Mountain Travels, Part 5. The Road Home and Dinosaur Tracks

The road home was through familiar country, but we always see something new.  This time it was dinosaur tracks frozen in the stone at 9300 feet elevation in the Colorado Mountains.

Kelly’s thoughts…

We arose early to make the long drive south to Montrose and back to Mom’s place and Keith and Lori’s house.  It was a lovely long way through the upper end of the Grey’s River drainage and over the pass.  At the top we stopped at the “Tri-Basin Divide” where three drainages meet, the Colorado River, the Columbia River and the Great Basin.

After this we traveled south through remote areas of southwestern Wyoming and southeastern Idaho into northeastern Utah.  Our route took us across the mountains near Flaming Gorge Reservoir, a beautiful land of incredible geology and elk country.  We drove down out of the high country to Vernal.  Riki and I visited this area about a year ago on one of our first big adventures together.  It was great to be back.

From Vernal we had a long drive through familiar areas (to me) of western Colorado back to Montrose and Mom’s and Keith and Lori’s place.  We had a nice evening with them, and Riki even got to hold a Woodhouse’s toad that was hopping around outside on their porch.

But we wanted to get home.  The next morning we headed south along a very familiar route.  The last couple times we went north to see family, we wanted to do a particular climb near Ouray, but weather kept us from it each time.  So we decided to try again, even though rain was expected later in the day.

What was the hike?  Above Ouray about 2000 feet on a bench is the longest fossil dinosaur trackway in the world, and we really wanted to see it.  The trailhead is right at the edge of town and goes up steep for most of the hike, but especially the first mile.  Along the way we found evidence of old mining claims, tailings, shafts and cabins.  And across the valley, Gold Hill was easily visible with lots of mining activity, but also a couple of modern houses way up on the benches overlooking Ouray.

At about 2 miles the trail opens onto a beautiful bench below a huge cliff, and there in the stone is the trackway.  150 million years ago a sauropod walked through the mud then made a sharp turn, back over its tracks and walked through the mud another way.  At 134 steps covering 318 feet, it’s really cool.  The tracks were known by the family that ran the mine nearby, but it wasn’t until a paleontologist who grew up in Ouray remembered finding the tracks as a kid and went back to investigate and cleared the trackway to describe it.  More information can be found here.

It was a really stiff hike up and there, and it rained pretty hard on us as we came down, but it was a great, small adventure at the end of our trip.  We drove over the mountains and into New Mexico and finally home, after about 11 days of great travel.  It was a great road trip with the woman I love and such an amazing adventuring partner.  I look forward to more adventure with this woman as time goes on!

Riki’s thoughts…

It was hard to say goodbye to the last campsite of our trip, a lovely spot just a short walk away from the Grey’s River. The trees were full of birds, and they must have loved the spot as much as we did, because they were singing its praises just as the sun was coming up. The wonderful, boisterous singing made it impossible to sleep, so we got up and began packing up camp early. That was a good thing, because we had a long drive. The first two hours were on a dirt road going up to the river’s headwaters. When we crested the river valley, it opened up into a beautiful area chock a block full of wildflowers. It was an open meadow ringed by aspens, a worthy stop. And though the first two hours were slow-going, the scenery was beautiful.

We passed the time on the freeways by having great discussions and working crossword puzzles together. Kelly is a treasured travelling companion, such a pleasure to drive with, and with an amazing knack at finding scenic routes. And, at the end of the long day driving, there were caring family members waiting to host us for the night. These particular members were the very same that gave me a place to stay and helped me to find a job when I most needed it. Edith became my very best friend during my time as her neighbor, and Keith and Lori were such amazing support through prayer and friendship, in addition to immeasurable material blessing.

 

After a promise to see the Millers again soon (and a stop at Looney Bean for coffee/chai), we were off to Ouray. The morning was clear as we got to the trailhead. The view across the gold valley gave us many excuses to stop as we steeply gained elevation. We brought binoculars for birds, but they worked for zeroing in on old mining sites. Also, there were some crazy huge houses built on the ridge near the sites. They would be difficult to get to in summer, probably impossible in the winter.

It would have been incredibly easy to bag the hike in the first mile. It was super steep!! But we wanted to be the type of people that would climb up a steep mountain for two miles to see a really cool site. So, we powered through, and it was well worth it. Rango started off in his traditional high-speed zig-zag scramble up the mountain. At mile 1.5, he came up beside me and pretty much fell over, asking for a break in his own unique language. We paused, gave him more water (he had gotten some at mile 1) and poured some water on his head while he lay in shady deep grass. A few moments, and he was right as rain. Elfie looked on, as if to say, “If you would stick to the trail like I do, you wouldn’t be so tired.”

We made it home a day earlier than planned, which gave us an extra day to get unpacked and ready for the visit from my oldest and youngest offspring. It made the end of a wonderful trip a little easier to bear. We love you, Montana. We will be back!!!