The Western Slope

From Montrose North

October 26 - The drive, north of Montrose, is a lesson in the power of water. As you leave town, you will travel US 50 past the airport, through the industrial section of town, then enter farmland.

While the south side of town has pastures, the north side has farms. In the fall, you will see corn, onions, and potatoes drying in the fields prior to storage. Tourists use the fields of sunflowers as the backdrop for their selfies. All made possible by an irrigation network of canals, laterals, and ditches that divert water from the river.

Because much of this blog is devoted to water, I though you might want to see what the river, canals, and ditches look like.

The fields of produce on the north side of town, along with a few chicken houses are within sight of the snow already accumulating in the Gunnison Wilderness Area and the San Juans to the south. This is the snow that will water these fields next summer. It is also the water that these farmers (as well as Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) will be fighting over next summer.

Chicken House with Gunnison Wilderness Area Already in Snow, (October)

Looking east past the irrigated squares of vegetables that line the highway, sparsely scattered sagebrush and rabbit brush interrupt the flat otherwise barren landscape. Rising in the distance is a second layer of landscape, the mountains that comprise the Gunnison Gorge Wilderness Area that is adjacent to The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. As you continue north, a third, layer will be added to this view. Between the valley floor and the mountains, foothills that are completely barren have, over time, become etched with runnels. (See above) If you find a road in that direction, it won’t take long to find locations where these dunes have been used by dirt bikes and off highway vehicles (“dune buggies”) as obstacles. The tire tracks that mark their sides will remain until sufficient rain restores the runnels. Depending on the year and the depth of the tracks, that may be a while.

To the west a line of trees reveals the route of the Uncompahgre as it follows the highway north. In the fall, the cottonwoods turn a brilliant yellow making them impossible to miss. But the cottonwoods stay close to the river and without irrigation, the surrounding land reveals the true semi-arid nature of the landscape. The fields of produce continue as far as the water flows. It’s easy to tell which landowners have rights to withdraw water. Their property is green; those that don’t have access, have no choice but to wait for the little moisture nature provides. As you approach the Town of Olathe, you might catch a glimpse of a series of large doors leading to underground structures that are completely buried except for the telltale vents that poke up from the ground. At first I didn’t recognize what these were due to their size. They are very large “root cellars”.

A few minutes down the road, the fields change from green to glass as the produce makes room for solar farms. It’s a good use of the property. Water is expensive while land and sun are plentiful.

The town of Olathe hugs the river and irrigation systems in town provide for trees and lawns far from the river. Near the highway, vegetation reveals who has access to water.

The laterals continue flowing north of Olathe toward Delta. Creeks and streams may combine to form rivers but, canals branch into laterals then ditches to reach more fields, growing smaller with each branch.

As you approach Delta, you might notice car sized blocks of white. This is Colorado Stone Quarries and those blocks are marble. Actually, it’s Yule Marble. It comes for the aptly named town of Marble, Colorado. This is the same stone used for the Lincoln Memorial, parts of the Washington Monument, and many other structures where all white marble was needed. The blocks you see have arrived by truck or train and will soon be cut into slabs and polished. If you drive by slowly and the doors are open, you might catch a glimpse of the gang saws at work.

Colorado Stone Quarries, Delta (near the River)

When you see the town’s name, Delta, it sounds ironic. But the town lies in the Gunnison river delta. Perhaps the founder of the town was also thinking of the mathematical meaning; delta - a finite increment. Delta receives an average annual rain fall of only 9 inches. They also receive, on average, 23 inches of snow. That is a total of 11.3 inches of precipitation per year. (Divide inches of snow by 10 to get the equivalent rainfall in inches.) Montrose, just a few miles south, receives 12 inches of rain and 34 inches of snow for a total of 15.4 inches.

At the northern edge of Delta, you can turn east to travel through the small towns of Hotchkiss and Paonia before entering the mountains. These are farming towns with fields of vegetables, lavender, and hay and orchards of apples, peaches, plums, and cherries. Much of it certified organic. This idyllic setting, like everything in the valley, is dependent on water that flows from the mountains. In this case the water flows to Paonia Reservoir. When we passed by in early October, it was dry except for a thin stream that didn’t appear to find its way across the bed of accumulated sediment.

If, at Delta, you had continued following US 50 north, you would find the road veers westward to meet I-70 at Grand Junction. It’s here, at the northern edge of Delta, that the irrigation ditch ends and the desert becomes obvious. To the west, the land appears to rises gently with short rugged hills farther west. Occasionally you can see beyond the gentle rise to catch a glimpse of the deep chasm that lies immediately beyond.

House North of Delta, looking east from US-50

While the above two photos aren’t a pano, they were taken as close together as I could manage while traveling down the highway. (I was not the driver.) They are a good representation of what you will see. The rise is deceiving because there is a canyon on the other side of the ridge. This is the Dominguez Rim.

The Gunnison River flows through the canyon that lies below the Dominguez Rim. It’s at these side canyons (shown above) that you get at first look at the vast network of canyons and gullies west of US-50. This area is mostly public land including, the Dominguez-Escalante Conservation Area, and the Uncompahgre National Forest, as well as other public land. There are a few cattle ranches in this area and even a couple of orchards in flat areas on the banks of the Gunnison River. We haven’t been in this area. What we know about it is from studying maps. I also know there was a wildfire in this area last summer. The wildfire was called Big Dominguez. Since there are very few structures that the fire could endanger, it was left to burn. Wildfires remove fuel, lessening the intensity of future fires. It also kills foreign species, both insect and plant, that have not adapted to a landscape that periodically burns. Letting the fire burn also frees up firefighters for other locations where lives and buildings are at risk.

Then you notice the hillsides are starting to have green patches. But it isn’t grass your seeing; it’s cactus. Cactus grow in other parts of western Colorado. I have seen several species of barrel cactus and Fragile Prickly Pear but not Prickly Pear. (Fragile Prickly Pear is a different, much smaller cactus. It breaks apart with the slightest touch to stick in your socks, shoes, pants, and even to the dog.)

Almost as soon as you realize you are driving through large patches of cactus, you will notice the land on your right is becoming more mountainous. In the distance you can see the height of the foothills steadily increasing to gaining 4,000 feet in elevation. In the distance you begin to notice the highest point is capped with a shear cliffs that rises to an elevation of 10,000 feet. This is Grand Mesa. The nearly 5,000 foot change in elevation from the highway provides the top of the mesa with a different climate than the valley floor. On top, the summers are cooler and wetter so there are trees and nearly 300 lakes, while the valley is a desert. The mesa covers 500 square-miles and stretches 40 miles along the Colorado River and I-70. Approaching it from the south, the view is unobstructed, and the mesa is obvious. Driving westward along I-70, short hills close to the highway and the distance to the Mesa obscure all but its western tip.

While you’re examining the Mesa to the northeast, the canyons on your left are mostly obscured. If your vehicle is up to the task, find a dirt road headed west to explore the Uncompahgre Plateau. A little farther north is Colorado National Monument (CNM). I’ll blog about CNM in a couple of weeks.

And then you are in Grand Junction. With a population of 60,000 this is the largest population center on the western slope. Here, at the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado Rivers, the cottonwoods and cattails grown along the river. But rivers flood so most people live far enough away for some degree of safety. The total annual precipitation here is 13 inches. So if you want a green yard, you will have to depend on a sprinkler systems to maintain anything that can’t adapt to this environment.

Grand Junction gets its name from being in the Grand Valley and the junction of the two rivers. The view from anywhere in town is special. To the south east Grand Mesa, across I-70 is Mount Garfield with the Little Book Cliffs stretching into the distance toward the North. To the west, Colorado National Monument’s cliffs are so close it almost feel like a city park. From the highway, the it looks like any other American city, with the standard big-box stores and fast-food restaurants surrounded by tangled streets of duplicated houses. We usually zip straight through on our way to Utah and beyond, unless we need to make an emergency stop at the Jeep dealership.

The last two posts covered the western slope from Grand Junction south to Durango. But more than half of the western slope still lies to the north of I-70. This area is mostly populated by deer, elk, prong horn, and cows. The few small towns in this area all lie along US-40 or CO-64. This area is beautiful in a different way than the area south. It’s just as interesting but, a bit harder to access. It’s worth the trip even if you only get to visit Dinosaur National Park. I’ll save that area for another post.

From Montrose North

Time Blend

Mine Tailings near Ophir Pass

EphemeraLandscape.com