2023 CANYONLANDS ADVENTURE - ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH

 

DAY #12 – THURSDAY – JULY 13, 2023

MOAB, UT – DENVER, CO

326 – MILES / 3,543 – TOTAL MILES

 

This is Day #12 of my great Canyonlands Adventure, and my day begins in Moab, Utah. The Fairfield Inn here in Moab was very nice and comfortable. We had to have our bags out at 6:30 with an 8 a.m. scheduled departure. I was up by 6 and after putting my bags out, I went down and grabbed a cup of coffee in the lobby. Breakfast doesn’t start until 7 a.m. so I decided to take a morning walk.

The morning sun made the scenery look fresh and beautiful. I must say that I have enjoy these morning walks. Enjoying the beauty of my surrounding is a wonderful way to start the Day.  I am glad that I got cortisone shots in both of my knees before I left. Without them, walking and hiking on this trip would have been very difficult.

It took me about 45-minutes to wake 2-miles, according to my Fitbit. I arrived back at the Hotel about 7:15 and enjoyed breakfast with Dan and Sallie.  After breakfast and one final check of my room I boarded the bus at 7:50 a.m. Surprisingly, everyone was on time, and we pulled out right at 8 a.m.

Today, we are making the Big Turn and start our trip back to the east. Rather than heading directly back to Interstate 70, we take are taking Utah Route 128 which runs along the banks of the Colorado River. This is a very scenic drive and a highly used recreation area.  There are campgrounds all along the river. Some are primitive, while others are for tents only and there are even some that can accommodate large motorhomes with full hookups.

Along the 50-mile route we saw a lot of rafters using the river and even a few climbers on the steep cliffs that border the river. This is an amazing drive filled with beautiful scenery at every turn.

It took us a little over an hour to make the 50-mile drive from Moab to Interstate 70 near Crescent Junction, Utah. Once we are back on Interstate 70, it’s another 60-miles or so to the Colorado Line. The scenery along this section of Interstate 70 is remarkable and I spent my last few miles in Utah snapping photos out the bus window.  I am told that once we hit Colorado, the scenery along the interstate is even more amazing.

A little over two hours after leaving Moab we make our first rest stop of the day at the Love’s Travel Center in Grand Junction Colorado. I think our tour guide has given up on quick rest stops. When we first started this trip, she tried giving us 15 minutes which never worked because of the lines at the bathrooms. So, most of the stops are now 30 minutes and most people (yes, we still have the usual stragglers) are back on the bus and ready to go at the announced time.

Leaving Grand Junction, we follow the Colorado River to Gypsum Colorado. The Scenery is truly amazing, as the river and the Interstate winds through Glenwood Canyon. He the Westbound lanes of the interstate are on a raised viaduct. This was done to protect the beauty of the canyon and allow the rover to follow its natural path.  This was truly an engineering marvel.

As we traveled east through Glenwood Canyon, I noticed on several occasions that the rafter on the river would take the opportunity to drop their drawers and moon us.  This is also a popular activity for rafters when Amtrak’s California Zephyr passes through the Canyon.

Once we leave the Colorado River in Gypsum, we begin our climb up the western face of the Rocky Mountains. Once again (I know you are tired of hearing this) the scenery is spectacular. I am totally amazed and really want to come back to this area an spend a lot more time.

At 12:30 p.m. we arrive in the mountain resort of Vail.  As we pull into the Vale Transportation Center, Michelle announces that we have two hours for shopping and lunch. We should be back on the bus, and ready to go by 2:30 p.m.

I am not really into shopping, so I se about exploring the town. The first thing I notice is that there are a lot of things here named “Ford” in honor of President Gerald Ford who had a home here.  President Ford loved to com here to ski and would split his time between Vail and his home in Palm Springs.

In his later years, President Ford was unable to ski and was less active, so hie sold his home here and resided full time in Palm Spring.

Vale no doubt caters to the rich and that is reflected in the price of just about everything. It didn’t take me long to figure out, this place was well above my pay grade. I looked at some of the homes for sale in the window of a local real estate company and the lowest priced home was a little of 1,400 square feet. The listed price was $1.4 million. The highest priced one was $15.7 million.  There were a couple listed with “Call for Information.” I shudder to think what they would cost.

 A few of my traveling companions decided that we would take a gondola ride to the top of Vail
Mountain. The ride up to took about 20 minutes and when we topped out, we were close to 10,000-feet above sea level. The views were great.

 I asked one of the Gondola attendants where was a good place to eat. He asks what I was interested in and I said something Cheap. He looked at me and chuckled, “Friend, this is Vail, there is nothing cheap here.” I settled for an 8” sub from the local deli. The sub, Bag of chips and a Drink set me back $23.89. He was right there is nothing cheap in Vail.

I enjoy the gondola ride and my walk around Vale. It was interesting to see “how the other half lives.” Most of the people who work in the shops and cafés were very nice, however some of the “resident guest” had inflated ego’s and were border line rude.

At 2:25 p.m. John arrived with the bus and most of use were onboard at 2:30 p.m. But you guessed it, the same 4 people were late and nowhere in sight. We waited and we waited some more. Michelle tried calling them on their cell phones but no answer. Several people in our group jokingly told Michell just to leave them. I’m not so sure they were joking.

Finally, at 2:45 p.m. the four stragglers showed up. They were unapologetic and obvious to anything going on around them.

Leaving Vale, we continued to Climb the western slope of the Rockies toward the Continental Divide. About an hour later we arrived at the Eisenhower Tunnel. The Eisenhower Tunnel is just a little over a mile and a half in length and is the highest point along the Interstate Highway System, with an elevation of 11,158 feet. 

After passing through the Eisenhower Tunnel, it all downhill as we make our way toward Denver. We make our way down the Front Range of the Rockies and about 90 minutes later we arrive at the Double Tree – Central Denver which will be our accommodations for the Night.

On the way into Denver, we Pass Coors’ Field, which is home to the Colorado Rockies Baseball Team. After arriving at the Double Tree, it took Michelle an abnormal amount of time to secure our room Keys.  Usually it takes her about 10-minutes, but here it was close to 30-minutes before she arrived back on the bus and began distributing out keys.

Once I go my Key and was settled in my room, I checked the Trip Advisor and Yelp apps on my phone to see if there were any restaurants nearby.  There was nothing within walking distance so I along with several other members or our group decided to have supper in the Hotel Restaurant.

Like most hotel restaurants the prices are greatly inflated, I had the fish and chips, with a non-acholic drink. With tip it set me back $24.56.

After supper, I decided to take a walk round the Hotel, but soon after leaving the building I had Second thoughts. Several suspicious people were loitering across the street from the Hotel and just up the street a few homeless people had set up tents. I chose to turn around and return to my room.

Today was another good day, I really enjoyed the drive across Route 128 and Interstate 70. The stop in Vale was nice but expensive. Tomorrow will be all about miles has we head east across the flat plains of Kansas.