Colorado never ceases to amaze. Driving north from Grand Mesa and Grand Junction we passed through broad vistas of open range spread across rolling foothills. Sage, tumbleweeds, dry grasses intermingled across the expanses. These are spaces where a person can easily escape the ant hills of metropolitan living and lose, then find yourself among the great sky and earth of western Colorado. It’s as contemplative fresco of dryscape inhabited by water hording plant and animal life.
Feeling we didn’t want to drive all the way to Steamboat Lake we stopped ¾ of the way there at Yampa River State Park. This is a flat patch of preservation that borders the Yampa River as it tumbles lazily to the west. The winter of 2017-18 was extremely warm and dry followed by this summer’s continuing dry and warm pattern. The grasses were high and brown, burnt by the sun. The ground was dusty and thirsty. The river itself was barely a trickle. Usually, there are float fishing expeditions on the river, but this year it is too low to support anything save a kayak. As is the case in most of Colorado that we have visited, local farms draw off water from the river for irrigation. I couldn’t estimate accurately how much water is typically drawn off, but I would guess it to be 50% or so. We spent the night here at Yampa River State Park and it was pleasant. The ranger staff here is excellent and I really enjoyed the exhibit of the local flora, fauna, and history that they built in the visitor center. Colorado state parks are a treasure...well thought out, educational, with exhilarating landscape, obviously...Wild, while educational.
Steamboat Springs is a gem. These Colorado towns we pass through and fortunately get to spend some time in are very different from what we are used to in the midwest. Most have a thriving main street or downtown devoid of chain stores. Local entrepreneurs do their utmost to showcase creativity in marketing their stores and bringing unique products to their customers, most of whom are travelers and tourists like ourselves. Coincidentally, some of these outposts set amidst the mountains feature hot springs you can soak in. Steamboat features several. We visited Strawberry Park, located 15 minutes outside of the town proper and set amidst steep canyon walls. Several pools spill into each other featuring various temperature levels of hot, spring water. The only challenge with soaking in hot springs is you have to drive home. You can become so relaxed that you don’t want to leave.
Heading north from Steamboat on a two-lane winding, climbing road you eventually come to the hamlet of Hahn’s Peak flanked by Steamboat Lake State Park. At this point of our 50 amp vision quest, this area has become one of my favorite locales. It is truly wild with designated wilderness surrounding the area. Hahn’s Peak dominates the skyline at 12000+’ in altitude. We fired up our jeep, Quicksilver, and explored as many dirt roads and off-road places we could. It’s a vast area of lush mountain terrain laced with small rivers and creeks, Aspens, Douglas fir and Lodgepole Pines. Large mammals are free to roam here and they attempt to stay hidden as much as possible. We saw our first moose since we sold our house at the Hahn Peak Lake campground. This giant bull moose ambled its way down to the lake one evening as I was sanding a new walking stick I was making. What a specimen of an animal!
The stars in this part of Colorado are brilliant and plentiful. On any given clear night the Milky Way impresses with its mysterious glow. Again, at this site as well as in Texas near Terlingua in the Big Bend region, I witnessed blinking lights in the sky. These are not jets or airplanes. What I saw, again, were lights in the northwestern sky above the Big Dipper.
I'm thinking back to a time when the Bluegrass Alliance band that I played in along with Bob Breidenbach, Vince Gill, Bill Millet, and Robert Poole, performed for two weeks at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson Hole, WY. On our final night we fronted Waylon Jennings and his band. Waylon was laid out stoned before the show. We went into the basement where the band was holed up before his show and after ours. We talked a bit and we wondered if he would be able to perform. However, he rallied like nobody's business and put on two great performances that rocked the house seriously.
We were going to leave after the first show and drive to Rocky Mountain National park for a couple of days. It was on our route back home to Louisville, KY where our base was. We decided to go ahead and watch Waylon's second show. He was that good, in his prime riding the wave. After the second show we all left and headed south bound for Rocky Mountain National Park. Our route would have taken us right through where we are camped now. As we got closer to the Park, we came to a bridge that crossed the Thompson River. It was gone...washed out from a flash flood! It was one hell of a flood. As it turned out, there had been a flash monster thunderstorm that night and the Thompson Canyon campground, where we intended to camp, was completely washed away. Very few survivors make it out alive. In fact, downstream from the bridge that had disappeared in the night, police were dragging the river looking for bodies. It was a crippling, gruesome sight to see. Had we not stayed for that second show of Waylon's, we would have been probably driving up that canyon looking for a camp site right when the wall of water came thundering down the canyon.
I'm staring at the stars out tonight and reflecting on that night, those shows, my band mates, my wife, Diane. Sometimes you take a left or right turn and your entire life changes. You dawdle talking to a friend for a few minutes extra. You stay for one more show of Waylon Jennings and everything changes.