Blue Goose ~ Day 160

November 5 ~ Fallon, NV to Susanville, CA

I was up early and headed to Stillwater NWR, driving carefully into a blinding sun and slowing for school buses. At a small pullout, I almost got stuck in mud - briefly - but powered back to the main road with mud gobs flying about. I feel I lumber about in this Dodge van with its low clearance and lack of 4WD. I miss the Subaru....

Stillwater reminded me of Alamosa NWR. Both are mostly flat, sagebrush refuges with mountains on the horizons, but Stillwater offered up a life bird: the Sagebrush Sparrow! A recent decision by the AOU (American Ornithologists' Union) resulted in splitting the formerly named Sage Sparrow into two distinct species: Bell's and Sagebrush Sparrows. This happens in the birding world.

Stillwater NWR - NV

With patience, I saw more birds than was first evident, including the visually delightful California Quail with its little curved topknot feathers. The water that helps make this a refuge comes out of the Sierra Nevadas to the east and there were also marshes with the usual waterfowl including Black-crowned Night-herons.

On the way to the refuge, I passed another utility pole-sitting Ferruginous Hawk, looking like a Snowy Owl with a hawk's head, and unperturbed by my presence when I stopped for a better look. A Red-tailed would have flown.

It was a nice morning in the sagebrush under blue skies...very quiet with only one other truck which I saw on the way out.

I wanted to go to Big and Little Soda Lakes just west of Fallon but the directions advised a high-clearance vehicle...so that didn't happen.

After a two-hour Starbucks stop in Fernley, NV, I drove through the busy traffic of Reno / Sparks while exiting onto US395 north in California. I was in the northwest corner of basin and range country, about which John McPhee wrote. I passed large, dried-up lake beds to the east, and a shoe tree, which always begs me to take a photo or two.

Along US395 in northern California

The Sierra Nevada mountains begin to give way to the more northern Cascades near here. The shorter days are made even more so as these mountains throw shadows a hour before sunset and, with the loss of light, comes the cold. I constantly check weather apps for temperatures a couple of days in advance. I am pushing it being this far north in November, but then weather is capricious and there have been significant snow storms in the southeastern states. So far, I have dodged bad weather.

I had so-so food at the Mazatlan Grill in Susanville....Most of the Mexican restaurants offer pretty much the same menu with mild variations in taste. Juanitos Mexican Kitchen in Alamosa was the best so far.

Blue Goose ~ Day 159

November 4, 2014 ~ Wells, NV to Fallon, NV

I was wide awake by 4 a.m. and COLD. Thank God I had the option of an open truck stop, as there was no hope for more sleep, and settled into a booth in the attached McDonalds with coffee and computer and a breakfast burrito. Finally, the sky began to lighten in the east, followed briefly by an expansive gold and rosy sky and then the sun. These places are busy this time which helps me from feeling too forlorn...and, in fact, it's rather social. Most people are ready to start their day, are cheerful, are in from the cold and dark for awhile....getting morning coffee,  the locals ready for catching up on things, the clerks friendly...

All day I drove through Nevada, much of the time with nearly continuous snow-dusted mountains to the north and south. They are not visibly craggy like the Rockies but are impressive and probably not the landscape that comes to mind when most people think of Nevada.

Along I80 in Nevada

It was sunny (again) and traffic moved at 75 mph with many long-haul semis, some with double or even triple trailers. Up and down long swells of land, gentle curves, 10-mile straightaways - easy and tedious at the same time...tedious because of the monotony of the actual road and the need to keep driving fast and not just pull off on a shoulder or side road or look too long at anything out the side windows. Still, the interstates are very efficient in moving vehicles across the country and occasionally the only sane option.

What I did not see was water. The occasional creek or coulee was dry as were the ditches when present. This land does have some ranches as I would see road signs for such off to either side of the main route, but they must be closer to the foothills where enough water from the mountains make possible the cultivation of grasses for grazing cattle, and they probably free-range in the high meadows in the temperate seasons. Or so I speculated.

Finally I turned southwest for a 35-mile drive on a perfectly straight two-lane to Fallon where I stayed for the night.

Blue Goose ~ Day 158

November 3, 2014 ~ Ogden, UT to Wells, NV

My first stop was the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, an hour north of Ogden with the entrance a mile of I15. I had been here earlier in the fall a few years ago when migrating birds were abundant, and most of those species now have left, but it was still a great day driving in the sunshine through the marshes. The bird of the day was the American Coot, numbering in the thousands. But I also saw many American Pipits on the road, Eared, Western and Pied-billed Grebes, Northern Harriers (the low-flying hawk), a few duck species, including Ruddies....swallows, an occasional gull.

Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge - UT

The auto route is 12 miles through the Bear River delta area. The river, which comes out of the mountains to the east, eventually flows into the northern end of the Great Salt Lake.

The gentleman at the VC was welcoming, friendly and talkative and showed me dozens of photographs he had taken, both at his home and on the refuge. There is always a short movie ready for viewing, which I never watch. The volunteers always want me too, but I manage to sidle out. Bless these people who meet travelers from all over but also spend much of their time just sitting at the desk. No wonder they jump at the chance to engage with visitors.

The refuge educational / visitor centers are mini museums with interactive exhibits, often focusing on the regional specialties or the reasons for a particular refuge - to protect habitat for threatened or endangered species and to provide a haven and rest stop for migrating birds. Their nests, eggs, songs, feathers and habitats are featured, along with the other resident fauna. If there is a gift shop, it always has a generous selection of natural and regional history books and field guides, along with shirts, cards, prints, photos, puzzles, jewelry and nature-related kid stuff.  Never too much cheap tacky junk....

American Pipit at Bear River - UT

I had intended to go to Antelope Island nearer Salt Lake City but decided not to and headed instead for Elko, Nevada, by going north, west and then southwest on a lonely straight two-lane for 100 miles. Elko was four hours away but I had time before it got too dark. However, due to misreading the sunset time on my weather app by two hours (with the sun actually setting at 1630! rather than 6:30), the fact that I was going from Central to Mountain to Pacific time and that my van clock was off by an hour, I miscalculated, which I realized in the middle of nowhere so was committed to continuing. It's disconcerting to have the sun set at this time and realize there are six more weeks of decreasing daylight.

I turned off I84 onto route 30 and immediately counted eight buteos (large hawks) on telephone poles. The only one I slowed down for was a Ferruginous. Then the poles disappeared. For 100 miles, fewer than 25 vehicles passed me going north before I picked up I80 in Nevada. 

There were gravel roads leading to far-off ranches, and I went through a couple of tiny towns, listening to the raucous Rolling Stones and driving through the subtle beauty of sagebrush and distant mountains and changing light as the sun moved lower in the sky. I saw one rabbit scurry / hop across the road.

Route 30 in Utah, heading southwest

Once on I80, I figured I could still get to Elko until two miles from the town of Wells all the westbound traffic came to a complete stop for at least 30 minutes. We finally got moving again and passed a smashed semi in the median, but I never did find out what had happened. I decided to spend the night in Wells in a Love's (chain gas station / truck stop) lot. I ate at Bella's, busy and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner all day. Fortunately, there was also a McDonalds 200 feet away from my van as it was 19 degrees when the cold woke me up at 3:30. I fidgeted about trying to get warm for an hour before giving up and going inside, along with the other folks who, for various reasons, were up early on this cold Nevada morning.

Bear River Refuge - UT

Blue Goose ~ Day 157

November 2, 2014 ~ Vernal, UT to Ogden, UT

It was a cold Sunday morning and I didn't hurry out of town. Because this was an extraordinary Best Western, the breakfast was also delicious with variety and no plastic. The girl at the desk told me the attached gift shop was soon to be an expanded lobby and a pizzeria with a chef "from New York," which is a great idea. Who wants to stop for the night and then have to seek out a place to eat?...not me, for sure.  The unexpected positive experiences on trips balance the bad (...no room in the inn for you....sorry ma'am).

On the way to Ogden, Utah

The drive to Ogden continued to be impressive and dramatic on a large scale with unsettled weather - some spitting rain, sunshine, clouds and dropping temperatures, which meant that there was a possibility of snow at the higher elevations as I approached Ogden. All the mountains around me had snow down to a certain level, but other than a few flurries, I was fine. I have no idea how this Dodge handles on ice and snow and just want to avoid having to find that out. I am pushing my goal of traveling where it is "50 degrees by noon." The nights have been below freezing, but then, I've been between 5,000 and 10,000 feet for several days.

I decided to work and found a hotel in downtown Ogden on Priceline. It was one of those old historic pricey hotels but with very few customers on this Sunday night, so the darling girl at the desk gave me a corner suite on the 6th floor. Nice.... and I had a delicious curried chicken salad for dinner downstairs.

Ogden from the Ben Lomond hotel

There was a moment of consternation when the waiter / bartender didn't want to let a coffee cup out of his presence so I could finish it in my room. "We only have a limited number of these," he said. This was after I had to get another credit card from upstairs as they didn't take the one I had, and couldn't/wouldn't put it on my room. ("We're separate from the hotel.....") But this is the small stuff....

On the road today, I drove on by the turn off for the Golden Spike National Historic site, where tracks for the first transcontinental railroad from the east met and joined those from the west. Another missed attraction.....

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.

Blue Goose ~ Day 155

October 31, 2014 ~ Durango, CO to Grand Junction, CO

I woke up (as usual the past few weeks) in the cold and dark and first found my way downtown to an open McDonalds and then to the Steaming Bean a few block away. I struggled with the parking meter for 10 minutes trying to use a credit card but finally got some quarters from the barista.

There was the usual table of older men carrying on in McDonalds, gregarious, good-humored, catching up on their respective 24 hours since yesterday morning.  In the Steaming Bean, one of the staff and a few customers wore Halloween costumes. I had exceptional coffee and a veggie curry sandwich that was also delicious so was content and ready to hit the road by mid morning.

 Leafless aspens - US 550 north of Durango - CO

It started out fine. I was to drive north on US 550 through Silverton and Ouray, eventually coming to Grand Junction. Sunshine, blue skies, mountains everywhere, a million trees with yellow to bright orange leaves, which were dazzling in the morning sun. It was cool but not cold and there wasn't much traffic.

And then I came to a warning sign, but I reasoned, this is a major road and nowadays, how bad can it be? All these mountain passes now have guardrails. Later I learned that USA Today considered this one of "The World's Most Dangerous Roads."

US 550 north of Durango - CO

Here is a recent blog post I found on the Internet:

In planning our trip to southwestern Colorado - I had several people tell me how beautiful and spectacular the views from the Million Dollar Highway are. They are correct - the views are magnificent!  

However, I'm just wondering why no one ever told me that in order to enjoy the views - you are taking your life in your own hands! Winding, twisting, turning, narrow, steep roads - with miles and miles of no guard rails. I might even be able to live without the guard rails - but what got me was the huge sections of road - with NO SHOULDER! Literally the asphalt ends where the white line is - and after the asphalt/ white line there is a cliff straight down hundreds or thousands of feet. And of course, there were a few chunks of the highway where even the white line was missing (had fallen away to the abyss below). Basically, this road allows ZERO room for error! Very scary! 

This road is certainly for the adrenaline junkie - and adrenaline you will get - whether from the fright of the road or the awe-inspiring views. 

It was an amazing couple of hours. I did wish I had a stick shift rather than an automatic though.

US 550 between Durango and Montrose - CO

And of course I crept along. At the most treacherous mile, I was on the inside but smack next to steep vertical cliffs with the potential for rocks and boulders or half the mountain to fall on the car, but that was better than the other lane which was a sheer drop-off with no guard rails or shoulder. What I could not imagine is driving this road in the winter as it is plowed and kept open. And who would want the plowing jobs!!!! I went over three passes; the highest and trickiest was Red Mountain at over 11,000 feet.

All part of the grand adventure....

I stopped at one point and saw Gray Jays. The views, even with overcast skies, were spectacular. I do doubt this road is one of the world's most "dangerous," though, and it doesn't have a horrendous death record, probably due to very slow and careful driving. I now wish I had taken more photos as there were plenty of pull-offs, but I just wanted this to be OVER!

Unfortunately, the aspens were bare and ghostly grey now, but I could imagine how their incredible yellows brightened the mountainsides only a few weeks earlier.

And then, north of Ouray, the most rugged of the Rockies were in the rear-view and I had arrived in the canyon country of Colorado and Utah.

Along US 550 - CO

I stayed in Grand Junction and worked this Halloween night but got candy at the front desk where a spooky witch was singing and swaying in the corner, eyes bright orange.

Silverton and Ouray were pleasant little tourist towns with the usual commercial establishments and people walking up and down the sidewalks as some shops were still open. Historically, much of Colorado is mining country and there are also side roads up into the mines, or guided tours.

Backcountry explorers always have the chance of finding a lost mine, and panning for gold is also a seduction here in the mountains.

Near Grand Junction - CO

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Blue Goose ~ Day 154

October 30, 2014 ~ Alamosa, CO to Durango, CO

The breakfast in the motel in Alamosa had the usual offerings with the addition of breakfast burritos and green and red Tabasco bottles on the tables.

Off to Alamosa NWR first, about five miles east. It was silent and deserted. Not one visible vehicle at the VC and a "Closed" sign on the door. The Rio Grande run through this refuge as an unpretentious little river. Canals and ditches take some of its water. The described "wetlands" (at least now in late October) are so unlike the more eastern wetlands. I did see occasional wet spots and the water diversion ditches but very few birds. I surprised a female elk and then a coyote which was not at all unnerved by my presence.

Coyote on Alamosa NWR - CO

We looked at each other as I edged slowly forward until it disappeared into the brush along one of the ditches. Mt. Blanca was massive on the northeast horizon but with very little snow yet.

There was a sign posted at the kiosk explaining about the "noise" at the end of the nature trail, which stated that, "The neighboring landowner completed building a structure to be able to access his water right in the historic ditch. Water flows are limited past the town of Alamosa in part due to the drought, climate change and irrigation for the crops, pastures and the wetlands on the Alamosa NWR." Hmmmm..... The story all over the west...water, water rights, water conscience, water conservation, water greed, aquifer depletion, water diversion, water priorities, water restrictions, no water.... There were several recent negative comments from visitors regarding how "dry" this "wetland" was when they visited. But also some positive comments, and the land has what I call sagebrush beauty.

My first home is near a second refuge in the Valley. Of course I drove by and took photos. It is several miles southwest from Alamosa, a sweet little home meeting my criteria for what I like architecturally...a Craftsman style house. I knew of my young parents' delight in their first home and how they forever remembered the years in Colorado with great fondness. They were always under sunny or starry skies. It very seldom rained they would tell us. However, I am sure my mother's heart was  back in the Midwest, and that is where they spent most of their lives.

Monte Vista NWR was just a bit farther west, and on the way I had the thrill of watching and photographing a very cooperative Ferruginous Hawk atop a telephone pole. It sat quietly, would fly out and return. It turned around just as I was wondering what its back looked like (almost a spooky bird telepathy moment), and it certainly did not seem bothered by my proximity.

Ferruginous Hawk - Monte Vista NWR - CO

It was a sun-saturated Indian Summer day with yellowing leaves fluttering down or crackling and dry underfoot, warm and quiet under a lovely pure blue sky. The Sierra de las Grullas (Mountains of the Cranes) were on the western horizon, and in fact, large flocks of Sandhill Cranes were feeding here, along with ducks and C. geese and herons. Handsome Black-billed Magpies flew about, and I watched a single Song Sparrow in the tree across the road. I sat for an hour with my scope.

Sierra de las Grullas - Monte Vista NWR - CO

And then drove for several hours to Durango, CO, a much, much busier town than I remembered from a previous trip long ago. I had entered a different demographic here: one of coffee shops and shopping malls, old and not so old hippies, busy roads, a thriving tourist industry, outdoor enthusiasts...mountains towered above the town. The Walmart lot had young cottonwoods all over, which always enhances the car camping experience.

I ate at a Mongolian Grill; the food was superb - sizzling hot, fresh and tasty with enough for a second meal the next day.