Day 12: Government interventions

Today's route from Rangely to Grand Junction Colorado included a bit of a "long cut" since I and many other tour riders got into Grand Junction along the mesa's rim on the far side of the Colorado River instead of riding directly up the river valley. This rim road, called Rimrock Drive, is the central attraction of the Colorado National Monument. I'll cut to the chase here and say that this 22 mile section through the monument will probably be the high point of this tour - not the high point in altitude but in sensory enjoyment. Rated (by someone - who I don't know) as one of the top 50 cycling roads in the US, we tossed around words attempting to convey the impression: AWEsome, the Greatest, GORGEous, best climb ever.

The day started with a promise of less wind and temps around 50°. My room was above the parking lot so I could get a snap of the standard PacTour morning activity:

The course followed Douglas Creek, a tributary of the White River, south for 36 miles. The road up the creek had short hills every half mile or so, alternating with flat or almost flat sections; this consistent climbing over so many miles raised us 2400' to around 7000' elevation. The land along much of the road was Bureau of Land Management owned, with many "Interpretive Site" signs. The funny part was that there was no other information except the sign, and frequently they were placed behind a substantial fence. How was I supposed to interpret that?

The ridge to our left and and some cloud cover kept the sun obscured and we soon found ourselves riding in 45° air. This time I was dressed, if not warmly, at least appropriately. The sun broke through by the time we started two and a half miles of steeper gradients which took us to Douglas Pass at 8200'. Shots from the climb:

Looking ahead

Looking behind

 

 

Looking to the right

 

Getting within sight of the pass

 

 

Looking back at the Douglas Creek valley

Looking at the descent off the other side - you can see the road traversing in the center of the photo:

The descent was technical (yes!) with lots of switchbacks (yes!), dry and gravel free (yes!) made more challenging by significant pavement heaves before and within corners (uh-oh!).

Since I gapped the fast boys group in the descent, I had time to capture a shot of the roadside sunflowers I've been enjoying for the entire trip:

Once the group of five of us was organized, we flew down the Salt Creek valley and the foothills beyond, covering 24 miles in a bit over an hour.

The lunch site was at Highline Lake State Park. Highline Lake is a reservoir within the Government Highline Canal project. This canal project was built starting in 1912 by the predecessor of the Army Corps of Engineers with significant improvements made by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the depression.  The canals serve 52 square miles of the Grand Valley of the Colorado River.

To conserve water, these days the distribution to fields is done via underground pipes instead of the old-school branch canals. Each field was lined with 8" distribution pipes that flood the field:

This kind of flood irrigation requires precisely graded fields. 

Crossing the source: the Colorado River at Fruita (and Fruita is certainly a fruitful area thanks to government intervention).

On the far side of the river we quickly started climbing to the mesa (in the background above) and the entrance of the Colorado National Monument. This 20,000 acre reserve was established in 1911 by congress with major lobbying from the local residents of Mesa County.

The road through the park shows all the usual signs of a CCC project. A very even 5% grade took us up a canyon to the mesa top - about a 1000' climb:

 

Bicycle art shot of the day:

Before reaching the mesa, the road wound across the canyon wall:

 

Looking down on the section of road shown first above

More shots from the monument for your perusal:

Visitor center display. Unfortunately I didn't have time to check it all out.

A really cool culvert. Thank you CCC!

We were passed by many presumably local cyclists doing the road in the other direction.  However we were passed by very few cars. What a great time of year to do the road!

Solo Bighorn Sheep wondering why I've stopped on the road:

When Rachel M rode by later, she saw what I think is the same animal

Trail heading down the hill next to the sign above. There is a lot of back country adventure to be had here.

To give a feeling for what it was like to ride up there, here is a video showing of a random section of road:

 

Rachel took the time to capture a small portion of the road off the mesa:

Here is a view back at the openings of those canyons after the descent:

I've gotta say, one hundred years later, we really benefit from government intervention.