Grand Mesa Road Trip

Road Trip!

Kristin & I were off to stock the dove loft with a plethora of new birds.

But on the way we took a detour.

Exiting I-70 at De Beque, in lieu of the Cutoff heading South, we opted for V Road, also known as Sunnyside Road. Any road that Google Maps says is 17.7 miles and has a travel time of 43 minutes has got to be worthy.

Now we've seen red rock, and white rock, and grey, but pinks? purples? Click on some of this pics for a more detailed view.

The road started out quite well maintained. And we saw a bit of traffic - it's oil country out here. Then we hit a fork, decided to stay on the better road. We passed an encampment of cowboys, tents, a trailer & horses and waved. They must have started placing bets on how long it would take us to switch back, because we soon dead ended at some pumps. Some 15 minutes later we were passing them again, this time to hearty waves and smiles and we took a left on the road less traveled.

And the road disintegrated.

But the season was perfect for off roading in a Subaru wagon - everything was very dry. We went through deep washes that would have been terrific in mud if only we had been in Dad's Jeep. The switchbacks around deep ravines were dramatic. The remnants of massive boulder falls on both sides of the track were intimidating. Have I mentioned the purples?

At last we passed a sign. But I had to stop and turn around to read it. So that's where we'd been!

Grand Mesa National Forest. Well, we'll be back.

Next time in a Jeep!

The road gradually improved. We started seeing oil workings again. And we popped out on CO-330, not far from our destination in Collbran. You'll notice there aren't any links for this trip, that's because this section of Grand Mesa National Forest, located in the Plateau Valley area, and this particular road aren't marked in any of the online scenic byway or forest literature. But the locals sure know about it!

PS - Upon refection an in a later edit, this post of DG's needed to be referenced here.