Vacation Journal

Monday we packed a picnic lunch and went to Yankee Boy Basin.  The Basin was crowded.  We passed a lot of vehicles going both ways.  We walked to the base of Twin Falls to eat our picnic lunch.  There was an old mining building at the base of the falls that has collapsed.  We couldn’t decide whether a miner used to live there or if this was part of mine operations.  We ate our lunch under a bright, mostly sunny sky.  We did have to wear light jackets because it was cool.  Afterwards, we returned to town to do laundry and internet.

Tuesday we packed another picnic lunch and took off to drive the Unaweep-Tabeguache (the gu is pronounced like wa) scenic highway.  We droved past several prairie dog villages.  Then we drove through about 50 miles of canyons formed by the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers.  You go past about every kind of rock formations possible during the drive.  You start off in rock formations from the Cretaceous Period (135 million years old) and go through Jurassic, Triassic, and Permian (280 million years old) during the course of the 50 miles.  You can see the original layers getting higher and higher above you as you follow the rivers downstream.  Most of the Colorado schools send there geology and archeology majors out here a lot to do hands-on learning.  The different layers are different colors and different hardness’s.  The combinations produce some strange formations.  At one point near the end, the canyon is not much wider than the river but very high.  The river and the road do a lot of gooseneck bends at this point.  Some of the creeks coming in have major canyons of their own.  It’s a fascinating drive.  We stopped at one point to view an old water flume that was built for five miles hanging on a sheer cliff above the river.  It was made of wood and was built over 100 years ago.  Only pieces of it remain.  It took water to a mine that was closed after only three years.  We ate our lunch at a picnic table provided by the Nature Conservancy at its San Miguel Preserve.

We also stopped at a new attraction in the town of Gateway, Colorado.  It is called Gateway Canyons Resort and is being built by the owner of the Discovery Channel.  He has finished a small motel, grocery store (hours 4:30 am to 9:00 pm), and trendy restaurant.  A large building to house an antique car collection is almost complete.  They will also build cabins surrounding a swimming pool, a big spa area, horse stables, and several other things.  Everything has a southwest/Mexican style of architecture with colors similar to the nearby canyons.  I suspect you may get to see advertisements for the place on the Discovery Channel.  It is a big investment in the middle of nowhere.  Gateway looks to have just a few hundred people.  Gateway is at a wide spot near the end of the canyon we were driving in.  I’m curious as to what he thinks will actually attract people to his place.  It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. 

We returned through Delta and Montrose, stopping to eat at Fiesta Guadalajara in Montrose, and stopping to shop at Wal-Mart.  It’s been a while since we’ve been near a Wal-Mart.