Dinos, Pictos and Flat Fixers

[woodwizard]

View attachment 8503Both Scott and I had the Memorial Day weekend without commitments- how rare. A couple conversations later we agreed to drive another loop for 3 days. We started in Rifle, Colorado on Saturday morning heading north. The first stop was Rifle Gap State Park, where in the summer of 1972, Cristo spanned the valley with his bright orange curtain (http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/vc.html). Just the moorings are left and the start of the dirt roads. Paralleling the east side of the Grand Hogback, 37 miles later we were stopping in Meeker for an information round-up and photo op at the historic Meeker Hotel. The walls had plenty of framed newspaper articles and photos of shot dead bank robbers. Outside of town we picked up another dirt road continuing north through leased BLM range land. We drove through cattle drives with wranglers punching doggies and massive flocks of sheep (I didn’t know that sheep had long, floppy tails) on our way to Elk Springs (don’t blink). At Elk Springs is the eastern entrance for the Yampa Bench Road (http://gorp.away.com/gorp/publishers/wildernesspress/driv_co.htm) through Dinosaur National Monument.View attachment 8504[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]View attachment 8508

 

[woodwizard]

View attachment 8511Dinosaur was originally intended to preserve the quarries, but its larger purpose is to protect the river systems and the absolute crazy geology going on everywhere. John Wesley Powell lost his first crew mate in Disaster Falls on the Green River in Dinosaur. The northern 3rd is Brown Hole, the middle hide out on the Outlaw Trail. Our goal was the Echo Park campground next to the confluence of the Yampa and the Green. A bunch of hikes to views and 42 miles later we were driving the campground loop. This is one of the highest rated, established, campgrounds in Colorado. It was half empty, late Saturday, in an incredible location (no bugs at night). Light hiking, a campfire, steaks, beers and soft air mattresses added up to a solid nights sleep.
View attachment 8512The next morning, over cowboy coffee, we were trying to decide which route to take. The choice was which side of the Green river to drive south. The east side had ghost towns, was pretty remote and came out in the Book Cliffs near the Westwater exit on I-70. The west had canyons, pictographs, outlaw history and came out in the San Rafael Swell. We chose the west. Climbing out of Echo Park, you could look back on the Yampa Bench Road and see it stretch to the eastern horizon. No one was on the road as we took the cut off to Vernal from Harpers Corner Drive. View attachment 8513

 

[woodwizard]

View attachment 8521We fueled up in Vernal with the thought of checking out the campground at Sand Wash at the boat launch on the Green for Desolation Canyon (http://www.utah.com/raft/rivers/desolation.htm). If that didn’t work out we could continue south, picking somewhere to camp in the next 175 miles. View attachment 8522When we arrived at Sand Wash and saw the structures at the camp sites wrapped in bug screens, we knew that wasn’t going to work. Bugs everywhere but beautiful. Our next thought was to head for 9 Mile Canyon. 9 Mile Canyon was named by John Wesley Powell. It’s actually over 40 miles long and has the highest concentration of rock art in the world. After looking for the cut over on Wrinkle Road among the maze of oil drilling roads, we decided to return to the main fork and start from there. On our way to the fork, I got my first flat ever on a back road. Changed quickly we were on our way. View attachment 85239 Mile Canyon is a high alpine canyon with aspens and ponderosa pines- did I mention the bugs? You couldn’t drive 100 yards without seeing another panel of pictographs- truly amazing. View attachment 8524The one thing that was missing was any form of camping area. Okay, we’ll head for the Swell and Buckhorn Wash. The huge swath of BLM land had to have something. We found our spot on a knoll with a great view looking south toward Buckhorn Wash and a spectacular sunset. As I climbed out of the truck, I heard the dreaded sound of air escaping from another flat tire. I’ve driven from the San Juan’s to the El Camino Del Diablo, from Death Valley to Hell’s Revenge and have never had a flat. After we jacked the truck up to avoid killing the tire, a round of beer for Scott and I, topped with another grilled steak. 15 miles from any asphalt, on a back road, in the middle of Utah, on a holiday weekend with 2 flats got us thinking. 2 out of 3 cell phones had coverage and the satellite card in the laptop got reception. The next morning we brought up the sheriff for the county on the computer and gave a call. Sure he would come get me and 1 tire and take me into Castle Dale, if I could get to an intersection 1.5 miles away. Loaded up with water and plugged in my i-pod, I gave the tire a push until I rolled it to the intersection. Sure enough the sheriff’s deputy picks me up, takes me into town where everything is closed except for the convenience store. As I was thinking of my next move, up walks 82 year old Henry telling me that he can fix my flat and guarantee that it will hold air. I throw the tire in the back of his truck and we’re off to his garage. In there is an old school tire machine with all the hand tools. We remove the tire from the wheel, patch it and put it in the back of his truck. He then drives me back to our stranded truck and drops me off. Many, many thanks. 3.5 hours round trip. View attachment 8525Scott and I talked about heading for the nearest pavement to play it safe with no spare- naw, Buckhorn Wash was calling. Another absolutely amazing canyon with pictographs. View attachment 8526Within 2 hours we were back to I-70. Headed east, I had my foot into it thinking of where the next one would be…View attachment 8527

 

[Scott Brady]

Utah is an amazing state!

Very cool pictograph...

 

[DaveInDenver]

Fantastic trip!

We've been to Echo Park a few times and I don't think we'll ever get tired of going back. The girlfriend of the ranger who lives down there lives in my neighborhood. We knew each other by sight because she also owns a WilderNest and I didn't realize we lived close to her until he stopped to talk about the 'Nest one time we were there. Amazing how small the world can be.

 

[paulj]

Do you know what caused the flats? Where were the holes?

As shown on my Oregon thread trip, I picked up a big spike - the handle end of a broken rat tail file, actually. Probably left by a chain saw user? It was my first opportunity to use a tire plug kit, and since the hole was clean, and in the main tread, it worked quite well.

This was reassuring since on many stretches of backroads on that trip there was not cell phone coverage. Between this kit, the spare, and the air compressor, I have a chance of surviving 2 flats without cell coverage.

paulj

 

[woodwizard]

The flats were caused by 2 different things. The first was a small, sharp, pointed rock right through the tread. The crushed rocks that are common on gas field support roads. It ws big enough to rip an inch long gash square in the center of the tire. The second was from an old steel beer can left in the desert. The folded seam on the can eroded into a point. It probably didn't help that the original tires (cheaper) are on the truck.

 

[paulj]

I saw a similar rock cut on another car (RAV4) on a British Columbia road. That one uses local shale rock which is notorious for cutting tires. In the that case the cut was an inch down the side tread, on nearly new tires. I don't know if that can be patched.

I've read of people stuffing enough plugs into slit cuts to at least make it out.

I've heard that freshly graded roads can be worse for rock cuts, since the grader stirs up the rocks, leaving some sharp edges on edges. With use these become less lethal.

paulj