Jacqueline’s Jaunts

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

09-21-21 Tuesday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 21 Elderberry Family Farm Payson UT

09-21-21 Tuesday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 21

Elderberry Family Farm

Payson, UT

I forgot to mention a few things about Rangely, CO in my post last night. I found it to be an interesting place.

Rangely’s motto is “Way outside ordinary!”, which I think is weird. As you drive west out of town you start to notice oil derricks for miles. All the oil fields are owned by Chevron. Per Wikipedia today, Chevron drilled their first deep oil well in 1931. It currently has 406 producing wells. There is rock crawling parks, 9 hole golf course, Kennedy Reservoir, miles of BLM dirt raids , biking and hiking. The town is very run down but the local Mexican restaurant was excellent. There giant margarita is only $8.50.

The beautiful color brochure we received at our camp ground gives you a lot of information for outdoor activities as mentioned earlier. Other outdoor activities include bow and rifle hunting. The brochure is a little misleading but the town needs all the help it can get.

We would not stay at the Buck ‘N’ Bull RV park again. It’s surrounded by industrial shops and no aesthetics at all, however it had a flat gravel pad and full service so it was OK for 2 nights. We saw many other nicer parks when we drove to Dinosaur National Park. Even the Dino National Park had a nice one down by Green River.

We would come back to see the 17 Rock Art sites that are up to 4,000 years old. The petroglypha and pictographs are all listed in the Rangely colored brochure with the directions how to find them. I'm not sure why they didn't add a map when they have a map for Dinosaur National Park. So much for Rangely.

Our drive today from Rangely, CO to Payson, UT was uneventful but a long one, 4 hours.

We saw a drive through Subway Sandwich in Ballard, UT. First time.

From Duchesne, UT we turned off US-191 onto US-6. The road took us through a narrow canyon that is beautiful. The trees are starting to change color. A few small cattle ranches but what is interesting is there are oil derricks all through the canyon. In some spots there would be 5 right next to each other. Not what we expected. We were hoping to see some Elk but no luck. We went over a dozen or so of cattle guards. The last few miles of US-6 was dirt road until it joined I-15. All in all it was a beautiful drive.

We made it to Elderberry Family Farm in Payson, UT. The had us go down the road about a mile to a church, turn around and come back so we could enter their property and park in the right direction. All the other RVs staying tonight had to do the same thing. There are 5 RVs parked here for the night. Around 7PM the owners invited us into the front area of their home to view all the Elderberry items they had. We purchased jam, tea and Elderberry powder (to make lemonade). She had a pitcher of lemonade made and it was delicious. Great place to stay and would recommend this to other Harvest Host members.

Good night all and sweet Elderberry dreams.

Trees changing color-Beautiful site.

We hit 9114 feet

These were some huge windmills

Full house tonight

Owners of Elderberry Family Farm
with Larry

Monday, September 20, 2021

09-20-21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 20 Buck 'N' Bull RV Park Rangely, CO

09-20-21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 20

Dinosaur National Monument

Colorado and Utah

Dinosaur Day!!!! Dinosaur National Monument has 2 visitor centers; one in Colorado and one in Utah We headed to the first visiter center on the Colorado side since we are camping in Colorado, Canyon Visitor Center. We headed out about 10:00AM. It was only about a 30 - 40 minute drive to the Canyon Visiter Center in the town of Dinosaur. Yes it's called Dinosaur. The Colorado side does not have any dinosaur fossils, only the Utah side. I got my NP Passport book stamped and bought the sticker for it. We perused through the center looking at all the displays and reading boards. Nice little museum.

From here we headed to the Quarry Visitor Center, north of Jensen. We watched the movie about the monument and again walked through the small displays about the area. We were happy to find out yesterday was the last day the NP used busses to take you to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. We were able to drive up to the hall. We had the option to walk but it was a bit of a hill and the Quarry Exhibit Hall sat on top.

What an impressive building and the views from the hilltop are fantastic. We took a few photos of the building and the massive view you have, unbelievable. Once inside our jaws dropped. There is a wall with approximately 1500 dinosaur fossils. It looks to be about 100' long and 2 stories high. The National Park Service built the building around the wall and left all the dinosaur fossils intact so the public can see what the bones look like embedded in the wall. It's very impressive. Plus they have little story boards and electronic screens to help you identify some of the bones. Downstairs you can view the bottom of the wall and even touch some of the fossils. There are life size skeletons of what a few of the dinosaurs looked like. We ended up talking to one of the rangers and she was very knowledgable of the Quarry and the surrounding areas. I think we talked to her for about 1/2 hour. I asked about how the paleontologists come up with what a dinosaur looks like on the outside, colors, striping, etc. She said it was a best guess using todays animals and mammals and how they are colored. It was really fascinating to see this exhibit.

From here we took a hike that runs through the canyon below the visitor center. You can hike to a spot and see a dinosaur vertebrae still embedded in a wall and small sea animals like clams. A great little hike. The hike back up the hills wasn't has bad as I thought it was going to be. When we returned to the jeep we had our lunch and headed back down the hill to find petroglyphs and pictographs. I had a map to show us the sites close by.

The first one was less than 5 minutes up the road. It was about 75' off the road. So amazing to be standing there looking at a drawing that was chipped into the wall 1,000's of years ago AND you can still see it. The second stop was about 20 minutes away. This one was a combo of both types, petroglyphs and pictographs which is unusual. The 3rd was only about 5 minutes away. This one had larger images carved into the stone. So cool. Barry hiked up the steep hill a little further and took pictures of other petroglyphs. Too steep for me. By this time it was 5:00PM and we were starving. It was about a 40 minute drive back to Rangely. We decided to try the Mexican food restaurant in town and it was delicious.

Back to the RV, check in with Ken and Jan, dishes, clean up and plan tomorrow. It was a fun day and we learned so much! Enjoy the photos and good night.

Sunday, September 19, 2021

09-19-21 Sunday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 19 Buck 'N' Bull RV Park Rangely, CO

09-19-21 Sunday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 19

Buck 'N' Bull RV Park

Rangely, CO

Today was a long drive. I think it was the longest one so far. We drove through the Rockies Mountains on I-70 and what a challenge. Our coach did not like the huge mountains. According to Wikipedia (09-19-21) we went through the Eisenhower Tunnel at an elevation of 11,158 feet, the highest point of I-70. The Eisenhower tunnel is noted as the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the Interstate Highway System. My photos did not turn out, very disappointing. I did add a photo of another tunnel but this is only one bore. The Eisenhower is 2 bores.

If we had more time there were so many places to stop in the Rockies: old towns, a mining tour, ski resort gondolas were working, look outs. Lots to see.

The drive was stressful especially during the downhill grades that went on forever. Actually kinda scary! We could only go up hill between 25 and 35 mph. Our RV did not climbing the Rockies!!! On a positive note the trees are changing color making it a gorgeous drive. We passed by ski resorts but the most beautiful was Vail. The area has many condos and the town's very pretty.

We stopped around 3:15 PM at "No Name" rest stop when the road started to flatten out a bit. Nice view of the Colorado River below the rest stop. We had leftover pizza which tasted wonderful. The geography totally changed once we started dropping down from the Rockies to high desert. No more tall green evergreens. We are still at 5,000+ feet. We turned off I-70 and onto SH-13 and headed north toward Rangely. The valleys through this area are green and pretty with cattle, horses, and sheep. The ranch houses are miles apart. We also saw old log cabins and buildings.

We are staying in the town of Rangely, CO tonight and tomorrow. The entire area is famous for "Rock Art." Some are 4,000 years old. Hopefully we have time to find some of areas. There are 16 designated sites. Tomorrow we are going to the Dinosaur Visitor Center in the town of Dinosaur then cross into Utah to the Dinosaur National Monument.

It's raining here along with thunder and lightning. Nice to hear rain drops and wish I could ship some home. Good night all.

THROUGH THE ROCKIES