Arches National Park, Colorado, North Texas

I got lucky in Moab and there was only an additional 2" of snow. Apparently they got about a foot of snow for Christmas and it took a couple days before everyone was plowed out. First stop was Arches National Park. This place has more arches than Natural Bridges National Monument, but they were all fairly small. I found the way all the rock formations moved past one another while I was driving more fascinating. Seeing a rising sun over a cloudy La Sal Mountain with snow covered dunes was unexpected, and out of my photographic abilities to capture. There were several professionals out taking photos that probably got much better shots than I did.

Pros also ignore the "stay on trail" signs.

With sky getting cloudy, I decided it would be best to head to Colorado. Instead of going north and picking up the interstate, I went south and picked up Route 491. This used to be The Devils Highway, Route 666, until a bunch of prudes had it changed in 2003. Actually it was more likely because people kept stealing the signs. My trip down the fabled highway was uneventful. I turned off on Route 160 and made it to the Wolf Creek Pass at dusk. The Wolf Creek Pass crosses the continental divide at 10,800 ft and apparently has some spectacular scenery in the summer. In the winter though its nothing but fog, snow, and an 8% grade with hairpin turns. At the time I crossed only commercial vehicles were required to use snow chains, so I went for it. Other than having a little bit of trouble making it up one turn, it was also uneventful.

First thing the next morning it was off to see the Royal Gorge Bridge. The bridge crosses the gorge where its 850 ft wide and 950 ft deep. Due to the snow they wouldn't let me drive over the bridge, so a picture of the bridge over a shimmering frosty gorge will have to suffice.

I mean, who wouldn't want to drive over that in the snow?!

Then, it was a trip to finally see some Indian cliff dwellings. Being my third attempt visit to one, I was excited to find that this one was actually open. As a bonus, this one wasn't in a state or national park and was setup more like a tourist attraction, which meant you could actually go inside and look around. I think this was a much better choice than the others in the parks where they've setup a hermetic barrier.

Must've been the wealthy cliff dwellers to get a view like that

In the gift shop, the girl behind the counter apparently found herself here last year while doing a road trip and decided to stay. She also pointed to another woman who did the same thing 25 years ago. Women always giving men bad ideas... off to a ride with Luke.

Hillbilly Luke started the Fairhillbillies MTB Club back in Delaware, but moved out to Colorado shortly after I joined. He was nice enough to show me around Waterton Canyon, which connects to the Colorado Trail at the end of a 6 mile fire road. There was some nice scenery as the fire road followed a river through some steep mountains, but unfortunately there was a little too much snow on the Colorado Trail to get very far. Here we are coming back down after giving up.

...and then he dropped me. But no one needs to see that. 

At this point I'm getting tired of all the trails being closed, the snow on the ground, and the temperatures never getting above freezing. It was time to make a long drive south until there was no more snow. It was a long drive to Dallas. I took Route 287 which straddles the Texas-Oklahoma border. When the sun came up, it was flat, brown, and boring. I checked to make sure the car was still red and that I wasn't seeing everything in sepia. No wonder the government gave away all this land to homesteaders for free. I finally made it to Dallas to find that the Isle du Bois trails were closed due to wet conditions. Good thing I had a plan B. At the Dinosaur Valley State Park trails located 110 miles south, there was a burn ban in effect. Perfect.

This was a cool little trail system with lots of loose limestone. There were several places where the the trail crossed a stream on a giant slab of limestone. In one section there are fossilized dinosaur tracks in the limestone, but they were filled with mud and difficult to make out. There was also a 100 ft cliff overlooking the river that I'm surprised no one has accidentally ridden off.

Too bad the river isn't deep enough to cushion a fall. Could be fun. 

As a bonus all the facilities were heated. The only downside to this place was all the dead wood laying around. If someone doesn't start clearing it out there's not going to be anything left here when it all catches fire.

After the ride I was able to catch up with an old friend from USC. It was good to see another engineer that hasn't gotten Silicon Valley fever.

Todays plan is to drive into mountainous Louisiana and check out some stuff over there. 9900 miles in, time for my second oil change. Lets see if they say anything about putting 5400 miles on the car in 15 days.