Meanwhile, I was driving on I-70 up a canyon alongside the Colorado River, which I assume created this canyon in the first place.  The highway department was not reassuring when they posted a sign saying, "Gusty Winds Likely Next 4 Miles."  And gusty they were - I could barely keep us straight on the road at times.

The town of Palisade is immediately to the northeast of Grand Junction and, I understand, is well known in the state for its peaches - much the way Texas values those of Fredericksburg.  Its sign says it's Fruit and Wine Country, and I saw the orchards and vineyards and wineries to prove it.  Also a Christmas tree farm.  Also a decent-size herd of cows.

I turned off the interstate to State Highway 65 that first gave me a pull-off with local information.

my drive on CO-65 started in the upper left corner

that Lewis cabin is mentioned above right

I saw the Tea Kettle myself as I drove along

Also a sign saying, "Welcome Hunters - Good Luck and Be Safe."

From that stopping place, I was on a narrow road that wound around a lot of rocky cliffs.  Plenty of s-curves and a few switchbacks.  Lots of trees.  

Also quite a few signs warning of cows crossing the road and several cattle guards in the road.  I took those about as seriously as I take the warnings of deer crossings (which is mild to medium) and then suddenly, I came around a bend and found actual cows on the road.  Maybe a dozen of them, and they'd clearly been told they had the right-of-way because they were in no hurry to move over.  I was very glad I'd been going slowly anyway because of all the curves in the road.

I came to a road named JE¼ Road.  I swear.  I didn't see any other JE roads, just that quarter-pint one.

I pulled over for the zillionth time on this trip and had a passenger in the passing car wave to thank me.  So rare anyone does that, though occasionally a semi will flash his lights as thanks.

I passed the turn for Powderhorn Ski Resort, with a sign advertising a Color Weekend on September 26th & 27th.  And I saw a highway sign saying, "Warning Back Country Skiers - Avalanche Blasting At Any Time."  Enough to give an athlete pause.

I was gaining in altitude and my ears kept popping.  The road was full of s-curves with no shoulder anywhere, and I was on the side with the drop-off.  There was a deep valley below and on some of those turns my stomach did more swoops than the road.  This drive on the non-mountain side of the road made me decide that tomorrow, when I left Crawford State Park and headed back east, I would not take the much shorter route that runs near Black Canyon and Hermit's Rest.  I knew I'd be on the non-mountain side of the road and just did not want to have stomach swoops so early in the morning.  Instead, I'd take the extra hour of driving I'd need to go via Delta and Montrose, where there's relatively flat land.

Getting up to the mesa top was a relief to my nerves.  I was surprised, though, to see that it wasn't flat land as I'd expected but instead low rolling hills.

Farther along I came to the Grand Mesa Visitor Center, and its elevation of 10,200' explains why my ears had been popping.  I was hoping there'd at least be a sign there explaining the uniqueness of the Grand Mesa, even if the visitor center were closed.  It was, but there were few signs and none of them talked about what I think they should have.  So my fallback information center is at this link.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Grand-Mesa  Wouldn't you think that if you were in charge of the visitor center for the largest flat-topped mountain in the world you'd want to mention it to the public?  But here's what they had.

It's just about the forest, not about the mountain the forest sits on.  So weird.

Across the road from the visitor center was a nice little lake/pond which was obviously known to have fish in it - "obviously" because several people were fishing from the bank.  

I didn't notice the trees being particularly skimpy but I guess they've had trouble with the spruce beetle killing a lot of them off, and I thought this sign (below) was interesting.

This spruce beetle is native to Colorado 
so I guess the little guy has a right to be here
even if he's destroying something else's right
to live.

I walked the dogs around the parking area and, of course, discovered several other dogs - but the exciting moment was when a chipmunk ran across the road near us.  Dexter was transfixed at the sight, and then he wanted to chase it.  

I've thought that I'll need to settle finally in a state where there're chipmunks, though I see online that they live in all Lower 48 states.  Makes me wonder why I haven't been seeing them everywhere.

As I'd been climbing up the 10,000' altitude, I'd started noticing that the leaves were turning yellow and orange.  I guess I thought the snow would have precipitated an earlier leaf change than it seems to have done because there aren't all that many trees that have turned yet.

We started back downhill and came to Mesa Lake Recreation Area, where there's a heavily used boat launch and several artists that were working at easels on the bank of the lake.  It is a scenic lake for sure.

At least 5 times on this road I came to those temporary warning signs highway workers put up - and each of these said "Highway Painting Ahead."  I never once saw anyone doing anything.

I came to the small town of Cedaredge, where a sign told me the elevation was 6,200' - meaning I'd come down 4,000'.  That's a lot of descending.  Cedaredge boasts an establishment named the Short Branch Saloon, and it took me a minute to connect it to Gunsmoke.

I came to a sign telling me I was in Orchard City, founded 1912, but this turned out to be an odd place.  For miles along the road I'd come to one town after another that each had its own name, but their signs always said they were part of Orchard City.  Yet, they were as separated from each other as if they were separate towns.  Anyway, at one place there I saw a homemade sign that said, "Pray And Vote."  That's it.  Interesting message.  And at another place I passed an apparently abandoned building with a sign saying "CHALLENGE - The Better Butter."  I saw online that the building was built in 1920 as a creamery for local farmers, and it was part of the Challenge Creamery company.  That company started in 1911 in California, which really surprised me because the picture on the package of an elk by a mountain lake looks very Minnesota-y to me.  (Though I haven't been to Minnesota yet, so I'll have to see what's really up there.)

And finally on to Crawford State Park, where the dogs got to renew their acquaintance with the local smells.