Too Much Open Road - Not Enough Daylight

For a mid-October day, it was especially warm, sunny, windless and cloudless. The choices were to (a) stay home and do yardwork or (b) go cruising. Since yardwork will wait for us, no matter what other plans you have, we decided to go for a ride.

We left Price and headed south on Highway 6 towards Green River. When we stopped for a stretch at Cresant Junction, we flipped a coin; Heads, Grand Junction or Tails Moab. Tails it was, so we hopped back on the bike and started for Moab. Besides, it can't be a complete day, without lunch (breakfast) at the Moab Diner. While enjoying our "brunch" we had the opportunity to add to our "Life Lessons".
Life Lesson Learned while in Moab - If an adult male chooses to grow a beard, he should not braid it into three spikes and adorn it with beads and dangling jewels! Bejeweled braids belong on a little girls head - not on a man's chin!

So after leaving Moab, we continued South to the LaSal Junction then East towards Old LaSal, Naturita, and Paradox. At the Junction we headed north on Hiway 141 towards Gateway. This is another one of those areas that we have never traveled through. Every corner offered up new specatular sites. Steep red cliffs, a deep river gorge, "muffin top" rock hills and billiant Fall colors (not reds but bright yellows and golds everywhere you looked).

The road was narrow, curvy but in very good condition. It was especially nice because we didn't have alot of traffic (except for the occasional road hunter).

We stopped at Gateway Lodge (really nice place) to call home since no one really knew where we had gone. Since this was the only cell service we had for the last 100 miles, it was a good place to stop, call and stretch. There is a really nice Lodge (hotel), resturant, antique car museum, general store and fuel. What more do you need?

We followed the Dolores River and saw quite a few old mines in the tops of the hills. Every once in a while, you could catch a glimpse of the Dolores River flum that the miners used to float the ore downriver. The flum, built around 1890, runs for 7 miles and hangs off the sheer rock walls of the gorge. Took my breath away, just thinking of the people who built it.

We continued through the canyon ending up in Grand Junction, then back to the freeway, beating it for home.

If you have about 8 hours (starting in Price) this is definately a daytrip worth taking. Of course if you want to make it a weekend, the Gateway Lodge would be a great place to stay.