NW Colorado (Golden, Craig, Gunnison: home, construction, camping)

[denverian]

OK, I've never been in this part of Colorado. But checking it out on Googlemaps, it appears to be a great expanse of nothing. Why is there nothing beyond Craig, to the northwest? I see the towns of Maybell and Dinosaur, but they're tine. It doesn't even look mountainous in this part of the state. Is the climate just too miserable for humans? It looks like it's all very high elevation, but parts look more like the eastern plains of CO.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by denverian

OK, I've never been in this part of Colorado. But checking it out on Googlemaps, it appears to be a great expanse of nothing. Why is there nothing beyond Craig, to the northwest? I see the towns of Maybell and Dinosaur, but they're tine. It doesn't even look mountainous in this part of the state. Is the climate just too miserable for humans? It looks like it's all very high elevation, but parts look more like the eastern plains of CO.

That's my neck of the woods. The land northwest of Craig is high mountain desert. It ranges from 6200' to around 10,000'. Most of the land in Moffat County is publicly-owned, and water is sparse. There are a smattering of ranches throughout the county and there's a modestly-sized oil & gas field near Powder Wash in the far northwest corner of the county. It's not really that hot up there, it's just very dry.

The Gates of Lodore and Browns Park NWR are really cool areas to check out. Butch Cassidy used to hang out there in the late 1800s.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

That's my neck of the woods. The land northwest of Craig is high mountain desert. It ranges from 6200' to around 10,000'. Most of the land in Moffat County is publicly-owned, and water is sparse. There are a smattering of ranches throughout the county and there's a modestly-sized oil & gas field near Powder Wash in the far northwest corner of the county. It's not really that hot up there, it's just very dry.

The Gates of Lodore and Browns Park NWR are really cool areas to check out. Butch Cassidy used to hang out there in the late 1800s.

Thanks for the info! I imagine it's pretty cold at the elevation in winter. The views I was looking at almost looked like Australian Outback country.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by denverian

Thanks for the info! I imagine it's pretty cold at the elevation in winter. The views I was looking at almost looked like Australian Outback country.

Yeah it can get pretty bitterly cold out there. Gunnison and the San Luis Valley are colder on average, but Maybell holds the record low temp for the state - a brisk -61F on February 1, 1985.

Once you get west of Maybell the scenery becomes very desert-like all the way to the state line.

[jazzlover]

Far northwest Colorado also has a fairly unique climate in Colorado. In summer, it is the least thunderstorm prone area in the state. Unlike southern and most of the rest of western Colorado, June is the wettest warm season month, while in the rest of southern and western Colorado August is the wettest warm season month. In the cold months, far northwest Colorado tends to get significant snowstorms earlier in the winter than do areas farther south, most of those early storms being relatively dry snow arriving from the northwest. This is one reason that Steamboat will often have better ski conditions in December than many other ski areas farther south and at much higher elevations.

In many respects--geologically, climatically, socially, and politically--far NW Colorado has much more in common with southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah than it does with the rest of Colorado. Wusses need not apply to live there.

[DOUBLE H]

In my tour of duty of construction, I spent the winter of 1974/5 in Craig working on the first unit at the Yampa Valley plant. We went through a two week stretch in January where the high temperature was 0 to 5 above. And the low was 25 to 30 below. My job? Running a 6 ton Hyster forklift. Unloaded CDX plywood for the carpenters, structural steel and rebar for the ironworkers, pipe and fittings for the pipefitters. Cold? My fault for not wearing enough clothes. I didn't gripe about it, in fact I loved it. Heh, I WAS just 26 at the time. But I enjoyed my stay there, met a lot of great people there, had a lot of great meals at the Golden Cavvy, at that time it was THE place for dinner.

Like Jazz noted, wusses don't last long in places like Craig. And no, there wasn't a lot to do in a small town of 4000 which Craig was at that time. And on projects like that, you don't shut down for the winter like you would on a road paving job. If it was a blizzard, you did go home for the day. Otherwise,,,,

[eofelis]

A few years ago I went out on a field trip to the Sand Wash Basin with some archaeologists and judging from all the artifacts we found people have been spending time there for thousands of years. There is also a lot of wild horses there.

I have also been through Browns Park. Great area. If you go there be sure to check out the historic Jarvie Ranch.

There is a whole lot of "nothing" there. But I like those sort of places.

[denverian]

Interesting. Sounds like it's mostly the weather that keeps that corner of the state rather empty. Looks like a fun area to explore in summer though.

[suzco]

Dinosaur National Monument (now National Park?) area, the Green and Yampa Rivers and surrounds - among my favorite places to get away from it all. Starkly beautiful, you have geology, archeology, river play and more to explore, including things like dinosaur bones (there's a museum/visitor center), petroglyphs, cave art as well as the wild.

[eofelis]

Originally Posted by suzco

Dinosaur National Monument (now National Park?) area, the Green and Yampa Rivers and surrounds - among my favorite places to get away from it all. Starkly beautiful, you have geology, archeology, river play and more to explore, including things like dinosaur bones (there's a museum/visitor center), petroglyphs, cave art as well as the wild.

This past summer we made a couple of camping/hiking trips to the CO side of Dinosaur NP. Harpers Corner Road and Echo Park was awesome. The northern side of the park: Rainbow Park and Island Park, and Jones Hole are must see areas.