Colorado Public Lands

The last time I tried using my phone to draft a blog post, the post ended up being a “local copy.” Only about half the photos uploaded, and I had to publish it multiple times before it turned out kinda right. Nevertheless, the convenience of uploading pictures from where they were taken is too good to pass up.

So. Why a blog post now?

1. Tomorrow I’m off to workcation the sequel, and I don’t want to confuse the issues.

2. My favorite month is coming to an end, and soon it will be time to write a third unpublishable novel, which means I’ll probably be offline for a bit.

3. I had a visit from my friends, and I would like to show that off. Selfies = look! I know people and go places and do things! So, without further ado, I present CO National Monument, again.

You’ll remember that I made a solo trip for National Public Lands Day. I actually went back twice in a week thereafter: once to celebrate the end of a student term, and once to record a model campaign video for Mrs. Ramirez’s American Studies students!

From trip 1:

I hesitate to put my students on the Internet because of model releases and conflicts of interest, etc., but here you can see some young men jumping around on the rocks at Cold Shivers Point as if Cold Shivers weren’t really a thing. You can also see one of the boys’ wife’s shadow and mine, both of us calling to them to stop horsing around.

I’m not sure whether I stopped at this place the first time. I was happy to learn that you can see Grand Junction in the background. I got a nice photo of the students at this spot, too. Now I’ll just post some more photos!

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now for my absolute photographic triumph of that day:

^THAT! Is a bighorn sheep! 🙂

Trip 2: Back to Colorado NM with Mrs. Ramirez and Alex.

Super selfie.

Group selfie after filming.

Alex capturing information for an earthcache.

A more *centered view of Independence Monument.

This time we actually pulled over at Balanced Rock.

Now for more of the magnificent nature of the American West at the Grand Mesa!

Ace was our chauffeur for the day.

Stopping for fall selfies along the way.

Arrived!

I’ve been to the Grand Mesa before, but only as far as Mesa Lakes Lodge, where you’ll remember seeing photos of the lake and possibly some geocaches. This time we bypassed the Lodge and continued past an abandoned cow camp…

^ Photo by Jodi (the aforementioned Mrs. Ramirez).

The shack at the top end of the trail was totally open, so of course we went inside! A perfect activity for Halloween month. Then, we continued to the end of the road (I made sure to ask Ace exactly how to get back there), where we found a geocache called A Spectacle of Beauty. I think you’ll be able to see why!

Don’t mind if I do! A note: if you wander down The Views Trail, be careful. You’ll have a very enticing sheer cliff in front of you, and the gorgeous panorama is so overwhelming that if you’re not paying close attention, you could walk right off into oblivion.

There’s Alex!

^Here’s the only photo I was brave enough to take from the back seat as Ace wended down toward Hwy 50 on a very scary road that I will personally never drive.

But wait! There’s more!

The day after visiting the Grand Mesa, we went to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, which I hadn’t seen since Memorial Day Weekend.

Don’t look down! heheh. But if you do, you can catch a glimpse of a river way down at the bottom of the canyon.

^ Cross fissures!

^ UNCONFORMITY! Oh yeah.

And the (by now traditional) picnic selfie.

You’ll remember from my last trip to Moab that there actually IS such a thing as too much fresh air and sunshine, but in October, that is not the case.

Now it’s time to go back, delete the failed photos and their captions, then update the post on a computer machine before sharing it.

I will end the best month of the year with yet another romp in Utah. Look for tales of two places that I’ve never been before in an upcoming post.

In the meantime, I’ll be here with one eye on my favorite baseball team (baseball in October??? haha).

I am also soliciting plot lines for an unpublishable novel.

Any ideas?