January 2012

Grand Junction and Art on the Corner.

January 15, 2012

As we had a few days before our next reservation – Arches National Park, – we decided to stop in an area we had only passed through before, Grand Junction, Colorado.  While we were there, we took a stroll down Main Street and discovered Grand Junction’s “Art on the Corner.”

While at Grand Junction, we also visited Colorado National Monument and The Museum of Western Colorado.

The name “Grand” is derived from the Grand River, the name for the upper Colorado River before it was renamed in 1921.  “Junction” is from the joining of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers, just southwest of the downtown area.

Selected Information Resources:

Grand Junction.

Museum of Western Colorado

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High Mountains to High Desert.

January 13, 2012

Leaving Rocky Mountain National Park on September 16, 2011, our next destination was several thousand feet lower and on the western side of the state – Grand Junction, Colorado.

St. Catherine of Siena Chapel at St. Milo Retreat, Allenspark, Colorado; Chapel on the RockAbout nine miles south of Estes Park on Colorado 7, we stopped to take pictures of the Chapel on the Rock – officially St. Catherine of Siena Chapel – on the grounds of Saint Milo Retreat Center.   The chapel  is built on an large piece of granite that the Colorado highway department once planned to dynamite to widen and straighten the adjacent highway.  Dedicated in 1936, the chapel was built from local stone hauled in by mule carts.

In November, 2011, a fire heavily damaged portions of the St. Milo Retreat Center.  The chapel, several hundred feet away was not damaged.

2011_trip_map_5th_leg

Our drive for the day was about 300 miles.  The first part was on mountain 2-lane highways down to Interstate 70.  Traffic was quite light, certainly less than it would have been if we had gone through Boulder and along the foothills of the Front Range as we did in 2009.

I70 meanders up, down, around and through the Colorado mountains between Denver and and Grand Junction.  Our little motorhome did pretty good duty traveling over this road once again, though the CRV it was towing was 6 model years newer than the last time.

“The Eisenhower Tunnel, with a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet (3,401 m) and length of 1.7 miles (2.7 km), is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point along the Interstate Highway System.” (Wikipedia.)

We stopped in Vail for lunch and a stretch break.  Often, when there isn’t a rest area handy, we’ll take a break after an hour or two of driving by stopping at a “big box” store.  Most of them are large enough that we can loosen up by taking a couple of laps walking around inside the store.  In Vail, we stopped at WalMart and, once we were loosened up, went back out to the camper and had lunch in our camper.

Navion IQ, Honda CRV in Glenwood Canyon Colorado.Our next stop was a  rest area in Glenwood Canyon, a rugged and scenic canyon on the Colorado River. This area is one of the most scenic natural features along the U.S. Interstate highway System.  Foot access is available for hiking a four rest areas in the canyon.  The highway through the canyon was one of the final pieces of the system to open to traffic and was one of the most expensive per mile constructed in the United States.  In its 12.5 mile length, there are three tunnels, 40 bridges and viaducts, and miles of retaining walls.  “Through a significant portion of the canyon, the eastbound lanes extend cantilevered over the Colorado River and the westbound lanes are suspended on a viaduct several feet above the canyon floor.” (Wikipedia)

The trip along I 70 was a gradual transition from high mountain forests and tundra west of Denver to the high desert of western Colorado and Utah.

We would be camping in the Grand Junction, 4,593 ft (1,397 m), area for the next 4 nights and would be in desert country for a good portion of the rest of the trip.

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Elk Viewing Season in Moraine Park.

January 11, 2012

2011 09 12 440for blogWe visited Rocky Mountain National Park in September, largely because it’s the prime period for viewing North American elk (wapiti) in the park.

In late summer and early autumn, elk descend from the high country to mountain valley meadows for the annual mating season.  Bull elk compete with each other for the right to breed with a herd of females.  Although the competition is high, it’s mostly posturing for the females as actual fighting results in injury and depletes energy.

One of the best – and most popular –  areas for viewing the elk is Moraine Park.  The word “park” used in place names in the Colorado Rockies often refers to a valley or meadow.  In this instance, Moraine Park is a long, glacier formed valley, with broad meadows at the lower end.

2011 09 12 421 image for blogA moraine is a accumulation of boulders, stones and other debris deposited by a glacier.  Aptly named Moraine Park is bounded by moraines on three sides.  On the north and south, the valley is enclosed by lateral moraines, formed when the glacier deposited debris along its side.  Debris at the east end of the valley formed a terminal moraine against a small mountain.

A two lane paved road to the Fern Lake trailhead runs along the south side of the Moraine Park meadow.  In the cool evenings of the elk mating season, portions of the road are often jammed with cars and pedestrians watching the elk – what we like to call a “critter jam.”

While we were down along Fern Lake Road several evenings to view the elk, we didn’t take our car.  We could have taken the hiker shuttle bus, but didn’t do that either.  Instead, we walked.

Moraine Park campground is situated on the northern lateral moraine and there is a trail that goes down the hill to the meadow.  When we visited in 2009, our campsite was right next to the trail, but, this year, that site was, unfortunately, reserved, so we had to settle for a site a little further away.

Selected Information Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park
Estes Park
Grand Lake

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