Road trip – to Moab, UT. 4/23/21

Friday is mostly a travel day. We decide it will be more fun to take an interesting route and have a picnic along the way than just get back on I-70 and turn left at Green River.

Our route from Grand Junction, CO to Moab, UT

On our way to Gateway, CO which surprisingly has a fancy resort in it, we travel through the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area following along side the West Creek until Gateway where it joins the Delores River. Such a little creek has created beautiful canyons.

View along CO 141 on the way to Gateway, CO
Rocky cliffs
Some area are high enough to still have snow

After the turn southeast at Gateway the scenery changes and the rock turns red. The Delores River has fashioned these canyons.

Red canyons

We stop at a Point of Interest where the red walls tower over us on one side and the Delores River rushes by far below on the other side. Hanging off the walls above the river is a wooden flume, now in disrepair, that was built in the late 19th century to carry water. The water was used in the extraction of minerals.

Mary at the Point of Interest.
John with a background of red walls

These three pictures show where the flume was and a close-up of the wooden construction.

Delores River with flume


We turn the corner just short of Naturita and the scenery changes again

Now we are headed towards the LaSal Mountains. We zigzag up the mountains and head through a pass all the while searching fruitlessly for a picnic spot. Coming down the west slope of the mountains we turn onto US191 and head for Moab, UT. Once again the scenery changes dramatically and we are surround by red walls, columns, and hoodoos. We have our picnic lunch quickly at a rest stop where the wind is blowing and the temperatures are in the low 50s. Brrr.

Red rock near Moab

We get some excellent Thai take-out for dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching tennis and planning our adventures for tomorrow.

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