Rocks, a bear and a snake
I’m sure glad that I didn’t have to go with Mom & Dad today on their off-road adventure! They drove west of Fruita, CO and then got off the real road to drive the old dirt and rock trail 35 miles up to Baxter Pass. Although the road and pass are still in use (mostly to access remote cattle range and gas wells) they only saw a couple of other vehicles in the 4 hours it took to make the drive.
When they got back late in the afternoon they told us how the pass was originally used by the Ute Indians to travel between western Colorado and eastern Utah. It was later used to truck a gooey form of natural asphalt through the mountains until a pipeline was built to replace the truck transport. Mom told us that most of the trip was very pretty through a valley with desert scenery surrounded by rocky hills. She thought the last few miles were sort of scary since the road rose rapidly with a number of switchbacks and hairpin turns with a cliff face on one side and a sharp drop to the valley (no guardrails!) on the other.
They did see one exciting thing - a brown bear near the top of the pass (above 8400 feet). Mom didn’t get a very good photo since it’s hard to say who was more surprised - her or the bear. The bear scrambled quickly up the slope while she was trying to get a picture. The rocks the bear dislodged came falling down on the road, so they had to wait a couple of minutes for the rock slide to subside before they could continue on down the road. They also saw a big snake sunning itself in the road on the way back down. The snake was pretty easy to photograph, since it was moving pretty slowly.
The view from near the top of Baxter Pass
A brown bear making a hasty retreat after spotting us driving down from the top of Baxter Pass
The road on the way down from the top of Baxter Pass
A snake sunning itself in the middle of the road.
When they got back late in the afternoon they told us how the pass was originally used by the Ute Indians to travel between western Colorado and eastern Utah. It was later used to truck a gooey form of natural asphalt through the mountains until a pipeline was built to replace the truck transport. Mom told us that most of the trip was very pretty through a valley with desert scenery surrounded by rocky hills. She thought the last few miles were sort of scary since the road rose rapidly with a number of switchbacks and hairpin turns with a cliff face on one side and a sharp drop to the valley (no guardrails!) on the other.
They did see one exciting thing - a brown bear near the top of the pass (above 8400 feet). Mom didn’t get a very good photo since it’s hard to say who was more surprised - her or the bear. The bear scrambled quickly up the slope while she was trying to get a picture. The rocks the bear dislodged came falling down on the road, so they had to wait a couple of minutes for the rock slide to subside before they could continue on down the road. They also saw a big snake sunning itself in the road on the way back down. The snake was pretty easy to photograph, since it was moving pretty slowly.
The view from near the top of Baxter Pass
A brown bear making a hasty retreat after spotting us driving down from the top of Baxter Pass
The road on the way down from the top of Baxter Pass
A snake sunning itself in the middle of the road.
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