Grand Junction to Colorado Springs

Monday, May 3, 2010: Grand Junction to Colorado Springs via # 50 and #115—314 miles, 7 hours: Montrose, Gunnison, Salida, Canon City

I am up by 6:00, find out from the desk that the roads seem dry on #50 through the mountains to Colorado Springs, that it should take around five hours. We get coffee and breakfast and are on the road by about 8:00, which is our goal. We hope to take our time, perhaps stop on the way at places of interest.
It’s a beautiful day for a drive, and we have checked the weather and the roads look dry, though yesterday might have been a real problem, as it no doubt snowed, and Jill said it snowed in CS. The ride towards Montrose is easy, as there are farms on all sides, and the mountains though in the distance, are not severe and the plain seems wide and verdant, though that’s an overstatement. We stop in a small town called Delta, on the way to Montrose, and stop in a Info center, pick up a map, and not that most of the store are occupied and the owners are out in the front sweeping their walks. It feels like old times, in some ways, with the small town life just waking up. We continue to Montrose, and then start to head East, From Montrose, we are much closer to the mountains, the Sawatch Range I think, and we follow the Blue Mesa River for miles, just before Gunnison, as we wonder if it is natural or man made. As we near Salida, we begin to climb to the Monarch Pass, after Gunnison, which is 11,320 feet high. There’s lots of snow on the top, and the pines are covered with snow, making it a spectacular though somewhat scary ride, if you don’t like the heights. The Visitor Office at the top, looks like an igloo as it’s covered with snow, purposely I think. The ride down is jut as spectacular, toward Salida, though we are happy not to be so high, perched on the side of huge ravines and canyons.
Between Salida and Canon City, we skirt the Arkansas River, perhaps the most beautiful part of the ride, as we are surrounded by canyons, huge cliffs, though the valley various in width from a half mile or more, to less than a couple hundred yards. What’s neat is that every five miles or so, there is a camping/boating/fishing area, where one can take advantage of the river, either kayaking, fishing, or just enjoying the hiking and surroundings. There are lots of whitewater raft outfits, though the river itself looks fairly shallow and rocky, making it hard to navigate safely I would think. There were a few ski areas, Monarch to be exact, and some camping/cabins/ for tourists, though most of them seemed fairly rough, for the middle class no doubt, nothing like the kind you might find in a Vail. There are also lots of cabins, trailers, and fairly nice summer homes set along the river, as it would be a great retreat from someone from CS or nearby. It seems to be fishing season, as fisherman are sprinkled along the length, standing in the water, either fly or salmon fishing, I am not sure which. It is a lovely area of the mountains, part of it called Bighorn Sheep Canyon.
We then arrived in Canon City, famous it seems for it’s prisons, in fact we have seen a couple other as we set out from Grand Junction. Beyond Canon City, we pick up Rt # 115, which is basically a plateau which winds down to Ft. Carson and CS, a lovely drive, with little development until we get within ten miles of Carson, when we begin to see amazing houses set back either on the tree filled valley, or set back on the sides of mountains. This is obviously the place to live if you want to get away from the city.
We arrived at Jill’s about 3:30, and at 5:00 took the kids to soccer till 6:30, when we then took them to Culvers for the third time this trip. We were back by 7:30, got them ready for bed, and all was quiet by 8:30. I told Halle a brief bad boy story and she fell asleep right after. I hoped to watch the Cavs game, which we had recorded, but when I came in to the living room, the wrap up was on and I saw they had lost by 18 points so I just erased it. Jill and Drew returned about 9:00, from his going away party at the baseball park. They were both quite tired, so we talked for about a half hour and went to bed, a long day but a good one.