Day 19 cont. – Cattle guards provide the best directions

Sept. 25
Grand Junction/CO
Total driving so far 2,328 miles / 3,725 km.

Glade-Park-epicenter-on-google.maps

Colorado potholes turned out to be different from the New Jersey ones (my pothole BFO – best foe ever – were the ones in Mountain Lakes on Morris Ave rolling down to Powerville; it took years to get those fixed).

We asked the young barista at a coffee shop in Grand Junction about places to swim; the answer was ‘go to the Potholes‘.

The Potholes turned out to be situated behind the Colorado National Monument park unit area.

National parks are typically in remote places, so something tugged behind a remote area is super remote.

The name of this super remoteness is ‘Glade Park’ and the epicenter of Glade Park is the one and only store there:

The store is a time capsule, and we bought a honey jar originating from this highland area, and it turned out to be very tasty and high quality.

The old lady behind the store counter gave us directions for how to find the swimming potholes – 20min straight ahead, turn left into the dirt road, take third turn on the right, drive to the end of that path, then hike the remaining quarter mile. Sounded easy enough. But a turn-right-into-another-dirt-road is a very vague term … what classifies as ‘road’ versus a small opening in the bushes? We got lost and drove too far on a super remote dirt road. Finally a pickup truck showed up, and he told us to go back 3 cattle guards. Now that made sense, cattle guards represent clear directions.

The potholes are quite beautiful, but since the general water level is very low in the Colorado river and all around, one can hop into the water, but swimming isn’t possible:

Some interesting life forms, though, soaking up the sun, a bit like in the Galapagos:

Hey, and when done with the potholes, there is still the option to join the chili supper & cook off – Oct. 15th, 6pm !