I-70 in the Colorado Plateau

[tamrock]

These along I-70 in Utah and into Colorado. I was out on the road by 5:30 AM going east around the highest point between Salina and Green River, UT and I stopped to watch the sunrise. It's a marvelous view from there and my camera really can't capture the awesome sight of the LaSal Mountains in the distance at sunrise. I'm sure ronwoodcraft has pulled off at this location a few times? Going across this stretch of I-70 at night is another thing altogether with being miles away from most man-made light pollution to disrupt the night sky of the milky way and millions of stars one can witness from a place like this. I took one picture as I traveled through the Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado river. I worked on this stretch of highway in 89' and 90' going through here. I was a buyer for a blasting contractor and spent much of my time on the site keeping everyone supplied with all the stuff needed to blast out all the loose rock formations that would be a danger to this new super highway. I can remember this stretch in the canyon in the later 1970's amd 1860's when it was still the old 2 lane highway 6. It's kind of sad that road wasn't enough to handle all the traffic going between Denver to Grand Junctions, but the engineers who designed this did all they could to not disturb the natural beauty of the canyon and build this elevated highway system. I remember there were $1000.00 fines to any sub-contractors that killed or destroyed any trees or vegetation slated to be undisturbed. Last is a shot of Dillon Lake. I can't believe how little snow has fallen in the mountains this time of the season. Not good for the ski industry, but real good for me as I wanted to get home. I-70 was high and dry for the whole 450 miles of it I drove from Salina to Denver. I don't believe I've ever seen that this time of year in all the times I've driven that stretch of I-70?. When I go to Nevada now I pickup a rental car and this time I got a new Hyundai Sonata. Man I was getting 35 to 40 mpg out of that car and it was pretty fast and handled the winding roads really well.

 

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[RudyT]

Beautiful photos!! Wish I was there!!

 

[searching 4]

amazing

 

[Kray Gelder]

Great photos. You had a really scenic trip! Thanks for sharing.

 

[BosnMate]

It's good when you can enjoy your job. You get to see some really pretty country.

 

[tamrock]

It's good when you can enjoy your job. You get to see some really pretty country.

I've been at it over 20 years now and it is beginning to wear on me. I'm only gonna do a trip like this once a month at the most now.

 

[scruggs]

Gorgeous photos and you have a good memory!

 

[pepperj]

It's a real beautiful place that you're driving around in, can't believe the snow levels for this time of the year.
Haven't travelled that route since the early 80's and it was a cold one. Snow storm the guy travelling with me I don't he'd ever seen real snow ever in his life, heater core went in the /76 Thunderbird, so it was a bit of a white knuckle drive listening to the whining that his toes were freezing. Long story short he was from Brownsville TX area and I still wonder if got a ride out of Grand Junction where we parted ways

 

[fmrUSMC_0844]

Great pictures!! That's out at the San Rafael Swell. My family and I camped ad Big Rock Candy Mountain this summer and did a little prospecting out there. I have a drone video around that area on my youtube channel.

 

[tamrock]

Great pictures!! That's out at the San Rafael Swell. My family and I camped ad Big Rock Candy Mountain this summer and did a little prospecting out there. I have a drone video around that area on my youtube channel.

I was doing a little business with an outfit mining in the Henry mountains by Hanksville. They're people from Jerusalem and their main office is in Florida. They got a big ol mine engineer from South Africa. They started with an underground method, but now say because the ore zone comes to the surface in the mountain in a horsetail pattern, it's now going to be mined by open pit. There's Legend of a lost Spanish mine in that region. Ancient Lost Treasures ? View topic - The Lost Spanish Mine of the Henry Mountains, a Story

 

[tamrock]

This is another story I've read about this region of Utah

Letter day trappers and hunters that lived close to the Pacific coast reported that the Snake Indians often were seen with buckskin pokes filled with large gold nuggets said to have been washed from the sands and gravels in a secret location by Indian women. Many years later, Frank Lane, a graduate just out of Yale Law School, saw one of these letters from a trapper in the West, and decided to do some prospecting before settling down to engage in his practice. Lane chose for his partner another college graduate, who for the purpose of this story, we will call John Howard. Together the two men set forth with fresh heart sand high hopes to search for the golden mirage that lay beyond the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. For many months the young eastern college men prospected in the Colorado Rockies but beyond the discovery of a few low-grade gold quartz ledges, they had little success. Finally the near approach of winter drove them down through the sunset canyons and mountain gorges and out on to the plains of eastern Utah on the border of the Snake Indian country where they established a permanent camp and prospected for gold during the months that followed.

Having no success the inexperienced prospectors moved their camp farther one night at the base of a low-lying granite mountain where they pitched their tent for the night. The iron-stained mesas around the great uplift were full of potholes. Lane grew more restless and decided to turn the outfit over to his partner and returned east and took up the practice of law in Boston. Howard became the sole owner of the outfit free to live the life he had grown to love. After the departure of his friend he rode out for a short hunting trip on the surrounding plains. He bagged an antelope and on his way back to camp stopped at one of the pot holes to get a drink. The noon day sun was shining directly into the hole and he saw some shining pieces of ore at the bottom of the shallow cavity .Then he waded into the water and scooped up a handful of gold.

Using a gold pan he worked all afternoon scooping the gravel from the bottom of the hole and panning out the nuggets going back to camp with an estimated $700 worth taken from the shallow whole. Howard worked for weeks on these plains around his camp on numerous pot holes dotted the iron stained mesas around the great granite mountain. As winter approached Howard made his way to the nearest settlement with buck skin bags of gold which later proved to be worth nearly $100,000. He returned east with his fortune but through bad investments eventually lost most of it. Many years later he tried to return to the scene of his fabulous strike, but either failed to reach the right location or the pot holes had been worked out, for he did not find a single nugget of gold.

Old time cowboys and sheepherders refer to a place in the eastern Utah as the “pot holes” but none of them have ever been known to pick up nuggets in this region. According to one version of the lost gold story, the pot holes described by Howard were not natural holes such as occur in sand stone formation in many parts of the west, but were excavations made in a gravel conglomerate by the Snake women to obtain the gold mentioned by the early day trappers and hunters, and that a fortune still awaits the prospector who will find that conglomerate deposit.

 

[RGINN]

Yeah we're kinda under normal for snowfall so far here at the Summit. The seasonal ski area workers are getting hit hardest, cause they have no work but still bills to pay. Different places host free dinners for them and they've had a lot more showin up this year than in a long time. It's not keeping the tourists away as far as I can see though. Snow in the forecast for this weekend, so we'll see.

 

[tamrock]

Yeah we're kinda under normal for snowfall so far here at the Summit. The seasonal ski area workers are getting hit hardest, cause they have no work but still bills to pay. Different places host free dinners for them and they've had a lot more showin up this year than in a long time. It's not keeping the tourists away as far as I can see though. Snow in the forecast for this weekend, so we'll see.

Snow and a blast of artic air I hear is coming. Gonna be a high of 60° today they say, but tomorrow it'll only reach a high of 23° and a chance of some snow down here.

 

[jsulateskee]

Great photos, very beautiful shots! The weather really has been quite crazy here in Colorado lately. We have been spoiled, as well as grateful, with temps in the 60's throughout December - odd for this time of year. Thanks for sharing photos from your trip.