Flaming Gorge Area, Northeastern Utah
Dave and Helen Damouth
www.damouth.org
10/3/2009 to 10/14/2009
Click Photo Album for many more photos from this trip.
10/3/09: The annual trip to St. George for Dave's participation in the volleyball competition at Huntsman Senior Games is upon us again. As usual, we plan to take a few extra days to do some Utah sightseeing on the way. This year we decided, at the last minute, to go to Flaming George, in the Northeast corner of Utah. We followed a route suggested by Street Atlas, and I was in a hurry and didn't look at the detailed routing, except to notice that it suggested a "shortcut", leaving I-70 at Rifle and going northwest through Rio Blanco, Meeker, and Dinosaur - roads we haven't previously traveled.
We'd both been very busy in the days before the trip, and preparation was rather rushed, so we didn't get away from home until about 11 am, and still had to go by TA for fuel, which ended up taking almost half an hour (slowed by a new clerk, who couldn't figure out how to enter a private coach (rather than the company fleet trucks he usually handles) into his computer. So we weren't really on our way until 11:30. It's a lovely sunny day, and traffic on I-70 was fairly light - a good time to travel.
As we drove by Genesee Mountain just west of Denver, Helen took this photo of the famous "Clamshell House" or "Sculptured House" through the motorhome window. Designed and built by Charles Deaton, and featured in Woody Allen's 1973 comedy Sleeper , this is perhaps the best-known house in Colorado. It has been in the news and in the real estate for sale listings off and on for many years. For more about his house, see Clamshell House Info.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.
Helen drove from about Copper Mountain almost to Meeker - about 150 miles, which included Glenwood Canyon and about 50 miles of narrow state highways. We stopped twice for computer problems. The first time, for reasons I still don't understand, Street Atlas stopped receiving data from the GPS. Stopping and restarting GPS tracking from within Street Atlas fixed the problem. Later, GPS tracking stopped working again and it turned out to be dead batteries in the GPS. I've really got to get a power cable for the "new" GPS so I won't have to run it on its own AA batteries in the RV. Up until recently, I had continued using the old Garmin 12XL GPS in the RV, but the cable for that unit has died yet again. The cable is about 13 years old, and I've repaired a broken wire near a connector in the cable several times during that period. It's probably not worth trying to repair it yet again.
From the turn north off I-70 at Rifle, we were on roads that were new to us. SR-13 winds through high desert - broken terrain of eroded valleys and steep buttes, sagebrush on the bottoms and pinon/juniper forest on the slopes. The first part has no perennial waterways - the slopes drain into small basins with no outlet. The lowest areas were quite moist, and ranchers were harvesting hay from small fields and grazing cattle on the lower slopes. North of Rio Blanco, we followed Sheep Creek and the valley became wider and smoother, with a lot more cattle visible in the pastures.
Near Meeker, we turned west onto SR-64, also narrow but well paved. This highway follows the White River, which had a substantial water flow. The valley is now much wider, and, in this unusually rainy year, is growing a rich crop of hay, most of which had been recently cut and baled. About 10 miles northeast of Rangely, where SR-64 turns SW to go to Rangely, Street Atlas had routed us over a shortcut, CR-65, which goes straight north to US-40 and would save us about five miles compared to continuing on SR-65. Normally I would avoid county roads with the motorhome, but this one appeared excellent - newly paved and very smooth. So we took it.
All was well until about 10 miles short of US-40, when the pavement ended at the entrance to a huge mine, and the road became badly washboarded gravel, over which we had to drive quite slowly. Two huge trucks passed us going south on this stretch, and the cloud of dust behind them was so dense that the visibility was near-zero. We had to slow to walking speed to stay on the road until the light breeze blew the dust away. Near this point, a huge overhead conveyer structure crossed the road, and seemed to stretch for miles in both directions. A few minutes later we got a glimpse of buildings far to the east which appeared to be a processing plant for whatever the conveyer was carrying. It was a relief to get to US-40. We'd have been much better off staying on SR-64 all the way to Dinosaur.
Later, I did a bit of internet research. This conveyer we saw extends about 20 miles, from the Deserado Coal Mine processing building that we could barely see about 8 miles to the east of us, to the head of the Deseret Western Railway, 12 miles to the west. This electric railroad then goes 35 miles southwest to the 485 megawatt Deseret Power Bonanza Generating Station, a few miles northwest of Bonanza, UT. It appears that the conveyer was only a couple of miles long when the mine was first developed in 1984, but was gradually extended east as the active mining location moved along the coal seam. It is an underground longwall mining operation.
After we got off the gravel road, I tried the windshield washers and got no fluid spray (another thing I forgot to check during our hurried preparation for the trip). I stopped at the next gas station/convenience store, in Dinosaur, to get a gallon of washer fluid. I paid $5.00 for it! We are really out in the boondocks.
Just past Dinosaur, we crossed the state line into Utah. Dinosaur is near one of the three entrances to Dinosaur National Monument, but doesn't seem to have benefited much from this proximity. The town is very decrepit and seems to be dieing. The entire zip code had 424 people in the 2000 census, and probably has fewer today.
We visited Dinosaur National Monument in 2005 and won't stop there today. See Dinosaur National Monument Trip Report. The spectacular Visitor Center, which contains a cliff face with several complete dinosaur skeletons still embedded, has been closed since 2006 because of structural problems due to foundation movement since its construction on expansive soils in 1957. The building was in real danger of falling down, and has been demolished. Construction of a new building is underway and is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2011. See Quarry Visitor Center update for more information. .
At Vernal, we turned north on US-191. Vernal seems to be a healthy and growing city, with a population of about 8,000. It's the county seat of Uintah County, and appears to be the regional center for businesses supporting the mining industry.
Based on very little information, we had decided to stop at Red Fleet State Park, 14 miles north of Vernal. We got there just as the sun was setting, but found that the camping area is a paved parking lot - an extension of the boat launching area, with the RVs parked very close together on narrow sites. It's an attractive park but a terrible camping spot. So we backtracked nine miles to Steinaker State Park. This is also on a reservoir, but the well-spaced campsites are scattered over a small hill on the west side of the reservoir. The sites near the water are shaded by large old cottonwoods. The sites on top of the hill are among junipers which provided very little shade, but some of the sites have a long view of the reservoir and the mountains beyond - very pretty. We found an empty site on the hill with an excellent view (site 12). Sites one through eight have full hookups. The other sites have no hookups. Site 10 has an even better view - very exposed on a hilltop - great unless there's a storm.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
We settled into our site and headed for a walk around the park just before dark. By the time we got back, it was dark except for a full moon just rising over the eastern hills. During the night, it clouded over and rained lightly.
10/4/09: When we rose in the morning, it was still heavily overcast. About 9AM, a thunderstorm came through, but dropped only a little rain. As the day progressed, more storms came through - lots of thunder and lightning, and occasional hard rain, with long periods of light rain in-between. We did our sight-seeing in spite of the weather, bundled up in our rain gear.
This area is full of fascinating scenery, but with other interesting things too. US-191 is part of the Flaming Gorge-Uintas National Scenic Byway and every few miles there is a pullout with interpretive signs. The geologic strata are all identified by big signs, and in just the 30 miles or so from our campground to Flaming Gorge, we pass through just about the entire span of geologic history, from Precambrian to Cenezoic. But not necessarily in the "right" order. Much of the area we drive through is an anticline - with the older formations at higher elevation than the younger ones. Interestingly, the layers that are exposed a few hundred yards from our home - Morrison, Dakota, etc., are also exposed at many places in this area.
From our campground, at about 5850' elevation, we climb, sometimes with 8% grades, to about 8700 feet, before dropping to the 6030 feet level of the Flaming Gorge reservoir. Along the way, we drive through a huge area where phosphate mining has been underway for many years. The areas already mined have been returned to natural-looking contours, with the topsoil augmented to be better than the original and then replanted with native vegetation. However, the reclaimed areas are very recognizable because they chose to use a different mix of vegetation than was present on the undisturbed areas, emphasizing high-nutrient grasses and avoiding the otherwise common big sagebrush (artemesia tridentate), to provide optimal forage for elk and deer.
We can see and hear occasional evidence of current mining operations in the distance (roads, ore conveyer belts, machinery noises, occasional buildings), but it is surprisingly inconspicuous for such a large operation. Displays in the roadside pullouts explain the details of the entire mining and refining process. The phosphate ore is processed at the mine site to concentrate it. The concentrate is trucked somewhere for further processing, and there is a steady procession of big trucks, one every few minutes, towing two bottom-dump hopper trailers south on US-191 and returning empty.
Phosphate Mine Reclamation
Area
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
The Flaming Gorge dam is very impressive. It's not quite as large as the similar Glen Canyon dam, but is in an equally beautiful location. The reservoir has recovered from the drought that began about a decade ago, and is now only 5 feet below its maximum level. Many spectacular viewpoints overlooking the reservoir and adjoining canyon are accessible with short walks from the roads. Many campgrounds and/or boat launching areas have been built - but nearly all of these campgrounds have closed for the season, so it's a good thing that we hadn't planned on camping here. A tour of the dam is available, but we've toured a couple of other major dams and probably won't do so this time - too many other things to do with the limited time we'll be here.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
We drove a side road down to Antelope Flats campground and boat launch on the eastern side of the reservoir. Beautiful views of rock formations. And while we were there, late in the day, the sun briefly showed through a small break in the clouds, illuminating the rain and mist over the lake, giving a really weird feeling to the place. Also an impressive double rainbow. On the way back out, a pair of young pronghorn ("antelope") crossed the road close in front of us while a larger one, with horns, waited on the other side - presumably the mother. Both sexes have horns. A bit further along the road, we saw several more pronghorn, so the location is well-named.
Flaming Gorge Reservoir, in the Fog
Just before dark, coming back over the highest elevation of the route, we passed two recent accidents - a truck pulling a horse trailer had gone off the road and rolled over. It appeared that others had stopped and got the people and the horse out - the horse was tied to a nearby tree, seemingly uninjured. A mile or so along the road, an SUV had gone off the road and rolled over, also with several other cars stopped to help. No emergency vehicles had arrived yet. We wonder if one of the storms earlier had dropped enough snow or hail to make this high elevation portion of the highway slippery. If so, no evidence of it remained when we went through.
During this evening drive we also saw many slow-moving vehicles poking along the shoulder of the highway or parked in pullouts. Most of the people we saw were wearing orange or camouflage. The main Elk hunting season opened yesterday, explaining the orange, and archery season is still open - with archers still allowed to wear camouflage.
10/5/09: Dawn brought clear skies. Mid-morning, we stopped at the park office to pay for another day and check the weather. Finally, there is a real ranger there. He said the forecast was sunny and warmer, so we headed north to do the Sheep Creek Geologic Trail. As we crossed over the summit, only about 20 miles north of our campground, we found dense clouds building to the north, and were soon driving through snow flurries. It snowed off and on for the rest of the day. Fortunately, the highway surface was still warm enough to melt the snow as it fell, so the roads were wet, but never got slippery. Before starting into the Sheep Creek Canyon loop, we detoured 5 miles north to the little town of Manila to get fuel.
We entered the Sheep Creek Canyon loop at its northern intersection with SR-44. The loop drive initially follows Sheep Creek Canyon to the west and then climbs out to higher ground and returns east to US-191. There is an attractive campground just a mile or two into the loop. It appeared to be open, even though most of the other Forest Service campgrounds in this region have closed for the season. The loop is about 13 miles and is very attractive, particularly the lower part which goes through spectacular rock formations along the creek in the canyon. Midway in the loop, another road branches off and heads west to Spirit Lake, 34 miles one way. We did not drive this portion. The Uinta Crest Fault crosses this area about midway in the loop. The south side of the fault was lifted 15,000 feet relative to the east side, giving access to millions of years of geologic formations within a short drive. The loop is mostly paved, with only a couple of short gravel sections and a few places where the pavement is patched and rough - an easy drive.
Tower Rock, Sheep Canyon Scenic Drive
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
After finishing the loop, we headed back east on SH-44 and turned north up the access road to the Red Canyon Visitor Center, (N 40.894 W 109.561). Along this road during a snow flurry, we encountered a small herd of female and juvenile Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (ovis canadensis canadensis) hanging out in the sparse forest close to the road.
Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, with snow
falling
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
The Red Canyon of the Green River is one portion of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The building, perched right at the lip of the canyon, is closed for the season, but the surrounding walkways and the trails along the cliff edge were available and very scenic. The clouds were still low and dense, giving us sporadic rain and snow showers and occasionally dipping down into the canyon. An occasional thin spot in the cloud cover would let a patch of diffuse sunlight filter into the other wise dark canyon, giving a slightly surreal effect.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
10/6/09: Chilly night - 31 degrees when I got up. The furnace ran a lot, using 165 amp-hours overnight. I really should get our old catalytic heater hooked up.
Today, we drove the Red Cloud Loop. Starting from Vernal, this route follows County, BLM, and Forest service routes of varying quality for about 50 miles northwest then east through a portion of the Uinta Mountains. The initial portion goes through Dry Creek Canyon, with very interesting rock formations. We then climbed steeply out of the canyon to the Northeast, giving us nice views of the canyon we had just left and of high mountains beyond. As we continued east across the top of the plateau, the road continued climbing gradually, through dense Ponderosa and then lodgepole pine forest which obscured our views of surrounding mountains. At around 8000 feet we encountered snow on the road, and the amount of snow gradually increased until by the time we reached the top, at 9900 feet, there was several inches of snow, with a narrow track packed hard (and slick) by the many trucks and ATVs of elk hunters (the season opened a couple of days ago). Many clearings along the road have small groups of fairly large travel trailers and fifth wheels, with clusters of ATV's parked around them.
Red Cloud Loop, Uinta Mountains
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
Uinta Mountains at 10,000 feet
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
The road was quite slippery and crowned so that it was noticeably downhill toward both sides, and at one point I spun a bit and sideslipped just enough to catch a snow ridge and slip a bit more sideways into a shallow ditch along the edge of the narrow road. Even with the 4-wheel drive of the jeep, the tires didn't have enough traction on the wet snow to pull out, and spinning the tires just resulted in slipping further down. I got out our small folding emergency shovel and started digging the snow away from the tires down to bare gravel. Within a few minutes a hunter drove by and stopped to help. We hitched up a light nylon strap from his truck to the tow hook on the back of the jeep, and with gentle tugging from the truck, we were easily able to back out onto the high center of the road. Getting stuck in the snow in early October is a new experience! It was fortunate that the guy who stopped to help us had a tow line. I have now added a nylon strap with tow hooks to the permanent contents of the jeep.
After a few more miles of gentle up and down through the forest at near 10,000 feet, with occasional views of alpine bogs, small lakes, and even higher peaks, the road began to descend to the east, eventually becoming quite steep, although by this time we were lower and out of the snow. The forest road ended on US-191, about 25 miles north of our campground.
On the way back to the campground, we turned east on the north access road to Red Fleet State Park, which goes through some very interesting eroded sandstone formations. Red Fleet is named for a red Navajo Sandstone outcropping that resembles a fleet of ships where the rocks stick up out of the water. We stopped at the parking area at the Dinosaur Trackway & Nature Trail
Helen, on Red Fleet Dinosaur Trackway Trail
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
Red Fleet Reservoir, from Dinosaur Trackway Trail
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
This area is littered with fossil footprints from at least five different formations ranging in age from Early Triassic to Late Cretaceous. The trail, with numerous intrepretive signs along the way, leads to an exposed area of dinosaur footprints that are right on the northwest edge of Red Fleet Reservoir. This interesting article has much more detailed descriptions of the formations and fossil tracks in this area, and some photos of the tracks.
We hiked together for about two thirds of the distance to the reservoir. Then Helen turned back, and Dave hurried on to the reservoir in the waning light of late afternoon. The tracks in the sandstone along the shoreline, uncovered when the reservoir was built, have now been exposed to the weather for quite a few years, and are rapidly wearing away, with only a few still prominent.
We got back to the campground just at dusk.
10/7/09: Another chilly night. Just before sunup the temperature was 30 degrees. I hope we don't run out of propane. We're out of time and must leave this morning. We spent a while looking at possible routes to St. George, and found a way that would be mostly new to us. We got on the road about 10:30 AM, taking US-191 southwest, then US-6. This portion of US-6 has been undergoing a major reconstruction and widening. It's nearly finished, with only a few segments still being worked on. We encountered a few minor construction delays.
We turned south on I-15 (which is also under construction), just south of Provo, and after about fifteen slow miles through construction, left the Interstate and turned west again, still on US-6 which continued southwest roughly paralleling I-15, but about 25 miles further west. This is interesting basin-and-range country, with small mountain ranges appearing unexpectedly out of the desert, and intervening "basins" collecting what little rain occurs, with lakes, which are usually dry, in the middle of these local depressions.
Just past Delta, where US-6 turns west, we turned south on SR-257. We stopped for the night at Fort Deseret, just south of the village of Deseret. This is a Utah State Historic site. It is the remains of an adobe fort built by settlers in 1865 for protection from the Indians during the Black Hawk war. The fort was originally a square 550 feet on a side, with adobe walls that were 10 feet wide at the base, tapering to 3 feet wide at the top. It was built by 98 volunteers over a span of 18 days. Little is left. Part of the wall has been partially rebuilt by volunteers in recent years, but the site is otherwise undeveloped. We pulled into the large graveled parking area and spent the night tucked in between two large old cottonwood trees.
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
The surrounding land is all being irrigated. Each huge field has been carefully leveled, differing in height from the adjacent fields by perhaps a foot or two. A large concrete irrigation ditch runs along the road. Water is let into individual fields through adjustable gates, and spreads out over the flat field. The crop seems to be all alfalfa. This area is the site of the ancient Lake Bonneville. It is still very flat and still has no outlet. Small volcanic mountain ranges erupt from the lake bed. Ancient beaches show that some of these volcanos erupted up through the lake. Just a few miles from us there are shallow salty lakes, and some of the land is too alkaline to allow farming. The Sevier river flows through a portion of this area, but usually carries little water. In 1983, an unusually wet year, the Sevier flowed enough to re-fill Sevier Lake, which had been dry for 100 years, to a depth of up to 35 ft, creating a "new" lake. Today, the lake is again nearly dry.
This narrow state highway has a constant flow of the same kind of big double-trailer trucks that we saw near Flaming Gorge. Perhaps there is a similar type of mine somewhere along this highway? A truck goes by about every 10 minutes, half are southbound and half northbound. There is also a busy train track paralleling the road just to the east of us. One long train was entirely made up of flatbed cars, about half of them carrying two stacked multi-modal shipping containers and the other half with a single long semi-trailer on each car. We quickly became used to the noise of the trucks and trains and spent a peaceful night
10/8/09: While I was sipping my morning coffee, a truck, a car, and a small bus pulled in to the parking lot in front of the fort. A group of middle-aged men exited the bus and gathered in front of the fort. It seemed like an unusual group to be getting a lecture about an obscure Mormon fort, so I wandered over to satisfy my curiosity. The bus had a Utah State University logo, and the truck was a state government vehicle. The lecture had nothing to do with the fort. Rather, the focus of attention was the irrigation ditch which ran in front of the fort. The state employee was lecturing on irrigation hydrology, in English, and a translator was repeating it all in Spanish. Apparently this ditch is a good example of modern computer-designed irrigation methods, and a concrete one foot high bump cast into the bottom of the ditch (which Helen and I had speculated about while taking our evening walk yesterday), was of considerable interest.
After our usual lazy morning, we got on the road about 10 AM, and continued south. The road was smooth, nearly deserted, and extended out to the horizon in a perfectly straight line across the desert. We're still driving over the ancient Lake Bonneville lakebed, level except for an occasional abrupt 10-foot rise which our geology books describe as a beach- the edge of the lake during a long geological period when the lake was at a relatively constant level. Most of the terrain is dotted with small sage brush and tufts of bunch grass. Occasionally, we pass through a region where there is almost no foliage at all, because of white encrusted highly alkaline soil. We pass another mining operation, so apparently something in this soil is worth digging up and refining.
Eventually, after a couple of hours, we reached the southern edge of the lake and begin winding up through small mountains, and then turned on to I-15 just north of Cedar City, an hour north of St. George. The terrain along I-15 is also very complex and interesting. The steep escarpment to our east is the Hurricane fault and is the western edge of the Colorado Plateau. Zion National Park is just a few miles east. Some of the upper layers to the east, as well as the relatively low mountains to our west, are of volcanic origin, with jet-black basaltic soil and pale grey volcanic ash frequently visible along the road cuts.
We stopped at the Flying J at the south edge of St. George to fill up with diesel fuel, to be ready for a quick getaway next week, and then backtracked a few miles to Temple View RV Resort where we have reservations for six nights, although we hope to cancel the last night if volleyball ends early enough on that last day.
St. George is busy, with something like 9300 athletes in town, competing in 27 different sports during a two week period. This is the sixth year that Dave has competed here with his team. This year, I'll be competing in only one age division, so our stay will be shorter than usual - only four days of competition, plus an intervening Sunday where everything shuts down. All accommodations in town are full. Each year that I'm here, I make reservations for the next year at the RV Park before leaving - the whole place will be fully booked almost that far in advance.
10/11/09: No volleyball on Sunday. The weather was perfect, so we drove up to Zion National Park. I (Dave) had always wanted to hike a portion of "The Narrows" of the Virgin River. This is a spectacular canyon that is 16 miles long, up to 2000 feet deep, and as narrow as 25 feet in some places. For much of it, the river fills the bottom of the canyon, so one simply walks in the river.
On a couple of prevous occasions, the weather didn't co-operate. On one occasion, it was overcast and cold, and most of this hike involves wading in the river. On another occasion, the local weather seemed nice, but thunderstorms were forecast in the mountains to the north, leading to a danger of flash floods in the river canyon, which in some places has steep walls and no way to escape a flood.
I thought I was adequately prepared for the hike - quick-drying nylon and polyester, wool socks, shoes that gripped fairly well on the rocks. But I underestimated how cold the water was. It felt like this water was all recently melted ice. In just a few minutes and less than half a mile of walking, my feet were numb. And then the water started getting deeper. Some people ahead of me were already up to their waist for a short stretch of river, and I was already uncomfortable standing in mid-calf depth. I backtracked a little way to a dry beach to let my feet warm up, and then studied the other people in the water. Those dressed like me all stopped and turned around about where I did. Those that were continuing all had similar pants - high bib overalls that apparently were well-insulated dry suits. Most appeared to be rented from a local outfitter. Too late for me to go hunt up the outfitter now, so I headed back to the car to get dry clothes and warm up.
Everything takes a long time in this park. One must park the car at the Visitor Center at the south end of the canyon (assuming there is parking available. Arriving after 10 AM probably means backtracking and hunting for parking along the shoulder of the road in the town to the south). The free shuttle bus taks about 40 minutes to get from the Visitor's Center up to the Temple of Sinewawa, where the Riverside Walk begins. This paved trail is a mile long, at least another 20 minutes of walking, and leads to the beginning of The Narrows.
So no big hike today. But the views from the shuttle, and the Riverwalk, were delightful. Helen separately took the shuttle and walked the Riverwalk, and we eventually met up again at the car. Much of the canyon has no cellphone service, to it's hard to stay in contact.
The Narrows, Zion National Park
(Click the photo or the above
link for a larger image.)
10/13/09: The scheduling of the final double-elimination day of the tournament was awkward, so we didn't finish playing until about 6 pm, and then had to wait around for another match to finish, and then the awards ceremony. Our team got a silver medal in the silver division. Not as good as we had hoped, but still enough to keep us happy. I had brought the motorhome to the Dixie Center parking lot before play in the morning, so as to be ready to make a quick getaway, but it was nearly 7 pm before we could actually leave.
In spite of the late hour, we decided to drive for a while, since we really wanted to be back in Golden on Wednesday (Helen wanted to attend a class on Thursday). We drove for about two hours, stopping at a rest area just a couple of miles north of the I-15 to I-70 interchange, near Cove Fort. This fairly small parking area was almost full when we arrived and full soon after. We were the only RV - all other occupants were big tractor/trailer rigs. I neglected to notice that the rig parked next to us had a refrigerated trailer, with the cooling compressor cycling on every hour or so. But in spite of that, we had a peaceful night and slept well.
10/14/09: We got on the road at dawn, about 7 am, and drove across I-70 in intermitent rain and occasional snow or sleet. I'm glad we got the dashboard heater core replaced. For much of the way, we had the defroster running full blast to keep the inside defogged and to keep the snow from accumulating thickly on the windshield just outside the area swept by the wipers.
At Vail Pass, and again on the west side of Loveland Pass, we ran into more serious snow. But the temperature remained in the 40's, and the road was still warm from previous sunny days so no snow accumulated on the pavement. The skies cleared as we headed down to the east from Loveland Pass. Golden was clear and sunny, although we could still look west and see the massive storm clouds hanging over the continental divide.