RAINBOWS AND BUNNIES
From Rock Springs, we headed
south through the northeast corner of Utah towards Grand Junction,
Colorado. When I planned this trip, I
was really looking forward to this drive.
It would take us past the Flaming Gorge Reservoir and along the western
edge of Utah’s Uinta Mountains. I had
never been to either of those areas, and I was looking forward to checking them
out.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get
much of a chance. We ran into rain
shortly beyond the Wyoming border. The
weather severely restricted our views of the surrounding countryside. All we saw of the Uinta Mountains was pine
trees and fog. Oh well, we’ll have to
go back another time.
The weather improved by the
time we reached Vernal, Utah. From
there, we headed east, into dinosaur country.
The entire area around and east of Vernal is famous for its fossils,
particularly dinosaur bones. I would’ve
liked to explore the area more, and visit Dinosaur National Monument, but the
area isn’t exactly dog friendly. It’s
usually hot, and dogs aren’t allowed in many areas. I guess the folks in charge there are afraid Fido might run off
with a Stegosaurus bone.
We crossed a bridge over the
Green River, hundreds of miles downstream from its headwaters, where we’d hiked
a week earlier. A few miles later, we
crossed into Colorado. Our visit to
Utah had been all too brief.
Before long we turned south
and cruised along towards Grand Junction.
Then we hit Douglas Pass. Wow,
that’s what I call a hill! I wasn’t
sure our overloaded Xterra would make it to the top. Now I know how dump truck drivers feel! If you ever drive this road, plan on extra time to cross Douglas
Pass.
After the pass we sailed on
to I-70 without incident. From there,
we headed east to Fruita and Colorado National Monument. Our plan was to meet Myron at the campground
there. It was late afternoon, but we
were running a couple of hours ahead of him.
Myron had flown into Denver that morning and rented a car, one-way, to
Grand Junction. We’d drop his rental
car off the next morning before heading for the San Juans.
I was concerned about
getting a campsite, as the park doesn’t take reservations. So, we headed to the campground first. I shouldn’t have worried. There were exactly 3 groups in the 51-site
campground. I couldn’t believe it. The only difficulty was deciding which site
we liked the most. The campground sits
up high on the plateau, and some sites even have nice views over the Colorado
River valley. We ended up selecting
site 51. We pitched camp, called Myron
to let him know where we were, and headed into town to run errands.
We found a Laundromat in
Fruita. We got 4 loads of laundry
going, and I stayed to baby sit while Christy ran to the grocery store. She returned just in time to help me pack up
all of our clean clothes. As we were
leaving, we stopped dead in our tracks in the parking lot. A brilliant double-rainbow was arcing across
the sky overhead. It was, without a
doubt, the most spectacular rainbow I’d ever seen. Isn’t a rainbow a symbol for hope? We could only hope that this rainbow signified a pending
improvement in our fortunes.
Looking at it from town was
nice, but I wanted to see it from the red rock country of Colorado National
Monument. We raced back to the park,
and luckily the rainbow lasted long enough for us to get some interesting
photos. It turns out that photographing
a double-rainbow is a bit tricky, but we did get a few good ones.
We still had a little
daylight, so we decided to check out the park before returning to the
campground. We drove part of the park’s
scenic road, stopping at a handful of intriguing overlooks. Along the way, we spotted a couple dozen
hares. It seemed like every time we
turned a corner, a rabbit would go bouncing across the road. This was entertaining, especially for
Saucony. Apparently we can add rabbits
to the ever-growing list of animals that Saucony likes. We tried to keep our eyes out for
Jackalopes, but I’m not going to claim that we saw one of those.
We didn’t make it far down
the scenic drive before dark. We
decided to save the rest for the next morning.
We returned to camp, where we found Myron setting up. That evening we feasted on chili and beer
and attempted to organize our gear.
Fortunately we went to bed well before the thunderstorms hit. The storms were fierce, and we definitely
felt exposed perched high up on the plateau.
Well, Christy did, anyway. I
slept through the whole thing.
I made breakfast the next
morning before we packed up all of our wet gear. The storms had left lingering fog on the plateau, which
threatened to limit our views from the scenic drive. We drove it anyway, mainly because it conveniently goes to Grand
Junction. We drove through the park,
stopping at a couple of overlooks that weren’t fogged in, before reaching
town. In Grand Junction we found a
Discount Tire location. Luckily, they
had a used tire in the right size. I
waited there in the parking lot with the dog while Christy and Myron visited an
REI store nearby. I’m not sure how I
got the short end of that arrangement.
It must’ve been a hundred degrees in that parking lot.
Fortunately the Discount
Tire guys were quick. We left there and
headed over near the airport to drop off Myron’s rental car. After we arrived, we spent a considerable
amount of time trying to get Myron’s gear into the Xterra. Fortunately, he had brought a collapsible
luggage carrier that fit on our roof rack.
We never would’ve gotten everything in there without it.
We finished that project,
grabbed Wendy’s for lunch, and hit the road.
We had only killed half a day with our errands. However, we had a long drive ahead of us,
and I still wanted to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on the
way.
Back to Colorado
Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports
Please remember to Leave No Trace!