Thursday 5 June Grand Junction, CO

Grand Junction (yes, you read that correctly!)
Via Arches National Park, Scenic Byway UT-128 and Cisco

Again (Grand Junction), another one of those ‘Why’ places – even our server at the Moab Brewery exclaimed “Why Grand Junction? What’s going on there?”
She’s not missing anything!

Rain was set to spoil and even stop play today as we planned to spend the last real day of our trip exploring some of the world’s greatest arches in:

Arches National Park
Starting the day in steady and heavy rain we ventured the 5 miles north to visit Arches NP, not expecting very much, and definitely not taking any big pictures. The NPS annual pass (which at $80 is fantastic value, we broke even by Yosemite!), gave us free access, and its proximity, rain notwithstanding, meant we just had to do it.
This park preserves over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, like the world-famous Delicate Arch, as well as many other unusual rock formations.
In some areas, the forces of nature have exposed millions of years of geological history - the extraordinary features of the park create a landscape of contrasting colours, landforms and textures unlike any other part of the world.
It was quite a strange morning in that as we drove to each arch viewpoint, the rain fell in force, but when, undaunted we decided, that after braving snow, hail, sleet, road closures, tornados, high winds, floods and fires, we hadn’t travelled over 5000 air miles and driven over 8000 road miles to not visit these arches, each time we stopped the car and set out to hike to these mammoths of geological import, the rain ceased, and on several occasions the sun even shone on a few of these monuments.

Highlights:
Delicate Arch, unfortunately, the rain was so bad that we only hiked 1.5 miles to the upper viewpoint (no doubt, had we hiked to the arch itself, the rain would have obligingly abated, but at this early stage, we didn’t know this as no pattern had been established).
The Three Gossips – exactly what it suggests – geological humour!
North and South Windows (should be Left and Right Eyes because of their ocular shape and aspect!
Turreted Arch
Double Arch – almost a 60 degree offset double arch.
Fiery Furnace – when the late afternoon Sun hits this area, the rocks glow as if on fire – today they merely glowed through the gloom.
Panoramic Arch – the worlds largest arch whose span is the length of a soccer field!

Arches and Bridges - an explanation
The difference between arches and bridges is that arches simply span an abyss, whereas bridges span water.

National Parks and National Monuments - another explanation
Surprisingly, Arches is a National Park and not called Arches National Monument. However, it was declared as a national monument in 1929!

The diversity of the parks is reflected in the variety of titles given to them. These include designations such as National Park, National Monument, and others.
Although some titles are self-explanatory, others have been used in many different
ways. For example, “National Monument” has been given to natural reservations,
historic military fortifications, prehistoric ruins, fossil sites, Mount Rushmore, Natural Bridges and the Statue of Liberty!
Areas added to the National Park System for their natural values are expanses or features of land or water of great scenic and scientific quality and are usually designated as national parks, monuments, preserves, seashores, lakeshores, or riverways.
Such areas contain one or more distinctive attributes such as forest, grassland, tundra, desert, estuary, or river systems ; they may contain imposing landforms such as mountains, mesas, thermal areas, and caverns; and they may be habitats of abundant or rare wildlife and plantlife.
Generally, a national park contains a variety of resources and encompasses large land
or water areas to help provide adequate protection of the resources.
A national monument is intended to preserve at least one nationally significant resource and is usually smaller than a national park and lacks its diversity of attractions.
There, now you know!

After Arches, I changed our planned route and chose a scenic byway (the slow and winding UT-128 – also known as the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway) which ran alongside the Colorado River.
The sheer, red sandstone cliff-faces which shouldered this road/riverway was a fantastic sight to drive through, and about 10 miles into this route, the right (south) side gave way to Castle Valley, a potential Monument Valley in the making, with buttes, mesas and spires, already growing and shrinking to form those familiar behemoths!
At the end of this road, just before we joined the I-70 to Grand Junction (as a stopoff to Denver for our flight home), we drove through Cisco.

Cisco
It was ominous enough to drive past a sign which proclaimed ‘No State Highway Maintenance’
The town comprised, crashed cars and trucks, open and boarded-up coal and other mines, and temporary, mobile and prefab homes in various states of disrepair, dereliction and desertion.
The road sign gave the biggest hint. It seemed like the state had given up on the road, and even on the people who lived there. If you weren’t part of the system, you may well not exist.
It was almost a ghost town, of which there are many across this advanced yet, in some ways, backward country.
Research leads me to write the following obituary:
Cisco started as a watering stop for the Santa Fe’s railroad steam engines in the 1880s. As work crews, and later, travellers, came through, stores, hotels and restaurants sprang up to accommodate them.
Nearby cattle ranchers, and sheep herders in the Book Cliffs north of town began using Cisco as a livestock and provisioning centre.
Around the turn of the century, over 100,000 sheep were sheared here before being shipped to market.
Then oil and natural gas were discovered.
For awhile Ciso was the largest producer in Utah.
People began travelling more and Cisco continued to grow.
Then the bottom fell out - a declining economy crashed when I-70 came through and by-passed Cisco altogether!
In 2000 there were 95 inhabitants – there seems to be far less than that now. Perhaps unhabitants should be the term!?

Journey Notes and Details
You know most of it already but following after Cisco we joined the I-70 for a 58 mile drive to Grand Junction.
Distance: 128 miles
Time: 7 hours
Weather: Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun (repeat till fade…)