June 4, 2016

June 4, 2016

La Junta, CO is our last stop on the Santa Fe Trail as we have already followed the section continuing on to Missouri.  We signed up for an all-day driving tour on the Comanche National Grassland south of here.   Since the roads are unpaved, a four-wheel drive vehicle is required. Fortunately I now have one and I am itching to try it out on a real outback road. Specifically we are going to explore Picketwire Canyon.  The name comes from the Purgatoire River that flows within it. When Americans settled here, they “heard” Picketwire when the French fur trappers said Purgatoire. Having no ear for foreign languages, it makes perfect sense to me.

We met up with our guide at the Grassland office and Aimee was again shocked to find a dozen other cars containing 28 tourists waiting to join us.  She always thinks I am the only nut that visits these places. LOL!  Our extended caravan heads fifteen miles south and then turns off onto an unpaved road which we take for another seventeen miles.  After our guide unlocks a gate we descend down into Picketwire Canyon.  This near-desert region had rain earlier in the week so there are dozens of sections where the road is a mud pit.  Uh-Oh, I am not sure we can do this. Our SUV doesn't have real 4-wheel drive, only AWD.  I hope that is good enough.  I plow ahead, trying to stick to the drier side…..and we make it through!  We can do this!  Our Subaru Outback takes it like a Jeep.

Our tour has several stops including an Indian Petroglyph site, a Spanish Mission and cemetery, and finally an early American homestead ranch.  But the star attraction, and why we signed up, is Dinosaur Tracks, the largest collection in North America.  1300 footprints line both sides of the Purgatoire River. Most of the large round Sauropod footprints are in parallel lines indicating that these herbivores traveled in herds like their modern mammalian cousins.  Interestingly some are shallow and distinct like they were made in wet sand. Others are deeper and irregular looking like they were closer to the shoreline in thick mud. The tracks I like best are those of the 3-toed Theropod carnivores stalking their prey.  Unfortunately, those are fewer in number.

After checking out one side, Aimee and I clutched each other and carefully waded to the other side of the swift river.  A quick glance made me realize we got very lucky on this trip.  The rain earlier was long enough ago to dry out making the roads passable but recent enough to still fill the tracks.  That makes these Jurassic-era footprints easier to see and photograph.

After getting our fill of dino tracks our caravan returned to La Junta, where I realized we picked up an unwanted souvenir.  Our SUV is caked with dirt.  Since it is still brand new, we head directly to the local self-serve car wash.  This mud is like concrete and it takes a full ten minutes of high pressure water to remove most of the dirt.  There are still sections underneath I can’t reach.  I am hoping the rest will bounce off on the highway tomorrow.  Aimee is not happy.