For months, Jessica, Lucy, Laura and I had been planning another celebration of Mother’s Day and all of our birthdays, especially my 82nd birthday which is May 21st. Eventually we mutually decided on Fruita, Colorado, as our destination. Here Lucy, Laura, and I could fish and explore and Jessica could ride her mountain bike on the many high desert trails in the area. We could all drive through the Colorado National Monument, and we planned a Colorado River float and a birthday dinner at famous Hot Tomato Cafe in Fruita.
Jess got a friend to look after Sherman cat. She picked me up about 1:00pm on Tuesday, May 14th, we stuffed my stuff into her already stuffed car, said goodbye to Jeff, Baxter, and Bear, and drove to Highline State Park Campground outside of Fruita, CO, (about a 4.5 hour trip). Here we met Lucy and Laura who had boarded Ramble dog, found a friend to look after Tiger cat, and had driven to the campground from Lafayette, CO (about a 4-hour trip).
L & L got to the campground before us and had set up a canopy and their tent. Good thing. As we neared Fruita, Jess and I could see storm-filled horizons and lightning across this vast high-desert area. I texted Lucy and asked if it was raining there. Her reply: “Lightly, but we are set up and under our canopy.”
When Jess and I got to the campground it was still raining lightly and the ground and grass were wet. In this high, shade-less, high desert, this campground is a wonderful oasis. It is grassy and shaded by enormous cottonwoods and other trees, the campsites are large and well separated, and water and bathrooms unobtrusively nearby. Jess, cyclist that she is, was very familiar with this campground and many of the trails near it.
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| Highline Lake State Park headquarters bldg. |
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| Campground map . . . unfortunately you cannot read it. |
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| The lovely, grassy, shaded campground |
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| Shaded by enormous cottonwoods |
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| Surrounded by high desert |
Despite the rain, which was come and go at this point, we unpacked the stuffed car. Jess, Lucy and Laura set up the camp kitchen, we opened the camp chairs and sat under the canopy to eat dinner, which Lucy made: chicken and bean tacos with mango salsa, avocado and fixings.
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| Laura and Lucy in their baseball caps and me in my mushroom coloring book |
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| Staying warm and dry under the canopy |
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| Laura, Jessica, Lucy at campsite |
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| Our tents: Lucy & Laura's with orange bottom in foreground, my little cabin tent left, and Jessica's tent in back |
We exchanged gifts as this was, after all, a birthday outing. Lucy gave me
a bag of fur strips to use on my toy soldiers and Buzz, a book about bees by Thor Hansen; Jess gave me lanyards for my eyeglasses and sunglasses (good thing because I was always looking for them, even when on my head!); and Laura gave me a mushroom coloring book. She and I like using colored pencils to color these pictures. I gave each of the girls a little bag containing a hair ornament or jewelry findings (Lucy) and gave each a small, colorful, cloth-covered box for pills, or pins, or what-have-you. Of course, the whole outing was primarily a gift to me. I contributed only our lunches, a tank of gas, and the fee for our rafting trip.
After dinner we took a walk to scout out the area and see what was left of the lake,
Internet: "Zebra mussels outcompete native species for food and space, and because of their fast reproduction can quickly overwhelm a water system. The feeding habits of zebra mussels can also have a drastic impact on an infested lake. Zebra mussels are filter feeders that siphon particles of plankton from the water."
I think only of the Great Lakes when I hear about zebra mussels, but learned that “boaters can unknowingly transport zebra mussels from lake to lake because the larvae are microscopic and easily transported in live wells or bilges without being seen.”
There was no swimming or fishing in what was left of the lake, which was disappointing, but when the next day Lucy and I spoke to the campground people they showed us nearby Mack Mesa Lake for fishing.
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| Photos of low water level of Highline Lake; note the snow-capped mountains in the distance |
After dinner that first night, it stopped raining. We cleaned up the dinner dishes and after Jessica set up her tent, we explored the campground and area. The rain had moved west. We stood on a trail on the east side of the lake and watched a fabulous light show. Across the lake, the sun was slipping behind distant mesas, buttes and cliffs. Thunder roared and bolts of lightning gashed the sky. I counted fifteen seconds between the lightning flash and thunder clap and divided by five to learn that the storm was about three miles from us. Laura took the photos below of this light show.
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| Lucy and Laura before the light show |
When we got back to the campground and our tents, it was near dark and raining lightly. As I approached my tent, I tripped over a tent tiedown and fell flat on my face. It was so quick that I did not even have time to put my hands down so did a very painful faceplant. I was sure that I had broken my nose, and was relieved to learn that I had not. My three nurses were very solicitous, Jess even looking up signs of a broken nose on her phone and running me through them. My nose was gashed a little at its bridge and quite swollen. I got a half black eye on the left side and had some chin, cheek, and forehead scrapes, but was otherwise okay. Whew! If the rain had not softened up the ground or if there had been any stones, sticks, or camp equipment in the way, my fall could have brought our celebration (and me) to a halt.
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| Two days later |
MAY 15
second empty spillway on a small wooden bridge, and then hiked back to the campsite along the top of the dam.
When Jess got back from her ride, we lunched on a raw veggie platter: carrots, yellow and red peppers, radishes, broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, lactose-free dips, Triscuits and sharp cheese or peanut butter, cinnamon buñuelos or sweet olive oil tortas, Gatorade, coffee or water. I supplied this daily lunch but the “Triscuits” were inedible. I had purchased the crackers at Whole Foods and while they looked like Triscuits (which Whole Foods does not carry) they were inedible. They were as hard as rocks. One could not even break them. We pitched them out.
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| Mack Mesa across Mack Mesa Lake; almost looks like her sand slides created an angel but her "skirt" is really a little mountain of dirt in the foreground |
A little research prior to the trip told me that Mack Mesa Lake held crappie, bluegills, and catfish, but the most often caught fish were trout and large-mouth bass. I already had trout fishing lures and flies so I had bought some bass fishing lures at a place called Fish Tech run by my former Silver Sneakers gym teacher and her husband. One brown feathery lure was supposed to be a crawfish lure and the other I bought on a whim because I loved it’s big green eyes.
Lucy tied on the crawfish lure and I tied on green eyes. On my first cast, I hauled in a 17” large-mouth bass! I gave Laura my pole and she went to a different spot to throw in her line. She returned having caught another large-mouth bass . . . on her first cast! Green eyes was golden!
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| Elias with his big catch |
Jess had ridden the 5-mile trail to the lake and joined in the fun. Then she started back to the campsite and we three moved to another spot on the lake so that Lucy could try her luck one last time. Lucy, the best fisherwoman among us, tried green eyes but he seemed to be taking a nap, so she ended up empty handed. Maybe the bass were also napping by that time.
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| Lucy trying green eyes at another spot |
sweet sniff, I came face to face with a hummingbird moth. The bush was
filled with them, perhaps a dozen
Internet: Hummingbird moths are some-times called "tomato" hornworms, and are the adult stage of hornworms. They are
often mistaken for hummingbirds because they have a similar appearance in flight
and feed on nectar from flowers with deep lobes. The white-lined sphinx is the most common hummingbird moth in Colorado,
and is usually most active at dusk and in
the late afternoon.
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| White-lined sphinx moth from the Internet so that you can see her better |
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| White-lined sphinx moth caterpillar |
All of the hummingbirds that we have seen have been black-chinned hummingbirds, the same species that come to our Sandy, Utah, hummingbird feeders.
That evening it was Jessica’s turn to make dinner—Lucy and Jess had volunteered to cook breakfasts and dinners. Jess cooked up delicious cheeseburgers served with pickles, corn on the cob, and broccoli salad. She is fully prepared for campsite cooking as she is on the staff of Escape Adventures bicycle tours where she cooks meals for the riders. Thus, she has a complete camp kitchen, handwashing station, dishwashing supplies etc. etc.
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| Lucy and Jessica monitoring the roasting corn |
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| Laura and I are looking at the hummingbird nest above our site in the tree canopy |
After dinner we blew up a spare Therm-a-Rest and placed it on my cot to help flatten the sleeping surface. Then we took up the mover’s quilt from the tent floor and folded it atop the Therm-a-Rest and placed my mummy atop it. Then I placed one old sleeping bag inside another, and slept warmly and comfortably. The Old Lady and the Pea, no?
MAY 16, 2024
The next morning Lucy-cooked breakfast of scrambled and morel mushrooms. She and Laura are avid mushroom hunters . . . particularly hunters
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| Morel Mushrooms |
After breakfast and a walk around the camp-grounds, we packed up our tents and camping gear, drove to our airbnb in Fruita, left Laura's car there, and then Jessica drove us through Colorado National Monument on Rim Rock Drive, a 23-mile, two-lane road that winds up switchbacks onto mesa tops and along canyon walls before descending to the valley.
The drive was awe-inspiring but scared height-wienie me and I shrieked in terror a couple of times. The high road is carved out of the cliffs and is often right at cliff’s edge. However, we stopped at several lookout places and marveled at what wind and rain . . . and humans had created.
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| The photo does not tell how tall and far away this spire is. People climb it and there were climbers at and near its top; makes me dizzy just looking at it |
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| Laura's photo of the Walker women |
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| Note the bike trails at the bottom of the canyon |
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| Find the sheep |
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| The screened outdoor eating area and behind it a shed for bicycle storage. There was also a firepit before the outdoor eating pavilion and several outdoor chairs. |
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| Interior of the outdoor eating area. We never ate in it. We were too comfy indoors. |
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| The little kitchen, banquette, and dining table in the Airbnb. |
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| Very comfy l.r. couch that could easily have slept two more people. There was even a soft, warm blanket under the coffee table. Jess could have slept on the couch, but preferred her little cot. |
After getting settled and a lunch of veggies, dip and cooler leftovers, we walked about this interesting town that is the epicenter of mountain bicycling, trail riding/hiking, and river rafting.
Internet: Fruita, at 4508’ elevation, is located 18 miles east of the Utah border near the 39° parallel. Fruita started out as a fruit-producing region. Today, the orchards are preserved and protected as part of the Fruita Rural Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The orchards contain approximately 3,000 trees, including cherry, apricot, peach, nectarine, pear, apple, plum, mulberry, quince, almond, pecan, and walnut.
Today Fruita is well known for its outdoor sports such as mountain biking, hiking, disc golfing and rafting, its proximity to the Colorado National Monument, and its annual festivals, such as Mike the Headless Chicken.
Some of Colorado’s most significant paleontological discoveries have occurred near Fruita. Dinosaur fans big and small can delve into the history at the Dinosaur Journey Museum, a small but fascinating collection of paleontological goodies west of downtown.
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| Mike the Headless Chicken |
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| Hot Tomato Cafe sculpture |
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| Hot Tomato Cafe |
After our pizza birthday dinner celebration we walked about the town visiting its many cycling and dinosaur statues
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| This cyclist, hiker, and kayaker at the circle intersection on entering Fruita |
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| Lucy and Laura with their favorite cyclist |
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| This guy is on a circle in the center of Fruita |
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| A kiss for this mountain sheep statue |
That evening we each took luxurious showers in the glass shower stall in the bathroom and then fell into comfy beds. Lucy and Laura in one bedroom, me in the other with Jess opting to sleep in the living room on her little camp cot--much lower to the ground and more comfy than my cot, though I would have had trouble getting down to and getting up from it.
THURSDAY APRIL 16
The next morning, after our breakfast of cooked eggs and leftovers, we prepared ourselves for our 3-hour raft float on the Colorado River. I wore a bathing suit, shorts, sun shirt and hat. Lucy, Laura, and Jess were similarly attired so that they could swim and get wet. We also rearranged things so that we could all go in one car.
When we got to the put-in, the guys ran the safety rules past us, provided each of us with a life jacket, and demonstrated how to get into the raft, which had no seats. Once in, Jess and I sat on the tube walls on one side and Lucy and Laura sat on tube walls on the other. Grant, a little guy with huge upper arm muscles, was training Preston. The two would switch off rowing and Grant gave Preston advice on how to run ripples and where to place the raft in the river, etc. The river was high and fast-flowing with several islands, but it was a placid sightseeing float with no real rapids.
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| Grant, sitting on the side, and Preston rowing. |
have been used to rafts floating past. We floated along, pointing out birds, interesting cliffs and caves, and scanning the river’s edges for wildlife.
Near the end of the float, the men pulled the raft up onto an island,
It was a fun float but we all decided that the next time we would opt for a shorter one. With no rapids or surprises, it was really a placid ride, punctuated only by our conversations with each other and glimpses of kingfishers, swallows, egrets, herons, black-billed magpies, and other birds at the shoreline and in the trees and sky.
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| Internet photo but it could have been one of ours |
I trumped all by announcing that since I was the oldest on this birthday celebratory adventure, I wanted to eat Indian. We had passed Karma Kitchen, an interesting Indian restaurant that we had spotted on the way back to the Airbnb from our river run. Jessica pulled up Karma's menu and everyone ordered their favorite Indian dishes. Lucy and I walked to the restaurant a bit later and picked up our takeout. We were seated at an empty table near the kitchen to await our takeout when the waiter came over with the check but no takeout. Not wanting to pay for something that I did not have, I said, “But where is the food?” He and Lucy thought this hilarious. When the guy did arrive with the bag of takeout food, he said with a laugh, “Now here is the food!”
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| Karma's beverage selection |
mendation) and then watched The King’s Speech on the big screen TV in the living room before organizing our things and packing the cars for our trips home to Lafayette, CO (Lucy and Laura) and Sandy and Mill Creek, UT (Susan and Jessica).
FRIDAY MAY 17
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| On the road to Salt Lake City, Utah |
Of course our Colorado birthday celebration was early because when I got home my actual birth date was still three days off. I worked intermittently on this blog, organized and downloaded my trip photos, and Jeff and I fell back into our routines--watching Yankees baseball games, tending to the garden, feeding and playing with the cats, etc.
On my actual birthday--May 21--I received birthday greetings from my siblings and friends and my dentist, doctor, and automobile dealership. Jeff also surprised me with a delicious birthday cake with raspberry filling, a pair of sterling silver bee earrings, and an small Audubon bird jigsaw puzzle.
P.S. Jeff and I have also planted two lilac bushes. I hope that these bushes attract pollinators like the ones at the Highline Lake Campground did.
P.P.S. Competed puzzle. It looks large but is 7" x 9" 100 pieces.
SEEN ON THE CELEBRATION
Animals
Antelope
Desert Bighorn Sheep
Red Fox
Mule Deer
Gray Squirrel
Birds
Black-billed Magpies
Mountain Bluebirds
Robins
Black-chinned Hummingbirds
Cliff Swallows
Barn Swallows
Great Blue Herons
Egrets (on the Colorado River)
Ravens
Crows
Vultures
Hawk (sp)
Mallards
Lesser Yellowlegs
American Coots
Gambel’s Quail (heard)
Insects
Bumblebees
Honeybees
White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird moths
Monarch Butterflies
Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies
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