The second bit of news for me was that on the day i arrived there was a freak blizzard. The whole region was getting pounded by snow and high winds, and the temperature plummeted 30 degrees overnight. Power was out in several of the small towns where i planned on staying.
I decided to stick around in Grand Junction for a day or two, and visit Colorado National Monument, a little park i'd always ignored (pictured at left). This turned out to be a blessing, because not only is the park worth visiting, but i found out when i stopped for my first hike, that the brand new hiking shoes i had purchased for the trip turned out to be two left-foot shoes. I hadn't tried them on since i left the original store.
The good part was that they had the same store in Grand Junction, and i was able to exchange them for a proper pair of shoes the next morning.
The horse preserve. There's a nearby coal mine too.
I had never been on the interstate through south central Utah. It had some nice scenery too. Here the interstate cuts through the San Rafael Swell.
Afterwards i tried visiting a Wildlife Preserve outside Grand Junction with wild horses living in it. I thought if i was lucky enough to see wild horses, they might look pretty cool in the snow. The road though, was made of that super slippery grey clay that makes up the Book Cliffs. The road was very icy, and where it was melted it actually felt more dangerous than the ice. I was only able to get down the road a few miles before i came to a locked gate. Apparently that road becomes impassable in snowy weather.
A view from Boulder Mountain across Capital Reef to the Henry Mountains (the last mountains in the contiguous U.S. to be put on the map. The video features the mountains from a similar distance on the other side.
My 8 days in Utah were cursed by continuing bad weather. High winds and temps in the 20's created frigid wind chills, and large sandstorms. A few days i devoted to sightseeing from the vehicle. I went on a 60 mile dirt road through capital reef, checked out some roads near the Henry Mountains, Dirty Devil River, and White Canyon, saw some interesting ruins, and revisited the Needles District of Canyonlands for two days. The Needles did not fail to impress, once again.
Down a selectively chosen dirt road near Escalante i came across a promising hiking area.
The farther i walked the more the place molded itself into my favorite type of terrain. It was close to sunset though, and i had to get a hotel room, so i decided to come back later.
Two days later i stopped by in the morning. I walked considerably farther, until i got to this place. There was a way down, but by this time i was sick with a cold, and i could tell that i really should enjoy the hike down this canyon later in the spring, or summer, or fall.
Unfortunately i don't have any pictures of most of those activities, because my camera broke on that 60 mile road trip through Capital Reef. The camera bounced off the armrest in the truck and hit the carpeted flooring. It was only a two foot drop at most, but it must have hit at just the right angle, and at the moment that the truck was bouncing back upwards. It would no longer take pictures, and it was the morning of the 4th day of the trip!
The last photo i took before the camera broke. It broke somewhere in view up the road.
Spring Roadtrip 2010 from Adam Elliott on Vimeo.
