Very Long Ago, and Very High Up

Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018

This was another one of our amazing days, I think! We woke up as planned, a bit early, because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. We just didn’t realize HOW long it would be!

Our first stop was, of course, the visitor’s center at Dinosaur National Monument. We first watched a 12-minute video about the dinosaurs and natural impact of the Green River Valley in that area. The reason there are so many dinosaur bones here is because the “ancestral Green River” washed a lot of bones into one spot. But as we learned, the site is misleading, because all the bones here are of huge dinosaurs-- the smaller bones were washed away or otherwise decayed before they ended up in the “dinosaur bone jam” in this particular location.

Wall entirely embedded with fossilized dinosaur bones

Then we hopped onto the tram which took us up through layers of earth to the viewing center. The building is fantastic-- it is built right against the original wall of fossils which were excavated in the first decades of the 20th century. You can’t help but go WOW when you first walk in and see the wall of bones still embedded into the rock.

There are excellent displays to help get oriented to what we saw. The large wall in front of us was originally about 3 times larger-- the areas above it and to the right and left were excavated earlier, as I said. The fossilized bones which were removed are now in museums all over the country, with three complete skeletons in the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh-- now on Joe’s and my list for a long weekend visit so we can see them. (Other bone are also closer-- in NYC and even one in a museum in Newark, DE, if I recall correctly!)

Allosaurus in rock

For $1.00 we purchased a brochure which helped us identify individual sections of the wall and better “see” the bones and how they belonged together (if, in fact, they actually did-- a number are just stray individual bones.) So we looked at them carefully, and Joe pointed out some specific bones which he could identify from his knowledge of anatomy. There were also a lot of panels with photos explaining how the bones were originally excavated, wrapped in burlap and then plaster, then put into boxes and pulled on skids down the mountain to wagons, and hence to the nearest railroad depot where they were shipped back east. The entire area was absolutely fascinating, and we spent at least an hour there.

Placement of bones in wall and reconstructed skeleton in NYC

We left the monument just about noon, and had to stop at an RV park in Jensen to dump our tanks, fill up with fresh water, and buy a bag of ice. Then we finally headed toward central Colorado, where we were meeting Ben and Miriam. I had already gotten a number of texts from Ben, and he was going to send us more info after they found a nice campground for us to meet up at.

Camarasaurus skull

Joe points to corresponding place on his hip

We headed east, crossed into Colorado, and stopped at the Welcome Center in Dinosaur, Colorado, to pick up some info. I chatted briefly with the two people working there, and pointed out the route I was planning to take-- it seemed like the most direct route--through Aspen and down toward Salida, which was the general area Ben was heading for. All they said was, “Well, that sure will be a pretty drive!” And then we continued on.

We stopped in Rangely for a lunch break, and then kept going. My plan included picking up I-70 at a town called Rifle, heading east to Glenwood Falls, and stopping there for a Walmart stop before continuing on. That looked to me like the exit to go south on my planned route, but my GPS kept telling me to go farther along I-70 before heading south, and I decided maybe that was a better idea, although it looked like more miles to me. But the GPS was calculating the fastest route, so I figured I’d trust it.

As we got on the interstate at Rifle, there I saw a Walmart! But it was too late, so we continued with the original plan to stop at the Glenwood Falls Walmart. This was only about 30 miles or so down the interstate, and we got off there. I quickly discovered that Glenwood Falls was actually a resort city, with a large hot springs hotel and pool there, and that the exit from the interstate put us right in the center of a charming but very busy downtown, full of cute looking businesses and restaurants and historical buildings. There was no sight of a Walmart anywhere, which we have come to expect when we use Next Exit to tell us what exits have Walmart. So we had to hastily look for a GPS guide to Walmart.

The GPS worked, although it first took us to a tiny road which was closed. We could at least see the Walmart from there, however, and used our own eyes to get us there. It turned out to be an older store, not a Super Center, and as such it 1) had a very small parking lot; 2) was relatively difficult to get to; and 3) did not have fresh veggies and fruits. However, we were able to get almost everything we wanted, with the exception of sufficient bottled water. The plus side was, it was a smallish store, so it didn’t take us a full hour to get through it.

My first inkling that this was a mistake

And then, we plugged our destination back in-- by now, we knew Ben was at Cascade Campground a little south of a town called Buena Vista. I found it on my map. And now the GPS told me to go MY original route-- keep heading south through Aspen, in almost a direct line to Buena Vista. So I figured, ok-- we’ll switch back to that route again.

Well! It was only about 10 minutes before I was having serious misgivings. Even though the road was a divided highway with 2 lanes each way, we were steadily rising, and I was having a very anxious feeling that we should have gone back to the interstate and use the GPS’s original suggestion. Soon enough, we got to Aspen-- and negotiated carefully through the center of town. And then the road was 2 lanes, and fairly narrow. But okay, this is Colorado, and we were going through the mountains, going up still. But it did seem narrower than I would have preferred, for sure.

Uh oh. The road didn’t have much in the way of a shoulder or a railing. There were a lot of hiking trails around, though. It seemed like a very SMALL road, although it was the only road there was! Unless we turned around and went all the way back to Glenwood Springs, that is.

Double uh oh!! We passed a sign that said, “Lights will flash automatically if vehicle oversized.” But they weren’t flashing, so.... we kept going. And a little further: “Turn around for over-sized vehicles,” with a pull-out. At least there was now a sign-- vehicles over 35' forbidden to proceed. We are under 30 feet. But man, that was NOT reassuring! What WERE we heading for, anyway?

Hairpin turn

We passed several forest service campground areas and a LOT of trail heads. Not much else. The road was not very wide. Whenever we passed ANYONE I had a small anxiety attack. And then a sign: “road narrows.” I said, “narrower than THIS??” And now suddenly the double yellow line disappeared-- the road was so narrow that if they’d put in a line, the space on either side would not have been wide enough! And, did I mention, we were on the OUTSIDE of the road, i.e. looking DOWN as we went around the side of the mountains? We came to at least three of these “narrow” sections. They were just terrifying, because they BARELY wide enough for two cars, but a car and an RV? They were NOT WIDE ENOUGH. And every single one went around the mountain, so we couldn’t see if anything was coming, although it usually was. At one point, we stopped JUST as the road narrowed, because I yelled STOP! to Joe. I could see that if we did not, we’d be face to face with a car and no room for either of us to pass. We waited until 4 cars went past us, then prayed as we went through ourselves.

By this time, I had my eyes closed at least half the time. The speed limit was 20 mph most of the time, sometimes only 15 and on some particularly sharp turns, 10mph. I was having a real panic attack, and practically ready to cry. Joe, meanwhile was doing GREAT. He drove the whole way in 1st gear most of the time, I think, and he was calm as could be. (I was also worrying because it was getting so late-- almost 7pm--and I thought he needed to eat soon! And also, my GPS kept telling me

Drop off on the right. No guardrail.

that the time between us and our destination was getting LONGER each time I checked!)

Finally, FINALLY, we came to the top-- beyond the tree line, to find a big pullout area and a sign that said, Continental Divide, 12,095 feet. Well, no WONDER I was panicking-- I was oxygen deprived! (Joe pointed out that airplane cabins are pressurized for 10,000 feet-- and that our oxygen masks would have dropped 2,000 feet earlier!) There were a number of people parked up there, with some information panels and even pit “restrooms.” Clearly, this was a “destination,” which is why we had so many cars passing us. I found out from the panels that this was Independence Pass, and it is the highest paved road in North American!!! Another panel mentioned that “the Narrows,” as they are called, have been panic-inducing since the pass was first used. No-Duh!!

"Road narrows". TOO NARROW!!

There was a short path to an even higher observation point. I was just unable to walk up it-- I was so shaky and weak and wobbly when I got out with Cassie, I almost fell over! There was a nice young man who offered to take my photo in front of the Continental Divide sign, and he asked which side we’d come from. I said, Aspen, and he reassured me that the other side was “much much easier,” that we’d come from the “hard side.” Honestly, I was VERY glad to hear it-- I didn’t think I could take much more! (Then he added that there were “only” about 3 more hairpin turns! And then I heard him tell his friend, “They came up in that RV!” and I could tell he thought THAT was a bit gutsy! But we had NO IDEA what we were getting into!!) Meanwhile, while I was outside, Joe checked his sugar, which was great, and he ate a little bit anyway so it wouldn’t drop at an inconvenient moment on our way down. Even Cassie got into the act, placing a “deposit” on the highest paved highway in North America!

Above the tree line

So I took some deep breaths (as deep as possible, that is) and we started rolling DOWN the mountain. Although it had its scary moments (we were still on the “outside”, and I could look straight down over the edge of the road to the valley below), it was nothing as bad as coming up had been--the road was wide enough for double yellow lines all the way, and the speed limit went all the way up to 35mph! By this time, though, I was worried about the time. I knew that the campground we were going to was NOT going to be well lit, and I was anxious about actually finding it. I’d originally thought we might get there at 7:30, and now it looked like being 8:30 or even later. We’d had no phone “bars” pretty much since we’d left Aspen, but when we finally came down from Independence Pass, they finally came back. I was able to call Ben, who reassured us that we were almost there and gave us a few more landmarks to watch for, and then we kept on.

We found our turnoff (after disregarding GPS’s suggestion of a side road--I’d had enough of THAT!) but by this time, it was dark. We drove slowly along a county road, and there was more traffic than I expected. It was entirely unclear from the map how far along we’d have to go, and we had trouble seeing some of the road signs. When we saw a sign that said “National Forest Campgrounds ahead,” we were SO reassured! But still there was mostly black road and not much else until I realized there were actually homes on this road, and then the Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort, accounting for the oddly mystifying traffic. After we passed that, I got out our super-high-power flashlight, and I opened the window, and every time we saw any kind of sign, I held my arm out the window to illuminate it with the flashlight. And so we proceeded until, Eureka! The sign for Cascade Campground, and the turnoff. Then it was a relatively simple matter to make our way through the campground loop until we came to site 8, which Ben had reserved for us, and there he was, waving. So Joe got out and guided me while I backed in. And miraculously, it was flat!

It was 9:00 and pitch black in the campground, but Ben had the coals of a good fire going, so we sat and talked to him and Miriam (and Judah-bear, who is 14 months old and was wide awake). Joe soon went to lie down, and I sat with them just a little longer before realizing that this long day and all the adrenaline rushing during the couple of hours we drove over Independence Pass had really exhausted me as well. So we said goodnight, and I stumbled across to our campsite. Joe made us some scrambled eggs (we still hadn’t eaten) and then we passed out in bed.

Joe was FANTASTIC driving over that pass. He didn’t seem at all nervous, and he was in total control of the RV the entire time. I, on the other hand, apparently do not respond well to 1) heights; 2) lack of oxygen; 3) lack of knowledge of where I am going. I was a genuine wreck. According to Ben and Miriam, we have now negotiated the two “worst” (i.e. highest and scariest) roads in Colorado-- Independence Pass, and Route 550 from Durango to Ouray, which we did in 2015. But with the latter, we KNEW what we were getting into, and it was broad daylight. Today’s adventure was a total surprise, and turns out, I don’t do very well with those! But Joe was completely unfazed. So now we know whose nerves are better!