AUTUMN IN WESTERN COLORADO

This posting is a catch up blog.  We have been enjoying Western Colorado for several months and have gotten lazy with our posts.  We would promise to do better, but life is short and we don’t want to spend all of our free time sitting at a computer.  The post will cover our travels during the transition from August through October.

Beautiful Colorado Morning Sky

Our outings have involved a combination of four-wheeling, hiking, and exploratory road trips.  We have explored an area that goes from the Grand Mesa in the northern reaches of our travel zone to Ouray, the Dallas Divide, and Telluride to the south.  In between we have explored the Black Canyon National Park, the Uncompahgre Plateau, the Dominguez-Escalante Canyon lands, and the San Miguel River Canyon west of the Plateau.

Hot Air Balloon near Ridgeway

Sometimes it Rains in the Rockies

We have hiked some lovely trails, been fascinated by ancient peoples’ petroglyphs, been intrigued with the exploration of new finds, and basked in the glory of the changing colors, as a large variety of deciduous trees have made ready for winter by changing from green to a plethora of color mixes.  Mother Nature’s gaudy display is beloved and welcomed by large numbers of people, so finding ways to avoid crowds during the transition time was a challenge and one we met occasionally, but not always.

One of our summer hikes was along the Middle Fork of the Cimarron River just east of Owl Creek Pass in the Cimarron Range.  This rather easy hike follows the drainage of the River into an interesting display of high mountain peaks located on the east end of the Mt. Sneffles Range in the San Juan Mountains.  Since this was new country to us, we took a long time to go only a few miles; the scenery was well worth the time we took.

Stunning Vista on MF Trail

Chimney Rock & Courthouse Mtn.

Semi Dry River Bed

After experiencing several outings to the lush mountains in the southeast quadrant of our exploration area, we turned out sites to the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area managed by the Bureau of Land Management.  This is a region of desert lands that runs from the western edge of the Black Canyon National Park to where the northerly flowing Gunnison River is joined by the North Fork of the Gunnison and makes an abrupt turn to the west.  This is a region that is not easily accessed by auto and most generally requires a four-wheel drive vehicle or a mountain goat.  It is immensely popular with river rafters and mountain bikers.   We were there on a week day and had it virtually to ourselves.

You can see the dramatic difference in the terrain in the six photos below.

 

The North Fork joins the Gunnison

Autumn comes early to the Rockies, so it wasn’t long before we were able to go “leaf peeping.”  Of course, we aren’t the only ones to enjoy the fall colors, so we frequently shared the road with lots of other folks.  Our first outing was to the Grand Mesa, a 10,000+-foot flat-topped mountain that dominates eastern Mesa and northern Delta Counties.  Not only does it have stunning scenery, it boasts a large number of orchards, especially apples and cherries.  Its fall colors are renowned, so we made a point of getting up there early during the week to avoid the crowds that were sure to show up come the weekend.  We weren’t disappointed.

 

The Uncompahgre Plateau dominates the western side of the Uncompahgre River Valley.  It variously has private lands, National Forrest Service lands, and large tracts managed by the Bureau of Land Management.  In addition to several prime hunting areas, or GMUs, it also includes the Dominguez-Escalante Canyon.  We tried to catch fall colors there, too, but were tardy and only saw sparse patches remaining.  We did witness a rather large forest fire on the west side of the Plateau, which turned out to be a controlled (?) burn.

“Leaf peeping” was much better on Last Dollar Road, a four-wheel drive road just off the Dallas Divide.  Last Dollar traverses ranch lands on the western edge of the Mt. Sneffles Range and winds up in Telluride.  There were spectacular patches of aspen trees changing color on this particular drive, but way too many other folks on the road—and this was a week-day.

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the full eclipse of the super moon in September from the ledges of the Black Canyon National Park.  It was difficult to believe that anything could surmount the stunning vistas of the Black Canyon; the moon soon showed us it could compete.

 

Once autumn really set in, we decided it was safe to hike in the desert canyon lands of Dominguez-Escalante.  Even though the hiking was great and the ancient peoples’ petroglyphs were amazing, we misjudged the temperature.  While it was in the low 60s in Delta, the temperature in the Canyon reached 97 ̊--way too hot to enjoy.  We will probably wait until it’s really cold before heading back there again.

One of our last outings took us somewhere we’ve never been before, the San Miguel River Canyon region west of the Plateau.  This road trip goes from Montrose to Ridgeway and then southwest past the Dallas Divide.  Instead of going east to Telluride at the junction near Paradise, one turns right toward the northwest on Hwy 145.  There are several small towns in this area: Norwood, where the Happy Belly Deli serves up a wonderful breakfast burrito and pretty good mocha lattes, too; Naturita and Nucla are further north on the Unaweep/ Tabeguache Scenic Highway as are Uravan and Gateway.  This area sports some of the wildest land in Colorado and has the remnants of old copper and uranium mines from days gone by.  Some intrepid miners even built a hanging aqueduct over the river to carry water to their hydraulic mining site.  Alas, their efforts were unrewarded as the type of placer gold in these western rivers was too small to be recoverable by the method they chose to use.  The San Miguel River runs northwest to eventually join the Dolores River which, interestingly, also flows north until it reaches the Colorado River in Utah.  This entire region is awash with gorgeous red rock canyons

Driggs Mansion 1914-1918

Colorado has some of the most stunning scenery we’ve ever seen and we have traveled a lot in North America and around the world.  Western Colorado seems to have the lion’s share of variety—it ranges from 14,000 foot peaks to low hard-packed desert and slot canyons as well as a wonderful mix of everything in between (sadly, no oceans in the current geologic period).  Although autumn remains in the valleys, winter has begun to get a grip on the high country.  The Mt. Sneffles Range of the San Juan Mountains which uniquely runs east to west is already covered with an early blanket of white powder.  Soon it will be time to break out the snowshoes and cross country skis for wintery recreational pursuits.  We, long ago, gave up downhill skiing because of long lines and outrageous lift ticket prices.

Another joy about Colorado is that you never know what you are going to see when you look out your back door.