Thursday – 27 June, 2013 – Denver, Co
Today was a driving day. We departed Moab, Utah around 8:40 am and we are headed to Denver, Co. We took a very scenic (but not so rapid) route up Utah 128 which follows the Colorado river. This road is a National Scenic Byway and for good reason. It is a 45 mile stretch of road and takes you back up to I-70 heading east by northeast. For the first 30 miles you are surrounded by sheer canyon cliffs on either side with the Colorado river to your left. The last 15 miles takes you north of the river through the small “town” (nothing but abandoned buildings) of Cisco, where we picked up I-70 once again.
In a short while we made our way over the Colorado state line and through the city of Grand Junction. There was a high pressure system over all of Nevada, Utah and Colorado which contributed to extremely high temperatures. The thermometer hovered around 100 degrees.
In the small town of Fruita, Co we saw a sign for a Dinosaur Museum and we decided to stop and check it out. This very nice museum was very well done occupying a large modern building. It is a non-profit private museum dedicated to the discovery and preservation of fossils. They do receive funding from the County. The layout of the museum was very smart, the entry way was split with part being dedicated to an entry to the gift shop that all could enter. The other part of the entry was the counter for admission ticket sales. That same counter wrapped into the gift area so that the staff at that location could service both museum patrons and shoppers in the gift shop. The entry way also gave way to a large 20’ x 40’ multi-purpose room where they showed an introductory video about dinosaurs that was produced by the Discovery Channel. The actual museum was very well done with displays catering to both adults and children. There were several animated displays with models of dinosaurs. There were Q&A plaques throughout the museum as well and several other hands on activities for kids, but not to the detriment of adult museum goers who wanted to be educated and informed. After spending about an hour there we decided to eat lunch in the RV in the parking lot.
After that, we were back on the road in what seemed like a continuous uphill climb. The higher we got the more the terrain changed. Eventually, we made our way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. A little ways past Glenwood Springs near mile marker 121, we stopped at a rest area that was simply beautiful. In spite of the fact that the rest area actually sat below the freeway, it was quiet and peaceful there. While we were there, we noticed that there was a dedicated bike lane that runs adjacent to I-70 and near the river. This went on for miles and miles. While we were at the rest area we got to see river rafters making there way down the Colorado. Although calm near where we took the pictures, there were some pretty rough, white-water rapids just up-river from there.
The going was slow up the Rocky Mountains. During some stretches we would be in the slow lane with the tractor trailers crawling up the hill at 35 – 40 mph. Eventually, we made it to the summit at 11,100 feet. Then we had the terror or making our way down the mountain making sure that we didn’t over heat the brakes. Eventually, we did make it to our campground here in Golden, Co just outside of Denver.
For dinner we barbecued some chicken and accompanied it with rice, peas and salad. We capped it off with some excellent pistachio gelato.
Tomorrow we are off to see the Denver Museum of Miniatures and Dolls.
The Director of the museum was kind enough to agree to meet us and give us a personal tour of the museum.
So more later
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