Colorado or Bust (and Utah too)

23 May – 5 June 2012
Too much excitement to be included with another web-page!

The big event of Spring 2012 was our trip to Colorado and Utah 23 May – 5 June 2012. We loaded up the Curtis Family Truckster on the day after the girls got out of school headed on I-70 for the Rock Mountain state and the eastern half of the Colorado Plateau.

Although the day started out fairly well, by late afternoon the ride got a bit bumpy. Last Friday Jane missed school with the stomach flu and Cate missed Tuesday (the last day). Well it hit the parents on Wednesday with a vengeance about halfway through Kansas. We spent an hour or so at the rest stop outside Salinas trying to get to a point where we could safely get back in the car. Without getting too graphic, it was fortunate we had brought along a small trash can in case Cate got car sick in the winding mountains roads of Colorado as it proved just as useful on the miles straight flats of Kansas for her mom. The last 120 miles to our hotel (pre-paid with points) was a tough drive of determination to get to Hayes and not throw-up again while driving for Randy (the co-pilot had no such restriction). We collapsed inside the room letting the girls eat whatever car snacks we had for dinner. We made it though.

Observation from the Open Road: The lack of a local community or government at the Interstate exits no longer leads to pecan logs but rather to fireworks and adult stores.

I-70 West Rest Stop near Salinas, Kansas

2012_05_23 I70 West Rest Stop near Salinas KS.jpg

Flu lingered for Bethany but fortunately all we had to do is drive. Everyone was able to stomach the drive up the recommended route up Thompson Canyon along Colorado Highway 34 (which upon reflection was the scenic but not quickest route up). When we got to Estes Park Bethany crashed in bed at a nicer than expected Best Western. We did a quick recy of the town and got within 30 feet of 6 elk feeding on the lawn of another hotel. It turned out to be one of many elk sightings.

Cate & Jane Road Warriors

(when a movie is playing anyway)

Estes Park & Rocky Mountain National Park

By Day 3, our trip was back on course (mostly) and we all ate a real breakfast, lunch and dinner. We saw lots of wildlife: elk, big horn owl, coyote, marmot and so many elk; we became desensitized to only seeing a couple in the distance.

Bethany handles Ranger Drew's antlers	Elk crossing

On Day 4, the family made a short hike around Bear Lake, followed by another by Sprague Lake (our favorite view in Rocky Mountain National Park). A drive up Trail Ridge Road to the point it was closed turned into a several hour drive as it had been opened after we entered the park and we were driving with the intent of going until we hit the closure and turning around at that point. We got to the Alpine Visitors Center which was still surrounded by 8 foot drifts of snow. We arrived within an hour after the Visitor Center and the adjacent gift shop opened for the first time that year. It was packed and the staff was rusty or green. We got the girls the National Park Passport books so they could log their travels the rest of the trip. The trip down was made all the more exciting as the low fuel light went on just after leaving the center. We (actually just Randy) figured our Ľ tank of gas would be enough but it was a bigger thrill / added anxiety on the way back. Bethany glided most of the way down so we were fine.

Cate Bethany and Jane at Bear Lake	The Curti at BearLake Note: the resemblance to the Colorado Quarter vista

Jane and Cate enjoy the snow at Bear Lake	Cate of the Rockies

Jane and Cate at Sprague Lake	Randy and Bethany on Trail Ridge Road

Cate, Randy and Jane at Trail Ridge Road	Jane and Cate at Alpine Visitor Center

Jane and Cate get their first Jr Ranger test from Ranger Drew

2012_05_26 RMNP9 JC Jr ranger test with Drew.jpg

Colorado National Monument

We headed south on the eastern edge of RMNP, stopping in at the Beau Jo’s Pizza in Idaho Springs. Bethany and the girls were quite pleased with the thick rolled crust, with Jane proclaiming it the best ever, though she is prone to hyperbole. For an Interstate, the drive through the Rockies along I-70 is truly fantastic but we were most taken with the 12.5 miles in Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado River. It is a destination within itself.

Panaramic view

Colorado National Monument lies just outside Grand Junction, where stayed for the next three days. It’s beautiful canyons and stunning vistas along the rim road were inspiring. As promised, it didn’t take long for the sheer drop off from the rim of the overlooks to unnerve Bethany and Jane. The family overcame their fear and settled down to appreciate the stunning vistas.

The Curti at the park entrance sign

Cate and Bethany at Independance Rock	Jane and Randy at Independance Rock

Randy and Bethany	Curti near the edge safely along the railing

Dinosaur National Park

Our destination for Day 6 was Dinosaur National Park. We took the rather isolated Colorado Highway 139 which boasts several Open Range sections. As touristswith little agenda, we enjoyed being stopped for a cattle drive along the highway which had us stopped for about 15 minutes as two cowgirls drove the few dozen head pass us to greener pastures.

Mooo-ving along the Open Range	The Curti at the park entrance sign

Dinosaur NM is a huge park that includes the breathtaking canyons associated with the Yampa and Green Rivers and their confluence, but the reason most people go is the Quarry site where in 1909, a paleontologist from the Carnegie Museum found eight tailbones protruding from the sandstone. That turned out to be part of the most complete Apatosaurus skeleton ever discovered and the first of a cornucopia of dinosaur bones found at this location. After it was protected under the National Park system, the paleontologist, Earl Douglass, suggested "I hope that the Government, for the benefit of science and the people, will uncover a large area, leave the bones and skeletons in relief and house them in. It would make one of the most astounding and instructive sights imaginable." The result was the Dinosaur Quarry Visitor’s Building which is the Mecca for Dinosaur nerds the world over. The family all appreciated it even though only one teeters on Jurassic nerd-do.

The Quarry Building was closed in 2006 for structural failures and thankfully rebuilt and reopened last fall before we arrived as there would have been great disappointment after three hours traveling to get there. This cruel twist occurred to all too many visitors for the 5+ years of the closure, which inspired the park to develop a discovery walk to view bones in place at an outcrop of the Morrison Formation about a thousand feet away from the quarry. This turned out to be as cool as the quarry for the kids (that includes Randy).

Jane is excited by a Stegesaurus	Bethany, Cate and Jane at the quarry wa;;

Cate with an Aapatosaurus tail bone	Jane with Apatosaurus femur

Arches National Park

On Day 7, we traveled to Arches NP via the longer yet scenic Utah Highway 128 off I-70. The Curtis women all expressed doubt about the wisdom of following another Open Range route to a National Park, but became believers as the highway began following the Colorado River and offering stunning canyon views and vistas only slightly below those further upstream along Glenwood Canyon on I-70. Rafting this part of the Colorado (or the Green River from Dinosaur down) remains on Randy’s personnel “Bucket List”. At Arches, we only had time to skim the sights. With its placement on the Utah license plates a few years back, Delicate Arch has become iconic, we decided to view that one, though we took only the “Easy” and “Moderate” hike to get there which left us still a couple thousand feet away and underwhelmed. We were far more pleased with our visits to the North, South and Turret Arches which brought us right up to them. Cate and Jane loved climbing up as high as they could. Temperatures in the 90s were quite the change from the cold hike around Bear Lake a few days earlier.

WPA "See America" poster of Double Arch