Day 3 - Mesa
We spent Friday exploring Mesa and the surrounding area. A borrowed Nathalie’s truck (a Dodge 4X4 hemi), and with Louis and I accompanying him, he drove up Land’s End Road to the Land’s End Observatory on the top of the Grand Mesa, “the world’s largest flat-topped mountain”, which was called Thunder Mountain by the Ute Indians who used to live there.
The view from the top, 11,000 feet above sea level in some places, is amazing. On a clear day, you can reportedly see from Utah to central Colorado without turning your head. Despite the drought, the top of the mesa was lush, and covered with Pinon, juniper, Engelmann spruce, cedar, and aspens. A drove the truck down a long, difficult dirt road, but it was worth every jolt of the rough ride, because we saw alpine lakes, and meadows of wildflowers, including Indian paintbrush, lupine, columbine, penstemon, blue aster, fireweed, larkspur, cinquefoil, and candytuft...to name a few. We also saw lots of chipmunks and a blue grouse.
1 comment:
WOW! Awesome photographs! That purple flower with yellow inside was gorgeous. More please...
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