Leaving the Rockies Behind

June 21, 2013

We have a quiet night in the van parked in Kelly’s driveway. Todd had to leave for work about 5:30 am, but we didn’t hear a thing. We get dressed and have breakfast in the van.  Kelly and Laura are already up and busy. I ask Kelly if I can do a load of laundry—I love her spacious laundry room! Lots of room to hang up clothes and get organized.

We visit awhile with Kelly and Laura. Laura is a quilter, and Kelly has taken up sewing big time, coming up with lots of cute patterns for items like baby bibs, doggie jackets and other things to sell on eBay eventually. She chooses wild and colorful fabrics and her items look very professionally made. I think she’ll do well with these.

Yesterday Kelly told Jack and me about a nearby natural history site called Dinosaur Ridge and said we shouldn’t miss it. Colorado is known for its fossils and this area was one of the earliest and best-known sites of major fossil discoveries, with both dinosaur tracks and bones. She told us her neighbor, DuWayne, a retired colonel in the Air Force, volunteers as a tour guide at the site and that he would probably be willing to give us a VIP tour. She called DuWayne and he said “Be ready at 1 pm! Bring hats, good shoes, sunscreen and water!” We figured we were in for a treat and that was indeed the case.

DuWayne met us outside a little before 1 pm, and we headed in his truck to Dinosaur Ridge. He stopped at the museum building to pick up some “props” and then we headed up the hill to the fossil sites. DuWayne is a fabulous, lively and funny tour guide. He is very active while lecturing and throws in lots of funny stories. He has a unique ability to tailor his “spiel” to the youngest and the oldest listeners at the same time. Very cool guy!

 

DuWayne, our Dinosaur Ridge guide.

And the site was amazing. I believe this is the first time either of us has seen dinosaur tracks in place, where we were able to touch them. There are lots of tracks of various kinds, as it’s hypothesized that the area was a sea at one point (there are fossilized water-shaped ripples in some places) and that the dinosaurs walked through the mud and sediment that was left when the water receded. There were volcanoes in the area at one point as well that apparently affected the fossilizing process—the geology here is amazing, with many kinds of rocks. In addition to the tracks, many fossilized dinosaur bones have been found here as well, and some are still here. DuWayne showed us with a geiger counter that the bones embedded in the rock are slightly radioactive—the thinking is that the volcanoes emitted some radioactive material that then covered and seeped into the holes in the porous bones before they became fossilized, which left them radioactive.

 

Carol with her hand print in a dino's foot print.

 

Lots of dino tracks. Although the area is now inclined at about 45 degrees, it was once level marshland.

Mildly radioactive fossilized dino bones.

In addition to the fascinating fossils and geology, we also could see the Red Rocks Amphitheatre from the ridge, the open-air site of many great concerts (like our favorites, the Moody Blues) that we’ve seen on PBS television programs. Even the Beatles played here on their 1964 tour.

 

The famous Red Rocks Amphitheater

A final bonus was a sighting of a new bird for our list, the rufous-sided towhee (also called the spotted towhee), which DuWayne told us is relatively rare in this part of Colorado. It was a great tour and we really appreciate Kelly setting it up for us and DuWayne giving up his afternoon to inform and entertain us!

 

This was as close as Jack could get to the rufous-sided towhee.

When we got back, Jack and I decided to take off and get through Denver, since we want to keep fairly close to our driving schedule for our remaining week. We took some photos and said our farewells to Kelly, Todd and Laura. We hope Kelly and Todd will visit us soon in Virginia…. 

 

Kelly and Todd

Carol, Kelly and Jack

   

We made it through Denver at rush hour. (No thanks to me telling Jack the wrong instructions for one interstate ramp, which caused us to drive through city back streets for about 10 miles—at least we saw some of the older residential areas of Denver!) We finally got on I-70 east and as soon as we passed the Denver airport, the traffic slacked off and the terrain changed almost immediately to flat, flat plains/prairie. Lots of flat grazing land, and we saw several pronghorn antelope, which we hadn’t seen before on this trip. After driving awhile, we decided to stop at a motel and do some work, since we both need to catch up on our book projects.

Where we are:

 

We’re in Limon, CO now.

Bird species count: Vermilion flycatcher, turkey vulture, Bell’s vireo, *golden-fronted woodpecker, Say’s phoebe, northern cardinal, greater roadrunner, house finch, common raven, *northern rough-winged swallow, *summer tanager, *prothonotary warbler,  *yellow-breasted chat, *yellow-rumped warbler, northern mockingbird, mourning dove, cliff swallow, Mexican jay, black-headed grosbeak, black-chinned  hummingbird, Wilson’s warbler, *Scott’s oriole, chipping sparrow, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, black-crested titmouse, acorn woodpecker, scrub jay, *western kingbird, white-winged dove, *canyon towhee, *Grace’s warbler, *zone-tailed hawk, *curve-billed thrasher, Bullock’s oriole, Gambel’s quail, great horned owl, black-throated sparrow, *cactus wren, ladder-backed woodpecker, white-crowned sparrow, brownheaded cowbird, Brewer’s blackbird, *pyrrhuloxia, hooded oriole, verdin, American st blog e and all the files uploaded. little wild iris. It'agebrush that we were riding over and through. Lupine looks crow, Anna’s hummingbird, dark-eyed junco, white-throated swift, Steller’s jay, mallard, common egret, brown pelican, western bluebird, loggerhead shrike, Audubon’s warbler, robin, Canada goose, black-billed magpie, red-winged blackbird, redtailed hawk, American dipper, *yellow warbler, tree swallow, osprey, mountain bluebird, peregrine falcon, green-tailed towhee, rufous-sided towhee

State count: 14 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado]  

     

Odometer count:

Surber, VA: 107,435

Limon, CO: 115,662  

Accommodations avg cost: 75 nts, avg $13.33/night