Moab to Denver

Moving on to State five, Colorado. I could have taken IS 70 direct from Moab to Denver. A scenic route was suggested to me. What is not clear from the map is that the stretch from Paradox to Naturita is 10 miles of dirt road. Covered with snow and ice. Winding around a mountain side. No question it was beautiful. It followed a river the whole way and was surrounded by red rock cliffs also accented with snow. In the end, it was not a problem, and Lucy II handled it beautifully. I was grateful, yet again, for my 4-wheel drive. It was more a matter of not knowing what was around the bend. I posted a short video to give you an idea. 

SH 90 did not boast a “welcome to Colorado” sign, so, yet again, I had to filch one from the Interwebs. The rest of the route was also beautiful. And remote. I was grateful also for my Garmin direct to satellite GPS. It has already been useful several times on this trip.

SH 50 was also an adventure as it was coming out of the mountains and covered in ice and snow. A line of cars snaked down very slowly. I thought once I got back on IS 70 things would get easier. Except that the sun had set by that time and something that wasn’t quite fog made for almost white-out conditions. It was actually the most harrowing part of the trip. And completely unpredictable. All told it was about a 10 hour trip, which is a bit too long. I’m going to try to limit those longer drives in the future. Although I already know that may not be possible in Texas. At least the longer days will help ensure that I don’t have to do the last hour in the dark.

I’ll be spending the next two days in Denver, most meeting with friends. We have some fun outings planned.  I’m still looking at the ass end of freezing, probably for another couple of weeks at least.