Today’s Highlights:
Today is Ken Harris’s 70th birthday. He’s riding strong and is quite an inspiration.
Yesterday I mentioned how refreshingly green our route was, and I was optimistic that the trend would continue. However, we once again entered the desert, riding sixty-five miles from Price to Green River Utah. Early in the ride, we rode past some farms in Wellington UT, where the irrigation created an oasis of green. However, about ten miles from the start, we were in the wilderness again with sparse sagebrush dotting the landscape. From my perspective, this area of Utah was even more desolate than our route through Nevada and western Utah. We passed a sign that said “Price River”, and it was barely a stagnant three foot wide stream.
However, about fifteen miles into our ride down Rt 6 we were presented with a view of a grand escarpment in front of us. Eventually, the highway paralleled it and our view to the east became more and more interesting as we got closer to the cliffs and the sun moved far enough overhead to highlight its features and color. They are called the Book Cliffs and are one thousand feet tall. They wind for 250 miles across Utah and Colorado, and it is the longest continuous escarpment in the world. On the west side of the highway were other colorful cliff far in the distance. I saw two deer today, but no other wildlife or livestock. Some people saw antelope.
We passed a sign for the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, but it was actually too far off our route to visit. It contains the greatest accumulation of Jurassic dinosaur bones in the world. I would have liked to learn more about it. Maybe another time. Although this area now seems desolate, it is rich in geological and archeological treasures.
For the last forty miles of the ride we had a constant headwind. It has just become a normal condition of the ride and I hesitate to even mention it anymore. But we all wish for tailwinds.
We entered the town of Green River and crossed its namesake just before the hotel. The river is about 100 yards wide there and flowing fast. A few of us had lunch in a restaurant beside it and enjoyed the soothing view for a while. Green River is known for the melons grown there.
We had a special extracurricular activity today. Since our ride ended relatively early, the staff drove some of us to Arches National Park. We had a couple hours to visit some popular overlooks, and it was spectacular.
Pictures Of The Day: Click any thumbnail to see the photos in full screen mode.
Statistics: Zoom and pan the map to explore the route.
Time: 6/16/2013, 6:05:3 |
Duration: 04:40:07 |
Ascent/Descent:  1048 ft  2581 ft | Distance: 66.62 M |