Chipmaker Coherent: The Road Trip, part 7

Day 6 -- Montrose to Bedrock

I picked up the cable I needed at an Office Depot very early in the day, so perhaps I can add some pictures before we get home. Not soon, though, as for the next few days we will be far removed from Web access.

We got up (slowly), had breakfast, packed while the kids did some more trampoline jumping, and were about to leave when Jake got up. We bid him a final thanks and good-bye, and were on our way. We were almost out of Montrose when we passed a jerky stand, so we turned back and stocked up. Good stuff.

The drive, through increasingly remote and beautiful corners of Colorado, was uneventful, other than that it rained on and off. One noteworthy stretch climbed up the side of a valley, gaining height quickly and making the roadside slope dropoff all that much more difficult to survive. What was initially surprising was that much of this part of the route had no guardrails whatsoever. This is to facilitate easy snow removal in the wintertime -- simply push it over the cliff unimpeded -- but it does get a bit nervewracking.

Finally entering the valley wherein lies Bedrock, we had a long, almost straight drive down high scrubland, with occasional warnings of cattle grazing or cattle guards along the road, but we didn't see a single cow on the way. Bedrock has a post office and a store, but is little more than a very loose collection of houses and trailers near the Dolores River at the bottom of the valley. Only the main road is paved. It is quite nice. We found the ranch with no difficulty.

Driving down the valley, we saw a storm at the far end, huge sheets of rain and the occasional thunderbolt -- but arriving at the ranch, it was still dry. The views in every direction are amazing -- steep canyon walls north and south, each ridge split by a canyon, the climbing valley floor east, and mountaintops in Utah to the west. I stepped out to take a few landscape shots, and noticed another storm moving in, drifting up the southern canyon. It soon reached our site, and drenched everything with elemental enthusiasm, turning red soil into murky mud. The lightning mostly stayed high on the ranges, which was agreeable. The kids made good use of the mud afterward. The rainstorm was a rare thing, as the valley around Bedrock typically gets only 5-6 inches of rain a year.

Rainstorm.

Canyon north.

Canyon south.

Mountains west.

After the storm passed (though high clouds remained prevalent), I noticed that some clouds floated along inside the valley -- ridges were visible above them. Dang, this is a deep valley.