Day 2 - Friday, May 6, 2016

I was pretty wiped out last night, having not slept well the past two nights, plus the strenuous hike and all the driving.  We were listening to the Rockies game on the radio while we read, and my eyes wouldn't stay open, so I gave up and rolled over and went right to sleep (just before the Rockies had their 13-run inning).  We both slept until almost 7:30 this morning, but since we're not in rush to get anyplace by a certain time, no le hace.

After our usual coffee while propped up in our tiny bed, we roused and had a quick breakfast of cereal with berries and split a cinnamon roll, and were rolling by about 8:30.  We couldn't leave Colorado National Monument without at least a quick drive part-way around Rimrock Drive, the scenic road which hugs the edge of the fantastic red rock canyons of the side of the mesa.  For those that have never visited this little slice of heaven in western Colorado, it's like an abbreviated version of the Canyonlands region of Utah -- red sandstone cliffs dropping precipitously down into the canyon floor below, with magnificent buttes and spires terminating the long and narrow headlands between each of the deep canyons.  But, alas, we did have to start heading west once more, so down the steep and winding road from the top of the mesa to the broad river valley below.  After a stop for gas, we were up on the Interstate and Utah-bound under cloudy skies.

Colorado National Monument

 I-70 westbound through central Utah, as those that have driven this way before know, traverses through some of the most diverse geology in the American west.  After crossing the state line, the highway passes through a mind-boggling mix of sagebrush flats, winding through ranges of a variety of multi-colored sandstone buttes and canyons, and at one point crosses the San Rafael Reef through a narrow canyon hacked through the solid rock of this massive uplift that splits the state of Utah.  Farther west, the highway climbs up and over a wooded mountain range reminiscent of the mountains left behind back in Colorado.  Snow-capped ridges were visible to the sides and to our front as we climbed up to the summit in a light rain shower as we watched the dashboard thermometer drop 10, 20, 25 degrees as we wound our way uphill.

I-70 Passing through the San Rafael Reef

From the summit, the road dropped down to the town of Salina, where US 50 branches off from I-70 and begins a zig-zagging route through a lush, green inter-mountain valley where it joins I-15 for a short distance before turning off first west, then north, then west again before shooting off like an arrow toward Nevada.  It was here that we stopped for the night at the town of Delta, Utah, where we're staying in an RV park so we can get a warm shower and enjoy the comforts of shore power to propel our microwave.