I went for a ride over the Grand Mesa in Western Colorado on Monday, 4/10/23. the Grand Mesa Nordic Council says they have received 444 inches of snow this season! It shows. Lots of snowmelt running across the road and in places the snowplow and snow thrower had tossed snow onto the road, mostly baseball to football-sized clumps. So a little weaving in spots. It's that time of year to be wary of ice, snowmelt, and gravel/sand. I only had one instance where snowmelt and soil runoff made my sphincter clinch for a second. This spot was one of the few where one could pull off the road, snow was mostly out to the fog line. The view beyond is out toward Land's End, to the right are the Bookcliffs, and the town of Grand Junction in the distance. I continued down the north side of the Grand Mesa following Plateau Creek and the swervy road that mirrors its circuitous path to I-70. I rode I-70 east to De Beque and took the De Beque cutoff back to CO65 and on up the mountain again. IIRC, it's about 120 miles. A nice loop. It was a minimum of 50 degrees on top and about 70 at the lower elevations on I-70.
Up at the Skyway Lookout, about 10,700 feet elevation. There's a great view from here, but the snow was piled too high to see it. Scarlett is in need of a bath after this.
