Blue Goose ~ Day 156

November 1, 2014 ~ Grand Junction, CO to Vernal, UT

This was a day of driving through the awesome landscape of western Colorado and eastern Utah...through rocks in all imaginable sizes, forms and colors. There were a few small towns but it was mostly the open road through natural beauty.

Heading for Utah from Grand Junction, CO

I stopped for gas station food in Dinosaur, Colorado, and realized the pump area was spotless, rare at gas stations. I only noticed it because I got my cherry tomatoes out to wash and half of them spilled. The bright red dots were the only litter on the clean concrete.

My destination was Ouray NWR, 14 miles off the main route, between Vernal and Roosevelt in Utah. I wish I had more adjectives to describe these places as they almost all have a unique loveliness and a feeling of sanctuary and peacefulness. Ouray had more Sandhill Cranes. I kept trying to make a couple of them into Whooping Cranes but they weren't.

Sandhill Cranes on Ouray NWR - UT

The Green River runs through Ouray, and the auto route was intermittently very near the river. In one place, if I had been driving on my side of the road, on the ragged river edge, I'm certain I would have ended in the river. The current obviously keeps working at the banks, and I was actually surprised the road (at least this small section) was open. The managers usually warn travelers about adverse contingencies or close roads. Perhaps it wasn't as bad as it looked.

The tall trees were nearly bare of leaves which had collected on the dirt road and rustled as I drove over them. The sky was dramatic with clouds and sun. Old silvered trees, the river, sandbars and islands, a few horses, the cranes and geese and ducks, the sun low on the land - elemental restorative nature...

Ouray NWR - UT

I went on to Roosevelt via back roads stopping there at a Best Western because I had points to use but:

1. The girl at the desk said point rooms had to be reserved online.
2. I sat down in the lobby and called Best Western reservations.
3. Reservations told me that this motel had no rooms left for point people (me), and told me that each motel is different; it is up to the individual managers to determine how many rooms are available for points, BBB.
4. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, and the sweet desk girl (this was certainly not her fault) admitted that their occupancy was currently 40%.
5. I left in a huff.

I drove around but couldn't find anything else, didn't want to pay $100 for a marginal room and just did not want to sleep in a tow-away parking lot (city ordinance), so I drove the 28 miles BACK to Vernal and got one of the best rooms (using points) I have had so far with no problem. I read and played Two Dots on my phone. I am up to Level 50 something.

The whole room had little extra comforts; the bathroom had two tiny dinosaurs since the Dinosaur National Monument is near here, created by President Woodrow Wilson in 1915 after a paleontologist (Earl Douglass) "excavated thousands of fossils" for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Wikipedia states that there are also petroglyphs but locations of these are not publicized due to "problems with vandals."  Now I wish I had checked this all out, but didn't. It's one natural attraction that kids would find interesting, although getting there would tax their minuscule patience quotient.