June 26, 2012

June 26, 2012

We would love to stay and do some more hiking in Canyonlands National Park and all the other great parks in southern Utah. Just not right now. It is too hot for strenuous outdoor activity. We need altitude to tame the heat. Colorado has mountains and is right next door. So we leave Moab headed north towards I-70. A few miles south of the interstate we make a short detour down a two-mile long dirt and rock road to a BLM Dinosaur Trackway site. About 500 feet up a rock hill are the first dinosaur tracks found in Utah. There are two sets of footprints. One is the elephant-like prints of a large plant-eating sauropod (think Brontosaurus). Parallel to it are the three-toed bird-like claw prints of its therapod predator, an Allosaurus, ancestor of the T-Rex. The tracks are interesting but they are very weathered. We have seen more distinct prints in other areas.

Back on the road, we hit I-70 and take it east into Colorado. I am disappointed. Colorado seems to just be a continuation of the cliffs and canyons of Utah. Where are those tall mountains I have read about? We meet up with the Colorado River, which is now just a large stream and follow it up river. It is still flowing inside a tall canyon. Looking at the map, I see some campgrounds clustered in Grand Mesa not far off the highway. We exit and drive uphill. Grand Mesa must be the transition from the desert mesas of Utah to Colorado’s mountains. Though flat like a mesa, it is high enough to have a pine forest on top. It bills itself as the largest flattop mountain in the world. We pass the ski resort of Powderhorn and at 10,000-foot elevation we pull into the first of several US forest service campgrounds in the area. It is wonderful. Our campsite is refreshingly cool, pine-forested, and a stones throw from a small lake.