Goodbye canyons
August 18, 2016

There's no getting around it: our time in Fruita was warm, warm, warm, which makes the next way station in Gunnison even more appealing.  It is, after all, at nearly 8,000 feet elevation.

Before we left canyon country, though, we had some unfinished business, such as big game and wineries.

For wineries, we went over to the Palisades area, closer to the foot of Grand Mesa, and were astounded at the many, many acres of vineyards and orchards - fruit everywhere we looked.

This vineyard was well protected from bird depredations with nets.

We loved our first winery pick, totally random from among the multitudes: Carlson's is a casual friendly place that literally began as a home wine-making hobby.  The Carlsons opened their tasting room in a vintage 1930s era fruit packing shed.

New owners Garritt & Cailin purchased the business from the Carlsons last year and made our visit fun and pleasant.

From their website: "At Carlson Vineyards, wine is not treated as the nectar of snobs."

"Our idea was to craft fine wines that people enjoyed drinking, that were affordable, friendly and unpretentious. We encouraged people to 'trust your own taste.'  Our belief was that wine is a great accompaniment to life, best with food and friends."

"We had fun giving our wines names after local themes – with a twist, like Sipasaurus and Prairie Dog Blush. Since we are 'cat people,' the Fat Cat, Laughing Cat, and Cougar Run monikers evolved."

Our short tour was very informative - unfortunately, the only thing I remember about it is that they don't use any additives or concentrates, and that they process all their own fresh fruit from local growers and do all their bottling and labeling by hand.

Emma is the official winery greeter.

Say what?

In the "shaking my head" category: road names that, well, they speak for themselves.  Just try to imagine telling someone you live at the corner of 36-5/8 and F-1/4 roads, or at 3386 C-1/2 Road.  And I thought giving my old address as 371 N. Road 1 West was bad!

Big(ish) game . . .

Since we had managed to see absolutely no wildlife of note despite searching hither and yon, we thought we might activate a-very-early-in-the-day hunt.  Foregoing breakfast to give us our best chance of locating bighorn sheep in the Colorado Monument, we set off on our quest.

After a quick stop to ask rangers if they had heard of any sightings that morning and hearing that the elusive animals were in parts unknown, we began looking.  What are the chances of stumbling across a few sheep, big horns or not, in 23 miles of canyons - not good, in anyone's estimation.

Although we did want to get a sighting, it's the hunt that's fun, so away we went hiking out one ridge and then another until I got a yen to stray over to the far edge of a canyon and there they were - a herd of 10 or so.

Turns out the hunt was far more exciting than the viewing.  The activity mostly consisted of one animal laying its head down and then picking it up and another moving a few feet one way or another, gazing around, turning back the other direction and gazing around some more.

It was fun watching them through the binoculars, though, although the photos are not so good because they were far away.  It all left me wondering why we were risking life and limb scrabbling around on the gravely slope above a steep drop-off, but there was hope that each relocation might afford a better vantage point.  Okay, so now we have seen big game - just not BIG game.

This humongous alcove was the morning siesta spot for bighorn sheep.  To put the size in perspective, there are at least seven of them lounging in there in this photo.

This was the most ambitious of the bunch; he would take a couple of steps and at times, even turn around!

I may have taken a hundred photos, but truthfully, there is so little difference in them that I am posting only these.  The creatures were so indolent that there seems no point in doing any more.

Will it never end?  Dinosaurs . . .

Can't even believe I suggested it, but truth be told, I did say something along the lines of "Why don't we stop there?" the "there" being Dinosaur Hill.  The place ended up providing us with a really nice hike and was interesting, to boot.

Seems that in 1901, Elmer Riggs, a paleontologist, discovered and excavated an apatosaurus skeleton buried in the dark hill pictured below.

To add to our interest, we have seen that particular skeleton where it has resided ever since - in the Chicago Field Museum.

The 200-foot-deep tunnel from which the apatosaurus skeleton was excavated.

At the opposite end of the time spectrum from dinosaurs, this vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL) just happened to be taking off over our heads as we passed the Grand Junction airport.  I'd never seen one before.  The señor explained what in tarnation I was watching.  Wasn't easy getting this shot from the truck window while speeding down the freeway, not to mention the amazing flying machine was moving right along, also.