Green River, UT to Brush, CO - On the Road

We’re on the road again on our way to Eagle, CO, a small town right on Interstate 70. What this town has is a large gravel parking lot which is used by truck drivers and RV’ers to overnight. There are no hook-ups, just a quiet place to pull off the road, rest for the night before moving. on. I wish more towns would see the benefit of this, especially since we spent some money in town the next morning.

When I was in my freshman year in college, I began majoring in civil engineering with the goal of working on road systems in the US. Heavens know how I came up with this. I lived in Iowa and probably never saw a highway larger than 169 through Fort Dodge where we lived. But that was my goal - until I hit Calculus and I hit this my first quarter in college. What twisted mind invented calculus and who cares what the area covered by cone described by the equation a3 + b3 = c2 which is rotating on an axis is? I sure didn’t and my grades showed this. Unfortunately, I started in calculus 110, then moved to calc 111 and then into calc 112. Each course was 5, count them 5, credits. I couldn’t move down to Math 101 since I was already in Math 110. Trapped I was. ‘Luckily’ I ‘got’ to take physics at the same time. College was killing me.

Finally I analyzed the situation, realized that I was acing two subjects, history and p.e. and decided to switch to History with a minor in teaching. Whew.

But, just because I didn’t major in civil engineering doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate a neat highway system. I most certainly do and Interstate 70 is one of those marvels of highway construction. It goes through beautiful territory in Utah but its path through Colorado is a thing of beauty itself. I especially like the section around Grand Junction where the highway follows the winding curves of the river as it snakes through the canyon between the mountains.

You look at the breadth of the canyon and marvel at the force of the river which carved this. Sometimes you feel like the metal ball in a pinball machine, weaving in and out of the canyons.

Here, because the canyon is too narrow for a full-width 4-lane interstate AND a railroad AND the river, it was built on two levels: one heading west and the other heading east. When you are heading west, you are on the top level and it is more difficult to see the engineering. Heading east puts you on the bottom level and you can see the river, the railroad tracks and the upper level above you. There is actually a 30- mile bike trail also which you can see to the right of the roadway in the picture below.

And, look at this, the upper 2 lanes got a tunnel while we on the eastbound lower level skirted around the cliff edge. And, of course, look at how much of the cliff they had to dynamite off to get the road through. (Gary was reading this over my shoulder and was surprised that there was a tunnel for the other two lanes. I guess he keeps his eyes on the lanes we’re in.)

My favorite is the truck ramps which crop up where there is a steep downhill grade. This one looks like it ends at the cliff edge. However, the idea is that the sand on the ramp is so deep and has so little traction that the truck tires will be mired and stopped in the sand long before the truck comes close to hitting the rock. At least, that’s the theory.

Look at the thin layers in this rock. What mighty forces crushed them all together?

And, finally we’re stopped for the night, in back of another RV alongside the trucks in Eagle, CO.

In the morning we cruised up to the local convenience store along a bike path and bought some coffee and some donuts for the journey to Brush, CO.

Back on Interstate 70 again on our way to Denver, we passed over the highest point of our journey, at over 12,000’ near Vail, CO

and through the Eisenhower Tunnel.

What a marvel of engineering Interstate 70 is. Finally we were through the mountains and on our way down the steep grades towards Denver. There are several signs along this long steep grade which state:

        TRUCKERS, YOU ARE NOT DONE YET

        TRUCKERS, THERE IS STILL MORE DOWN HILL GRADE AHEAD OF YOU

        TRUCKERS, YOU HAVE 5 MILES LEFT of 6% GRADE

It is a lo-o-o-ong grade down into Denver and the DOT is alerting truckers (and RV’ers) that there is still more to go and that they should still be in a lower gear to slow their speed. We took their advice and stayed in a lower gear until we saw Denver and the flatlands ahead of us.

By the way, Denver has crappy roads through it. They were awful, bumpy, full of potholes and quite roly-poly until we got through Denver proper. Then they evened out and we had a much smoother journey.

We arrived at Brush, CO about 3:30 in the afternoon and found the site we had had in the fall when we passed through, set up the RV and relaxed for a while.