Vacation Journal

We went to Ridgway to find some geocaches and to check out some of the locations and things used to film the movie True Grit.  We drove the 15 miles of dirt road to get to Owl Creek Pass.  Just before the pass, we stopped to look at the meadow used in the movie.  Jayden enjoyed running through the meadow.  It was a nice sunny day with temperatures in the upper 50’s and low 60’s.  We checked our thermometer when we got up this morning – it read 40 degrees.  Fall has definitely arrived in the mountains.  We found one cache at the edge of the meadow.

We stopped at Owl Creek Pass to find another cache.  Grandma took Jayden over to Owl Creek to check out the water.  Jayden spent about 45 minutes throwing rocks and sticks in the fast running, clear water.  We pretty much had to drag her away. 

At the pass we could see snow on the second mountain range to the east.  We had seen them yesterday while on the high ground above Ridgway on our way back from Telluride.  We drove on a few miles to find the next cache and got some great views of the snow-covered mountains.  We successfully found the third cache.  We parked the Jeep where the road got very rocky and walked the last eighth of a mile to the cache.  When JJ picked up the stick covering the cache, a mouse ran over her hand.  Both JJ and the mouse had their excitement for the day right there.  JJ screamed louder, but the mouse ran away faster.

While JJ, Craig, and I were finding the geocache, Grandma and Jayden were feeding Pringles to the Gray Jays.  When we got back, we watched and took some pictures.  The Jays would get within two feet of Jayden to pick up the chips.  There were two pairs of Gray Jays, but one pair wanted all the chips and chased off the second pair.  All of us had a good time watching the Jays.  They put on a good show, trying to get as many pieces of chips in their mouths at once time as they possibly can.

We returned to Ridgway to eat lunch at the True Grit Café.  Craig and I had their special – pot roast with gravy on a hoagie bun with potato salad.  It was delicious and there must have been a pound of roast beef.  I couldn’t eat it all, which is a very rare happening.  We had a very friendly and colorful waitress.  After lunch we looked briefly around the town at various parts used in the movie.

We returned home in time to go to the library to use the internet.  After that, we relaxed for the rest of the day.