Glenwood Springs, Moab, and Fruita (May 2010)

Written by ceddammit

In May of 2010, I headed out with a few friends on our roughly annual western Colorado mountain biking trip. We started with a shortish ride at Red Mountain, near the city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. There wasn’t a whole lot to see on the route we took, though it was a fun ride. I took only this handful of pics:

Super gnarly dead tree!
Trees don’t get much gnarlier than this…
…but they do get taller. This one threw apples at me.
Mount Sopris seen from the parking lot

The next day, we proceeded to the town of Moab in eastern Utah. Here, we rode Hurrah Pass! This ride is actually a gravel road, which can be easily driven in a halfway decent car. So, why the Hell did we not just drive it? Who knows? I guess because it’s easier to find space to park a bicycle? It was indeed a popular trail, but not so popular that it would have been difficult to find parking at the points of interest. You may wonder…what are these points of interest? That’s right, you are allowed to wonder. At the same time, I’m permitted to show and tell you about the points of interest. Yes, I have an official show and tell permit (U.S. Bureau of Land Management permit number 5150-1984-OU812). And as far as I’m concerned, the first point of interest is the rock formations around the main parking lot. Check ’em out:

What really separates this trail from so many other trails of the Colorado Plateau is the petroglyphs. The petroglyphs here are incredibly well preserved, especially in light of how easily accessible they are. Here’s a sampling:

As cool as the naturally occurring rock formations at the parking lot were, they get even more interesting as we get further up the canyon. Witness:

This rock has several mouths. Probably for eating tourists.
A layer of pale green rocks. Not something I see every day.
“Holey eroded edifices, Batman!” “I’d rather not eat a feces, Robin.”
There are several arches / natural bridges around here. This shot appears to include one of them.

What’s that you say? You’re tired of looking at close-ups of rocks? Well then, howzabout an interlude of desert flowers?

If you’re still tired of looking up at towering, rust-colored rocks, I have good news for you: I think this pass was named by people who were happy to see the scenery change during the final stretch, where you gain enough altitude to score more sweeping views across the desert. So, let’s get to climbing:

This guy again!? I’ve got to get a restraining order on this goofball.
Looking back down the canyon we just came up.
That’s the Colorado River cutting across the middle of the photo.

For the next day, my companions (who were all in much better shape and much more skilled in mountain biking than me), had already planned to try a very long and very technically challenging trail. Based on their description of the trail, I decided it would not be safe for me, so I instead spent that day exploring the nearby Arches National Park. But I’ve already told you about that (click here if you missed it), so let’s skip ahead to the last bike ride of this long weekend. We are back in Colorado now, near the town of Fruita, to ride Kokopelli’s Trail. I’m tempted to reference Cocoa Puffs here, but I won’t. This is another shortish trail with not much in the way of rock formations, so my pics here were mostly desert flowers:

mmmmmmmmm…fried egg flowers

That’s all for this week’s ThrowBack Thursday. Now get out, all of you! But come back next week for what promises to be another hodgepodge of images from multiple places around Colorado.

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