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Posts Tagged ‘highway 160’

Memories Hitch a Ride from Colorado to Utah

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on May 5, 2011| 1 Comment »

 “Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.” — Matsuo Basho

I passed by Mesa Verde National Park today, but last year when I came this same way I stopped for a visit and took this photo of the Balcony House. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie*

I awoke this morning to an alarm clock of geese honking as they flew overhead. The sound, as always, soothed my soul. Wild things flying free, sharing the burden of making headway against the wind as they flew to whether they were going.

It was time for me to get up and get going, too.

While yesterday’s awesome drive over Wolf Creek Pass through the San Juan Mountains was a new experience for me, today’s drive would be through quite familiar territory.

Over the years, I’ve made numerous trips between my home in Northern Utah and family members in Texas. While I’ve always tried to find new roads to travel to get between the two states, more often than not on the return trip, I headed north at Santa Fe to Pagosa Springs and then went west on Highway 160 to Cortez and then north again through Moab to Ogden. It was the shortest way back home. .

On one of those trips, back in the late 1970s, I took the longer, steeper way home, heading north at Durango to Silverton and on to Grand Junction, Colorado. It was one of the first solo cross-country trips I made. And I can still recall the excitement of traveling through such fantastic country.

In my memory I can still see Twilight Peak from Highway 550, a route I didn't take this day. -- Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Up above Silverton, I came around a high, sharp curve and there, floating almost in front of me, was a hang glider. I pulled my car over to the side, got out and waved. To this day I still wonder where he came from and where he was going to land.

This day, however, I continued west through Durango, past the shadow of Mesa Verde, which I visited last year, and on to Cortez, where I stopped to resupply my refrigerator with fresh vegetables from a local market.

At the far side of Cortez, I turned north on Highway 491, which used to be Highway 666 until the name was changed because of the number’s “devilish” association. I’ve driven it under both names without any mishaps.

I ended the day’s drive in Utah, at a small RV park in the town of Monticello, where I slept soundly with the La Salle Mountains looking down on me and my dog, Maggie, curled up beside me..

*Day 9 of the journey, April 27, 2011

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Up and Over Wolf Creek Pass – Without the Chickens

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2011| 4 Comments »

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” J.R.R. Tolkien

An aerial view of Wolf Creek Pass and its ski area taken in August, 2008, after the snow melt. -- Photo by Doc Searls

Travels With Maggie*

“Way up high on the Great Divide” sang C. W. McCall in his 1975 recording of “Wolf Creek Pass.”

I experienced McCall’s lyrics,  although without the chickens, first hand this day, topping out my drive through the San Juan Mountains at 10,857 feet. Fresh snow had fallen during the night, and the trees on the sides of the steep mountains I traveled between were still draped in white.

In case you’re interested, McCall’ song can be heard at: http://tinyurl.com/3dvdo24

While the road, Highway 160, had been cleared of the storm’s droppings, it was still wet and slick – and quite icy in the two tunnels cutting through mountain rock.

Unlike the driver in McCall’s tune, however, my foot was frequently on my brakes. But since almost no other vehicles were on the road, and since I kept my speed slow enough to feel safe, my heart pounded only with the pleasant thrill of being privileged to drive through such a fantastic landscape.

I love dandelions, but then perhaps that's because I now don't have a lawn to maintain. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I passed quite a few large, scenic RV parks along my drive up and over Wolf Creek Pass, which traverses the mountains from South Fork to Pagosa Springs. But all were closed.

They reminded me why I usually took the more southerly route through New Mexico when heading northwest this time of year.

But I had no regrets. I may be an old broad, but I’m still up for an adventure.

I was quite happy, however, when I came upon the Riverside RV Park just outside Durango. It was open. While it had been a short day in miles, only 131, I was ready to take a break from sitting behind Gypsy Lee’s wheel.

And that I was assigned a site right next to a small pond, where mallards were floating, the ground was littered with dandelions, and where I could watch a robin pulling up a worm for dinner from the damp ground, was the cherry on the top of a hot fudge sundae.

Life was good once again. .

Day 8 of the journey, April 26, 2011.

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A Day of Mountains, Snow, Sand and Water

Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on May 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

Great Sand Dunes National Park in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. -- Photo by Pat Beab

“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” Niccolo Machiavelli.

Travels With Maggie*

I reached John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” today. My journey west on Highway 160 took me through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the highest being 14,351-foot tall Mount Blanco. The steep winding road through the mountains topped out at a 9,468-foot snow-enhanced summit.

Since Maggie and I hit the mountains a bit past sunrise and well before sunset, we didn’t get to see why the mountain was given its Spanish name, Blood of Christ. The name is supposedly for the reddish glow the mountains take on in morning and evening light.

Even so, I was properly awed by the Sangre de Cristos’ splendor – and I was properly thankful for the new brake pads on my RV, Gypsy Lee, as Maggie and I dropped down the far side of them. And properly surprised at the detour we took off Highway 160 to see the Great Sand Dunes.

Located at the base of the snow-covered Sangre de Cristos were giant pink piles of sand, some as tall as 750-feet. I couldn’t help but feel they were geographically out of place. Which of course made them all that much more special.

Estimated to be anywhere from 12,000 to a million years old, the dunes were formed by mountain erosion transported by the Rio Grande River and its tributaries. The sand pile grew, and in some places is still growing, because the tiny wind-blown granules are trapped in a curved valley.

The dunes became a national monument in 1922, and a national park in 2000. I lingered at the visitor center and among the sand for a couple of hours before ending my detour and getting back on Highway 160.

Up to this point in time, it had been a perfect traveling day. Little did I know the pitfalls of travel that lay ahead of me. Tune in again tomorrow and I’ll tell you the tale.

Continuing Day 7, April 25, 2001

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