Thanks, Scott. That's lots of great detail. It will take me a while to
plot it out and comprehend it but you can be sure I will. Yes, I do
have a senior pass to the national parks and recreation areas and have
had it ever since I turned 65. It's a great benefit.
And thanks for the warning on deer. But, living in NY state, we're
pretty used to having to watch for deer. So far I've only hit one but
that was just 1/4 mile from my house and still within the residential
area. Actually, I should say that she hit me. It was dark. I had just
turned a corner after a stop and was just starting to accelerate. I
couldn't have been going more than 15-20 mph when I heard a big bang and
the car leapt into the air. I thought I had hit a big rock or a log in
the road. I stopped and turned the car around to see what I'd hit. It
was a doe who had come running full-tilt from between two houses,
smashed head first into the side of the car just ahead of the drivers
door and then had her rear half slide under the car where the left rear
wheel ran over her and broke her back. She was a really pathetic
sight... panicked and pawing the road with her front feet trying to get
up and move but unable to because her rear half was paralyzed. I had to
call the sheriff to put her down. There are lots more where she came
from. It's not uncommon for us to find a small herd of a dozen or so on
the other side of our back yard fence.
Chuck Norcutt
On 9/21/2011 12:06 AM, Scott Gomez wrote:
> I'll second much of what has been said here.
>
> The route over Wolf Creek Pass is a nice drive. Was just over it myself the
> summer before last, where just below the summit heading from Pagosa Springs
> towards Del Norte, we had a coyote saunter on by just like we weren't there.
> If you stay on 160 on through Bayfield until you pick up As for the Million
> Dollar highway, Silverton and Ouray, I can't recommend the area enough.
> Beautiful drive, and special to us as my wife's family was some of the early
> folks in the area, many having been miners in Silverton and some towns now
> non-existent.
>
> The route through Wolf Creek Pass, however, misses the Million Dollar
> Highway and Silverton by a long way to the south and east, taking you
> towards Durango, so you'd have to double back to pick them up. Instead, you
> might consider taking US50 out of Kansas, and then south on 550 after the
> black canyon of the Gunnison. Lodging choices abound all through the Ouray,
> Silverton and Durango areas, as well as a good chance to view the Durango&
> Silverton NGRR in either of its two namesake cities. I'd personally opt for
> the US50/US550 choice if I had not been in the area before.
>
> If you head towards the Four Corners region and Utah from the Durango area,
> you should definitely make a stop at Mesa Verde NP. It's definitely worth
> the stop. From there, CO41 turns into UT162, thence across a short stretch
> of US191 to US163. UT261 will take you north towards Natural Bridges
> National Monument (when you reach UT95) which has a short loop drive that
> allows seeing a number of the natural bridges without a bunch of hiking. A
> note of warning about UT261 however, which we took in the opposite direction
> this past July. A portion, known as the Moki Dugway is nothing more than a
> bladed gravel road. Perfectly passable in a regular automobile, but NOT if
> towing a trailer or driving an RV. That section, north-bound, rises some
> 1000 feet in only 3 miles, literally carved out of the edge of the plateau.
> We came down it, heading south, and it was pretty impressive.
>
> Stay north and west on UT95 and you'll pass through some pretty incredible
> scenery of red rock canyon in the Glen Canyon National Rec Area. At UT24 in
> Hanksville, turn west and you'll eventually reach Fruita, UT, in the Capitol
> Reef National Park. Capitol Reef is a little gem of a park, and was
> virtually devoid of people when we went through in the early morning.
> Through the park takes you to Torrey UT, and there's plenty of lodging
> there. We stayed at the Sandstone Inn which was reasonably priced, but
> nothing special... just a comfortable room and, from what I'm told a decent
> restaurant (although we ate elsewhere). There are also other lodging choices
> in Torrey.
>
> The above sections, from Durango on west, take you by the less-travelled
> roads, with lots of gorgeous stuff to see that many folks will never have
> the pleasure of having visited.
>
>> From Torrey, the road immediately opposite the Days Inn and Sandstone Inn is
> UT12. Another gorgeous drive, first over fairly high altitudes and mountain
> forests, and eventually to high desert areas around Escalante. Escalante is
> in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Be extremely careful
> travelling through on 12 however, we saw two does with fawns crossing the
> highway just ahead of us near enough to have to brake, and there are
> numerous areas of unfenced range with plenty of cattle wandering along
> highways, although they mostly stayed off the road. Road speeds are low
> (with good reason, beyond just wandering critters), however, so I wouldn't
> consider the drive dangerous. 12 eventually gets you to Tropic, and to Bryce
> Canyon NP. Lots of wildlife in Bryce when we drove through, and somewhat
> crowded near the Visitor's center, although it thinned out nicely if you
> drove the park road from 12 towards the end.
>
> You'll eventually meet US89 while on UT12, and taking 89 south will lead you
> to Mt. Carmel Junction. At Mt. Carmel Junction, you turn west on UT9 to
> travel through Zion National Park.
>
> A more northerly route bypassing the SW portion of Colorado would take you
> via US50 to US550 north, and eventually to Grand Junction, CO. Pick up
> US50/I70 west there, through Fruita, Co, and you can take US191 through
> Moab, UT towards Bluff, UT. If you get anywhere near it, do not miss Arches
> National Park in Moab. One of my very favorite National Parks, and you can
> see much without hiking, although some very easy hikes will let you see a
> whole lot more. Continuing south towards Bluff from Moab takes you through
> some other lovely scenery, and eventually lets you follow the earlier
> detailed route omce you reach US163.
>
> Either way makes a heck of a trip, and you can plan your days knowing
> there's lots to see on all of them, and making longer or shorter driving
> days as you see fit. Some of these areas I've seen many times now, others
> only just once, like the UT95/UT12 section we travelled this past July. I
> can guarantee you that I'll be visiting most of them again.
>
> About the only drawback to travelling the route east to west is that you'll
> tend to hit the various parks towards the end of the day, and in my
> experience, if you're better served if you can plan things to ensure seeing
> them earlier in the morning (like, right after opening), especially as the
> days get shorter in the fall. It's therefore worthwhile to plan stops near
> the parks as you approach from the east, so that you can pass through early,
> which is a bit more difficult to do than when headed west-to-east. DO invest
> in a National Parks pass. Even the annual one is a far better deal than
> individual park fees, and if you're over 65 (I think that's the cut-off) a
> life-time pass is dirt cheap. Order ahead for the pass, or just pay for it
> at the first park you visit. See the National Parks web site for details.
>
> ---
> Scott Gomez
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 06:42, Chuck Norcutt
> <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>> Back in 2008 my wife and I made a round-the-country driving trip which
>> took us from upstate New York to Buffalo to see my son, across Canada to
>> Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, back down through Wisconsin and Iowa
>> (where we met up with Ken and Joel) then across Nebraska, South Dakota,
>> Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, then across Washington and down the west coast.
>> There we stopped to see Moose in Berkeley and continued on down to So.
>> Calif. (my old stomping grounds when in high school). Then we wound our
>> way back through many south west and southern states including stops in
>> Las Vegas to see my dad, Dallas to see my brothers, North Carolina to
>> see my daughter, etc, etc.
>>
>> Before making that trip I requested y'all to give me suggestions about
>> what we might want to see along the way. I got lots of good advice.
>> Well, we're doing another big driving trip cross-country in a couple of
>> weeks. But this time it's too late in the year to take a northern route
>> across the Rockies and I also have some specific objectives to meet.
>>
>> The proximate cause for the trip is two 50th year high school reunions.
>> One is in Battle Creek, Michigan (where I didn't actually graduate but
>> have been invited anyhow) and the other is in Pomona, California not far
>> from La Puente, California where I did graduate. These two events are
>> being held 3 weeks apart. In addition, before going to California, I
>> must stop in Las Vegas for a week to visit and care for my father and
>> relieve my sister. She now lives with and cares for my father but needs
>> a break to go to California and see her kids. That accounts for one
>> week of the three so I have two weeks to get from Battle Creek, Michigan
>> to Las Vegas. How do I spend that time?
>>
>> Despite being only a couple weeks away our travel plans are very loose.
>> The only things we've decided is that we'd like to follow whatever
>> might be left of old Route 66 between Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma
>> (Chicago, St. Louis, Joplin, Tulsa, etc). As a kid in the mid 50s I
>> crossed old Route 66 three times. On the 2008 trip we explored some of
>> the western end of Route 66 (especially in and around Kingman, Arizona).
>> I suspect there's much less left to see on the eastern end and need to
>> research it (again, but I've forgotten already) but want to generally
>> follow that route regardless.
>>
>> The only other thing we have decided is that, after being thoroughly
>> impressed with Zion National Park (and others) on the last trip, we'd
>> like to see more parks in Colorado and Utah. But we are relatively
>> unfamiliar with all those parks and, in particular, we are not hikers or
>> campers. Places that do not have convenient motels and restaurants are,
>> unfortunately, not on our itinerary.
>>
>> So, the major questions are:
>> 1) Are there "must sees" between Chicago and Tulsa/Oklahoma City?
>> 2) Is there a more scenic way to go to Colorado than crossing Kansas?
>> 3) Never been there. Have I underestimated Kansas?
>> 4) How do I spend perhaps as much as 10 days in Colorado and Utah.
>>
>> Thanks for any insight
>>
>> Chuck Norcutt
>>
>> --
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
>> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
>> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>>
>>
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|