Trips – Dan Leeth

Celebrating in Palisade

Forty-five years ago, Dianne and I decided to legalize our POSSLQ (Persons of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters) status and actually get married.

To celebrate the most current anniversary of that life-enriching event, I planned to fly my wife of 45 years to Bora Bora…

…for some thatched-roof romance in the sun, sand and surf.

Unfortunately, my lovely wife had an important online Zoom meeting to attend online, so we reluctantly decided to forgo our 4,744-mile trip to French Polynesia. Instead, we would just enjoy another anniversary weekend, 23 miles away in beautiful Palisade, Colorado.

I booked a patio-king room at the Wine Country Inn…

…which is one of our favorite Colorado hotels whose first name doesn’t start with Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons. The patio offered a nice place to sit out and enjoy some of the local wine.

Dinner that evening was to be at Pêche Restaurant in Palisade. The eatery has a reputation for being one of the best (and priciest) restaurants in the Grand Valley (their cheapest red wine, a Syrah or Grenache blend, is $90 a bottle). We were excited to be dining there.

While the prices suggest opulence, the indoor seating had the romantic ambiance of the neighborhood iHop with tables and chairs lined in open rows across one large dining room. The noise reverberating off the walls was so loud (amplified by a well lubricated birthday party seated in the center of the room) that Dianne and I had to shout across the table to be heard.

There would be no $90 wine for us. We bailed and drove back to the Wine Country Inn where we dined in a much more romantic setting at Caroline’s. The place was quiet, the meal was delicious and the wine (Grande River Cabernet Franc) was a mere $48 a bottle.

On Saturday, we hit the streets. Our first destination was the Blue Pig Gallery where friends of ours sell their National Geographic-worthy landscape photos.

We then walked a couple of doors down to Fidel’s Cocina and Bar, a Mexican restaurant owned by the same folks who opened Josephine’s (one of our favorite Italian restaurants) in Fruita. Not wanting to spoil dinner, we just had margaritas and chips served with three different types of dips – black bean hummus, toasted pepita and, of course, guacamole.

We had a bit of time to kill before Dianne’s Zoom meeting, so we drove the Palisade Fruit and Wine Byway, a collection of roads looping around the nearby orchards, vineyards and wineries. Along the way, we stopped at the Palisade Pie Shop…

…for some delicious peach pie served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

After the Zoom meeting was over, we headed over to Carboy Winery where we exchanged coupons for a free glass of wine each.

Next stop was up the hill to the Bookcliff Vineyards tasting room for Sunset Saturday, a weekly event featuring a local musician, nourishment from a local food truck and, of course, Bookcliff wine. The singer that afternoon, Gerry Goodman, is one of our favorites…

…the food truck (Ciao Baby) offered some tasty pizza…

…and the Bookcliff wine was, of course, savory (and cost a lot less than $90 a bottle).

Sunday is Farmers’ Market day in Palisade with dozens and dozens of “farmers” vending everything from fruits and vegetables to crafts and clothing. We confined our purchases to lettuce, sourdough bread and a bottle of green chili salsa before rain closed the open-air market down.

We stashed our purchases in the car and headed over to Fidel’s for lunchtime sustenance.

It was then time to drive home.

On the way out of town, we stopped to pick up a half-box of peaches from some growers with whom Dianne was familiar.

A few miles later we bought a few melons that a Hispanic friend of Dianne’s imports all the way from Green River, Utah.

While we didn’t celebrate this anniversary in French Polynesia, we did at least get to enjoy a bowl of French onion soup with diner at Caroline’s.

Maybe next year we’ll get to celebrate our 46th anniversary with our friends at Bloody Mary’s in Bora Bora.

Colorado to Nevada

Dianne’s dad (age 100½) was experiencing some medical issues, which ultimately resulted in him spending a few nights in the local hospital.

To help her mom (age 94½) handle issues (and translate what the doc was telling her), we thought it would be a good thing for Dianne to head out to their estate in Western Nevada. Dianne booked a ticket, packed her bag and a few hours later was onboard an Amtrak heading west.

She arrived in Reno a mere eight+ hours behind schedule, which for Amtrak is pretty much on time.

Her dad survived and was soon at home again and functioning well. Dianne could have taken the train back to Grand Junction, but I had a better idea. I would drive out, load up the wife and we’d take the Subie back home by way of Death Valley.

My route from Colorado took me out Interstate 70 to Salina, Utah, and then across Nevada on U.S. 50, the loneliest road in America. Stops included lunch at Mom’s Café in Salina…

…with an overnight stay at the Grand Central Motel in Ely, Nevada.

There, I enjoyed my usual on-the-road evening dinner.

Continuing westward the next morning, I continued across the Great Basin Desert, which some us actually find to be strangely attractive terrain.

I made the obligatory stop at the shoe tree near Middlegate, Nevada. This is the replacement shoe tree.

Vandals chopped down the more impressive original (see below) in 2010.

I finally reached Chez Giles in Gardnerville, Nevada, where I stayed for two pleasant nights.

Death Valley

After two nights with the in-laws, I loaded suitcases and wife into the car, filled the tank with fuel at California prices…

…and we set off for Death Valley. Our route would take us down U.S. 395 along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada. This is a drive I enjoyed many, many times while living in Reno.

We stopped for breakfast in the little town of Bridgeport…

…and as we always do, made an onion-cheese bread stop at Schat’s Bakery in Bishop.

Unfortunately, they no longer offer onion-cheese bread, so we settled for a loaf of sourdough, and a couple onion-free cheese loaves.

Before long, we arrived at the entrance to Death Valley National Park.

To mitigate danger, we made a rehydration stop at the Stovepipe Wells outpost…

…before continuing on to Furnace Creek where we checked into our cottage in the Ranch at Death Valley for a two-night stay.

We first bunked in one of these last year on a trip in October and loved it. This time, we got the summer discounted price.

That evening, we walked over to the Last Kind Words Saloon at the Ranch for dinner…

…after which we enjoyed a golden sunset…

…and a pleasant evening sipping wine on our cottage’s front porch.

On our layover day, we decided to drive to Badwater Basin, the lowest point on the continent. Our first stop was the Devil’s Golf Course. Maybe this is why I’m not a golfer.

The low point was a short drive farther down the road…

…where we were once again warned that it gets hot around here in the summertime.

We explored a few other roads, enjoying the stark beauty of Death Valley’s barren hillsides.

Fortunately, the day was relatively cool by Death Valley summer standards.

That evening, I had made early dinner reservations for the restaurant at the Inn. The food there is upscale as are the prices.

“What could be a better way to spend our kids’ inheritance,” I suggested to my darling wife.

“We don’t have any kids,” Dianne reminded me. I didn’t feel the least bit guilty ordering a $50 bottle of Washington state Merlot to go with our duck breast and steak dinners.

After all, that wine was cheaper than the half-tank of California gas at our last fillup.

Heading Home

Our route home took us down to Las Vegas where we caught Interstate 15 and headed north to Interstate 70. It should have been a nice, 80 mph jaunt with a stopover at the Super 8 in Richfield.

But it wasn’t.

Flash flooding around Beaver, Utah, closed the interstate and we became stuck in a long traffic jam. We were finally able to exit, turn around and head over the hills to U.S. 89, which we followed north to I-70 and our Super 8 lodging.

The next day, we continued east, dropping into Green River for gas…

…grub…

…and, of course, melons.

Our home in Fruita lay an uneventful 90 miles away.

Paonia

It was getting towards the end of June, which meant it was time to once again go camping. On this trip, we would be joining some of our local hiking group members on a two-night trip to a Forest Service campground near the western end of the road over Kebler Pass.

It’s a first-come, first-served campground, which meant we needed to be there early to catch a site as weekend campers departed on Sunday morning. To ensure that happened, we decided to bunk Saturday night somewhere nearby so we could arrive at the campground in plenty of time to snag a vacated site.

It would have been nice to spend that preliminary night at Kebler Corner, but all of their cabins were booked. The next best option was to stay in the nearby town of Paonia. With the help of Google, we booked a night at the Rocky Mountain Inn.

…our room was simple and clean…

…and the inn had a grassy open space lawn area behind the motel office, where we escaped to enjoy a glass (or two) of wine we brought from home.

The location was near downtown…

…where we enjoyed a burger and beer dinner at a restaurant frequented by several otherwise attractive young ladies whose tattooed skin made them look like crayon-colored pages from a toddler’s coloring book.

No, I’m way too old to find this look attractive.

Lost Lake Slough

We got an early start the next morning, drove to the campground and found a site in a nearly empty loop. No trailer on this trip. Instead, we erected our tent and inflated our air bed.

Our friends soon arrived, and we ended up with our little group occupying pretty much the entire loop.

Plenty of signs warned us to be aware that this is bear country. Fortunately, we all followed the rules and encountered none of the burly bruins ambling about.

Our first group hike took us up and around three lakes on the short, Three Lakes Loop Trail…

First came the real Lost Lake…

…the Falls…

…and Dollar Lake…

…before heading back to Lost Lake Slough…

…and our campsite.

Dark Canyon Trail

On our getaway day, we drove up the road to the trailhead for the Dark Canyon Trail. This would be an out-and-back trip up the trail.

Our route wandered through groves of aspen…

…and past beaver dam ponds.

We enjoyed ample views of towering mountains and verdant meadows…

…with patches of wild roses…

…and other wildflowers adding pleasant dollops of color along the route.

Being close to getaway spots like this…

…is why we choose to live beside the Rocky Mountains.

Ridgway

Our stay at Cherry Creek concluded, we hooked up and made our escape from Gridlock Gulch. We took the backway out of Aurora, headed south through Parker, which has a stoplight at every corner which always turn red when we approach and on down Colorado 83 to Colorado Springs. From there, it’s into the mountains, though South Park and then over Monarch Pass where snow was falling.

Down the other side, we passed an Amazon truck. Is this why two-day Prime delivery takes a week in the Grand Valley?

We drove through Gunnison and out past Blue Mesa Reservoir, where the water level was down significantly.

A bunch of miles and a couple of turns later, we made it to our campsite in Ridgway State Park, one of our Colorado favorites. We got the trailer set up before the rain started and had an enjoyable evening, dining on a microwave popcorn dinner in our warm and dry “cabin on wheels.”

On our first full day at Ridgway State Park, Dianne drove into Montrose to visit some friends who had to leave the park early. I hung out at the campground, writing a rough draft of our Jackson Lake stay for my Colorado Life camping column.

On our second full day at Ridgway, we did a little hike down to a trail below the dam where there are some fishing ponds.

We hiked around the ponds…

…to a set of nicely secluded walk-in tent sites.

Continuing down the trail, we reached a dead-end fence near the base of the dam.

We bushwacked our way back to where the lower section of the trail followed the river (we apparently missed a turnoff), passing some anglers fly “fishing” in the tailwaters. I didn’t see any of them “catching” in the tailwaters.

The group camping area we passed on our way out was infested with a swarm of fourth graders from Glenwood Springs. They appeared to be having a good time. I’m envious. We never got to do anything like this when I was in the fourth grade.

On Thursday, we drove a dozen miles down to Ouray and hiked a short section of the Ouray Perimeter Trail…

Our route began near the hot springs…

…and ultimately ended at the Ouray Brewery.

Along the way, we enjoyed lofty views of this self-proclaimed “Switzerland of America.”

We took a long photo break at the towering Cascade Falls, our turn down to town point…

…before heading to the Ouray Brewery for burgers and brews.

As always, we were careful about where we parked.

Cherry Creek

The second park on our three state park expedition is Cherry Creek, which lies on the eastern side of the Gridlock Gulch (Denver) metropolitan area.

Cherry Creek offers an oasis of nature-made sanity surrounded by a man-made jungle of urban chaos.

Cherry Creek is an old favorite of ours. Our former home…

…was only five miles from here (front yard looked nicer when we lived here). While we seldom camped there, we frequently took advantage of the biking trails that cut through the park.

Our goal for stopping at Cherry Creek was to meet up with four of our long-time camping buddies who still reside in the Gulch. We arrived at the park on Friday afternoon, set up camp…

…and then met two of our buds for dinner at The Perfect Landing, one of our favorite Denver-area restaurants.

The one thing I found annoying at Cherry Creek was that at this state park, the restrooms require a five-digit secret code to enter.

It didn’t used to be that way back in the good old days when we’d stop in for a pee break on our bike trips.

On Saturday afternoon, all four of our camping buddies stopped by our campsite for a lunch featuring hamburgers…

…grilled on our trailer-side grill.

Sunday, Dianne got to attend services at her former church, saying hello to dozens of old friends.

Back in camp, it rained in the early afternoon, leaving the grass wet and puddles in the street.

When the rain stopped, we went over to the dam side of the park…

And looked out on anglers fishing. (We did not see any anglers catching, however.)

Driving out of the park to refill the truck with fuel, I began to think about…

…what I truly miss about living in Gridlock Gulch (besides goggle-wearing dogs). The answer was…

This return to the Denver area once again confirms every one of the reasons why we left.

Tomorrow, we’ll hook up the trailer and flee back to the Western Slope – the canyon-side of the Rockies.

Jackson Lake

The first of three state parks we’re visiting on this camping trip is Jackson Lake, which lies north of Fort Morgan, about 100 miles northeast of Denver. We will be camping with some of our old A-frame trailer friends at the Lakeview Campground.

We had a nice, lakeside site with an electrical hookup and a nearby water spigot, which we could use to fill our trailer’s 50-gallon freshwater tank.

Jackson Lake is a good place to observe birds. We found them in the trees…

…in the air…

…on the water…

…along the shore…

…and in the grass.

And then there was the whirlybird used by firefighters training for helicopter water drops. The chopper would fly across the lake and drop it’s sucker hose into the water, filling the tank under the helicopter body.