September '09 Newsletter - Trip #3

Travels in Utah & Colorado (8/15/09-8/21/09):

After everyone else left for home we retreated to Green River State Park to shower, catch up on news and take a break. To avoid a mildewed mess, we dried out the ropes and other river gear on the long campsite driveway. We didn't want to send Mike back to BCC with anything wet since it wouldn't be unloaded for several weeks. It all dried rapidly and by evening we were packed up and ready to continue with our adventure. Our top priority was replacing our blown tire. Susan hadn't been to Colorado National Monument and she wanted to visit a dinosaur museum in Fruita. The higher elevation of Grand Junction and the promise of cooler temperatures, sealed the deal.

Fortunately for us the Grand Junction SAM's Club wasn't selling many tires when we arrived. According to the tire department, the bad economy has locals driving on bald ones. Our business was welcome and they had the tire on the truck and the spare in place in well under an hour. A bit of shopping and we were off to drive the spectacular road up to Colorado National Monument. With all of the great scenery along the way, it was pretty slow. We reached the campground that overlooks Grand Junction in time to set up camp and eat before dark when the light show would begin. With myriad stars overhead and a seemingly equal number of Fruita and Grand Junction lights below, it was quite a spectacle.

The next day we perused the NPS visitor center before working our way down to Fruita and a less primitive James M. Robb state campground. Close to I-70, it was a bit noisy at night but its shade and showers were redeeming features. Temperatures in the shade were quite comfortable but sitting in the direct sunlight was too much like home. From here, we toured Fruita's Dinosaur Journey, which though interesting was not the best we had seen. Pretty lazy by that time we picked up a paper and returned to our shady campsite.

Before we left Colorado we wanted to visit the Riggs dig site at Dinosaur Hill, a couple of miles from our camp. We took the one-mile loop hike and of course didn't discover a single new dinosaur species. We did however get a good look at the quarry where they excavated the super large Apatosaurus skeleton in 1900 that was shipped to the Chicago Museum of Natural History. The bones in his tail were exposed in situ and they had to tunnel in for the rest of him or her. Apparently a few bones were missing and the museum exhibit has been enhanced with replacements from other western dig sites in the Morrison formation. We now recognize this formation and will be watching for evidence of big beasties.

Having exhausted the possibilities, we left for Moab, taking the scenic Cisco river road. The only thing left of the old Dewey Bridge is suspension cables and dangling roadway support cables. We stopped there for lunch under a couple of giant cottonwoods and then explored all of the campsites along the river to within a couple of miles of Moab. The best we found was at Hittle Bottom but it was too early in the day so we checked out the Fisher Tower road and numerous other side roads along the way, eventually ending up in a redeveloped campsite at Negro Bill Canyon.

Tamarisk groves are dying all over northern Utah. One of their land management units discovered a beetle whose larva love to eat the leaves. Within 3 to 5 years, the tamarisk get so stressed from lack of photosynthesis, they die off. Much of upper Green and Colorado drainages are now banked with dead trees waiting for a lightning or man-caused fire to burn them out. Evidence of these burns can be found in many places along the river. Given enough time the banks will be taken over by Cottonwoods and Willows but it's looking pretty ugly right now. We would be delighted if they could find a beetle for the Russian Olive and Thistle (aka tumbleweed).

Back in Moab, we visited Tex's Riverways to schedule our pickup and then went to City Market to place our houseboat trip meat order. With a couple of days in hand we left for the higher elevations of the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. The 12 site primitive campground was delightfully cool and quiet. We played tourist and went to many of the overlooks with views of the White Rim trail and took the mile long walk out to Grandview Point. The next morning we examined the remodeled visitor center and committed ourselves to descending the infamous Shafer Trail. Our 6-speed Toyota Tundra had high enough clearance and a low enough granny gear to brave this rugged 4-wheel drive only road. We wouldn't like to try it in a rain storm.

There are a couple of nice camps along the paved Potash road so we stayed at a cottonwood-covered one. This turned out to be a good choice because there were walls of petroglyphs to visit within walking distance and just a bit further were climbing walls used by scores of people from Moab in late afternoon when the routes go into the shade. All was well until a bickering couple turned up around 11:00 PM and camped next to us. In late and out early, they were likely trying to avoid paying the $8 BLM camping fee.

We camped at Canyonlands Campground in Moab the next night and immediately took advantage of the showers and laundry. Later we emptied the truck and Bob ran over to Tex's to pick up our rocket boxes of non-perishables. That afternoon Susan repacked the Deso-Gray condiments, dinner, and cleaning supply boxes. A quick dip in the pool, followed by a nutritious dinner of strawberry shakes topped of our day.

Up early, we parked under the huge shade trees by City Market and packed the coolers in stages. Susan first purchased the frozen items and we packed and sealed a freezer. She next purchased the items that needed to be refrigerated and we packed the 170 Qt cooler as a refrigerator. Lastly she bought the non-refrigerated perishables like bread, eggs, onions, fruit, etc. and packed these in cardboard boxes. This took most of the morning and we reached Tex's about noon to pick up our three sea kayaks. Loaded up, we headed for Bullfrog Marina.

Participants: Susan & Bob Marley

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