The night at Desert Rose Inn was very relaxing.
Cindy Tumeh, who owns and operates the inn, drove me back to the airport where the Mooney-bird sat waiting.
I followed US-163 back to the San Juan R. with a tip of my hat to the Mexican Hat Rock…
past the crazy terrain of the San Juan…
and the irresistible Goosenecks…
for a fly-by of the Moki Dugway,a road built down the face of an 1100’ butte in the 40s to haul uranium ore from the mine to the mill in Mexican Hat.
Top off the tanks at Cal Black…
then it’s one kiss good bye to Lake Powell…
the UT-95 bridge over the Colorado R….
and over the Dirty Devil R…
and the airstrip at Hite
and I turn NE to intercept the Colorado further along…
sneaking up behind the Needles section of
Canyonlands National Park…
I follow the river to it’s confluence with the Green R.
where Powell and his little flotilla from Wyoming met the Grand R. and started down the Colorado R. of 1869.
I past the East and West Loops…
and the east west running section of river south of Dead Horse State Park…
past Tangri-La
and the emerald finger of Moab
with it’s US-93 bridge.
Past Arches National Park…
with tiny Delicate Arch so hard to find from the air…
to where the river pulls away from 128 and leans eastward toward it’s Rocky Mountain origins.
Past Grand Junction where Mt. Garfield looms over the airport, and on into the high country…
SE past Delta and Montrose to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Curecanti Recreational Area at the Blue Mesa reservoir..
and finally, to Gunnison itself.
The terrain along US-50 rises toward the summit..
over 11,300' Monarch Pass
and down along the Arkansas River to Pueblo
and the end of the Rockies
Lamar, CO is yet an hour distant.
