On our way to the top!

Evening, Campers! It's Silver Cliche' here with you and tonight again from Ridgway, State Park in Ridgway, Colorado.

The day started early inside the Cliche' with the dogs deciding that if the sun was starting to light the sky then they should be up and asking us to tend to them. No worries, we had an early start planned (just not quite that early). After our morning coffee, reading and pancakes (generally in that order) we did the best we could to make ourselves presentable and jumped in the trusty Tundra for the 15 minute ride to Ouray. Here's a shot Mrs. C' took on the way to Ouray. Note the pristine view of cattle grazing under a morning sky with snow capped peaks in the distance. We are told that people who frequent Colorado's dispensaries find this view especially inspiring, sometimes to the point that they spontaneously break out in poetry:

The morning was clear, with a forecast of afternoon rain and we had a 4x4 Jeep reserved for an off road trip into the high country. In this case that term doesn't refer to the State of Colorado generally, but to a spot 3,600 feet above the already high starting point of Ouray at 7,700 feet. Our destination was a place called Yankee Boy Basin.

Thanks to TripAdvisor we had linked up with a company in town called Colorado West Jeeps. What a nice group of folks. They had been helpful before our arrival answering questions by e-mail and generally inspiring confidence that they would be ready and we would manage just fine. Once we started interacting with them we realized that this is truly a family business. I believe everyone we interacted with was family whether behind the counter or in the garage. I mentioned yesterday that part of the clan also are Floridians who run the business here in Colorado seasonally. The pre-arrival inspiration was reinforced by “Jeep Day” delivery. We had a brand new 4x4 Wrangler (blue with a black top) with only 500 lifetime miles on it. It was clean, gassed and ready to go. We got a short checkout talk (mostly about putting it in and out of 4WD) and we were off.

Reflecting on what happened next reminds me of the story of “boiling the frog”. If you have not been exposed to this science please understand that it was performed long before People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals existed. In fact, the science dates to the 1870s and was done in Germany. In retrospect, what Germans did to frogs in the name of science pales in comparison to what came later. Anyhow, Google it if you need details (I did… as I typed “b-o-i-l-i-n-g t-h-e…” and it started searching, “...frog” was already the third most popular search). The essence is that if you introduce change at a slow enough rate, a living creature may not react but if you make sudden changes (let's say, in the temperature of a frog's watery home or in road conditions on a mountainside) then reaction will occur. Well, the road to Yankee Boy Basin evolved slowly. Here we are at the first stop where we said “This is beautiful… let's stop, get out and take pictures!”

Later, I would consider two new definitions of road conditions: 1.) how wide is the road measured in “Jeep widths” and 2.) what is the probability of death if the Jeep were to leave the road surface. At the point the above picture was taken, the road was 4 JW (Jeep Widths). That made the passing side-to-side of two vehicles very easy with ½ JW on the outside of each and 1 JW between. No problemo! Also the probability of death if the Jeep left the road surface was low… less than 10% and that is only due to the risk of hypotnermia if the Jeep landed in a stream fed by snowmelt from the Yankee Boy Basin where the snow is still 4 feet deep. We pressed on…

The next photo op occurred here:

We stopped to photograph the amazing cliffs and the thin veil of pale green that was hanging on the white birches that were just starting to leaf at this altitude. Now look back at the pic. Note the road. It is now ranging between 2 and 3 JWs. The probability of death in the event of loss of control is precisely 50%. That is 0% if you land in the low ditch on the right side of the road as shown in this picture and 100% if your Jeep was to leave the left side which is a 1,000 foot cliff. Just as the German scientists didn't waste any money on frog alarms or frog ladders, the Ouray Country Highway Department (Yes, this is a county road, technically we were not “off roading”… we were “roading”. It only looks to you and me like it's not a road because we don't live in the Western Slope in Colorado.) didn't waste any money on shoulders or guard rails. This change from 4JW to 2JW occurred gradually over a mile or three and we had adjusted. We pressed ahead!

Soon we came to this stretch of road. 

 

Yes, that is a rock overhang with the road proceeding under it. Remember, this is still spring in Colorado and there is beaucoup snow in higher elevations. The underside of this overhang was raining snowmelt onto the road. We felt it was time for the windows to come up and the windshield wipers to come on but we pressed ahead!

This is where thinking frogs bolt, but we were hooked. Even this sign did not deter us:

I am not sure what manner of vehicle, animal or passtime they did not warn us about. I think maybe the sign should include a Santa Clause icon, or a toothless fellow playing the banjo, but other than that the warning is clear and thorough. We pressed ahead.

I don't have a picture of what happened next to share with you. In words, I'll say: We came to a fork in the road. Several cars were pulled off on the left fork and parked there with no driver or occupant in sight. I think we should have recognized that those were the vehicles belonging to “the aware frogs”. That theory was confirmed later when we met the couple who owned one of those vehicles and who told us they parked it there out of an abundance of caution given the appearance of the road ahead on the right fork. We, however, saw a sign at the fork and it clearly pointed to Yankee Boy Basin up the right fork. We knew we were headed for Yankee Boy Basin. The appearance of the road was of no concern… we pressed ahead.

If I didn't mention it earlier, somewhere near the bottom of the hill I commented to Mrs. C' “I think we could have brought the trusty Tundra up here… after all, it has 4WD and is a pretty capable machine.” As soon as we entered the right fork that notion was gone… gone… gone. The Tundra itself is 1.5 JWs. The road was narrow. Maybe 1.5 JWs on average, 1.25 in the narrow spots with snow banks on either side. About every 100 feet was an area 1.75 to 2.01 JWs. Note that this is not only a county road, it is a two lane county road. As the warning sign pointed out, one must be ready to BACK UP if needed to find one of those spots that was 2.0+ wide and use it effectively. Clearly people who drive this regularly have a keen eye on the difference between a 1.95 JW and a 2.05 JW section. We were fortunate and only met two vehicles coming down that section. The fact that we got our damage deposit back at the end of the trip speaks to the skill of the downhill drivers. We did stop for one set of pics at a wide spot in the road. Note that while the terrain is rough (the “road” was more like a stream with a bottom of mud and angular rocks) that the probability of death from going off the road had dropped to zero since the snow banks eliminated any possibility of actually leaving the track.

So, we got to the top. I pulled out my GPS to get an altimeter reading – 11,306'. People who come in July or August can take the longer route over the Imogene Pass which is still snowed in now. It's over 13,000' and must be an even bigger treat. Here's a pic of the rugged little Jeep at the top. That's Mrs. C' in the Jeep giving me a hand gesture. No… not that hand gesture (what kind of a lady do you think she is? Plus, I had driven well, in my own mind, and any whiplash I gave her driving through potholes rather than around them was minor) she was flashing the “V” for Victory sign!

 

After a brief attempt at catching our breath we decided to head down. The sky was clouding up and looking like the weatherman's prediction of rain would come true. We have one more excursion to this altitude tomorrow as we cross the continental divide. I can say I will not miss the thin air of Colorado even if lots of other aspects of our time here will bring us back again. The trip down was a bit easier. We knew what to expect, its generally easier going downhill as long as you maintain slow speed and control. When we got into some of those steep drop off zones, Mrs. C' asked me to stay far to the left. She had a theory that since she was on the side with the drop, that it would be worse for her if we went over the edge. I'm thinking we need to get some German scientists to test that idea. I don't think the outcome of that error depends on whether one is strapped into the first seat over the cliff or the second.

Today ends the major part of the trip. We drove from Florida to see some amazing sites in the west. We enjoyed the trip across country and stopped en route to visit family. The western sightseeing started in Mesa Verde three weeks ago and included National Parks, National Monuments, interesting places, points of interest and a lot of eye popping stuff. Tomorrow begins the cross-country trip home. It's planned for two weeks. I'll still write most every night and post pics when interesting stuff passes before us, but it'll be hard to match what we've seen and done in Colorado, Arizona, Utah and back to Colorado. I'm going to take tomorrow night off because I believe we will be in a place with no internet (and no electricity and no water and no dump station). If you want tomake your own fly by of our route, we'll be leaving Ridgway, crossing over Monarch Pass and heading to Salida, Colorado then camping literally on the banks of the Arkansas River about 8 miles east of Salida at the Rincon Campground of the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area. Monday night (when I hope to write again) we will be in the northeast corner of New Mexico at Clayton Lake before heading into Oklahoma for the trip across the plains.

Thanks for following us and for all the encouragement you send in calls and texts. We look forward to an uneventful (but interesting) cross country trip, a few weeks at home then a trip to Massachusetts starting July 5.

Later!

SC'