Day 5: Rangely to Dinosaur. Oil and gas badlands.

July 7, 2018

I woke up still tired from yesterday, but today will be a short easy recovery day. I left the motel at 8:30. The temperature was 83F and rising rapidly. I spent a long time wandering around town but never did find much to take pictures of.

Banners and flags decorate downtown Rangely, Colorado.

Rangely is a historic ranching town that has more recently become an oil and gas town. Chevron Texaco is still a large employer but the oil and gas boom went bust a few years ago. The housing shortage rapidly evaporated and places like the bunkhouse closed down.

This was probably a busy place during the last oil and gas boom. It's closed now.

I only saw the White River one time, when leaving Rangely. It flows west to the Green river which flows south to the Colorado river.

The only water I saw today was when CO 64 crosses the White river on the edge of Rangely.

Northwest of Rangely CO 64 goes through a desert basin that is heavily industrialized with oil and gas facilities. Roads, power lines, wells, pipelines, compressor stations, etc.

Gas production facilities northwest of Rangely.

The basin is surrounded by heavily eroded badlands that are a rare sight during this tour. These badlands aren't as colorful as what I saw in Arizona during my previous tour. The erosion is more from wind than from rain. Badlands usually have no vegetation at all. Not even grass.

CO 64 in a basin surrounded by badlands.

After a few miles I could see where CO 64 climbs through the badlands. I've seen this pattern before. There will be a big climb but little or no descent. I climb from the basin to high desert.

Now I can see how CO 64 climbs out of the badlands.

The high desert has more long distance views and more rolling terrain. The vegetation is still bunchgrass, sagebrush, rabbit brush.

The temperature was in the 90's by noon. There is no shade and sandflies were annoying. It helped to have a steady cooling headwind. Today I'm traveling northwest into a northwest wind. I don't mind because it's a short day and it means I should have a brisk tailwind going east for the next 2 days.

This amazing cave was behind a fence. Wished I could cool down inside.

A couple miles before Dinosaur CO 64 crosses over an electric railroad. I didn't see a mine or a power plant.

CO 64 crosses over an electric railroad near Dinosaur. It presumably connects a coal mine to a power plant.

Dinosaur is a tiny little town. No traffic light at the intersection of CO 64 and US 40. Got my reserved room at Terrace Motel. $57 cash. The place is run by a young woman with one leg, no prosthetic. She hobbles back and forth with one crutch.

Population 315, much smaller than Rangely. 3 miles east of the Utah/Colorado state line.

Kelly and I had a very unsatisfying burger lunch at the restaurant across the street. Another nearby restaurant was busy, but closed for a funeral. It's a good thing we made motel reservations. The motel is full because of the funeral.

Jacinto wasn't there for lunch because he started much later and took a 3 mile detour to take a selfie at the Utah state line.

After lunch I pedaled 2 miles east to the Dinosaur National Monument visitor center. I was hoping to see dinosaur exhibits but this visitor center is all about the Green and Vernal rivers in the eastern part of the monument. To the west in Utah is another visitor center with all the dinosaur exhibits. The ranger mentioned that nearly all of the world's Jurassic era dinosaur bones were found here.

I got back to the motel room at 3:45 and took a 2 hour nap. It was too hot to do anything outside. High of 96F today, normal for July. At 6 PM the 3 of us walked across town for dinner.

Dinosaur has two abandoned motels. My motel was rustic but better than this.

Dinner was much better. Hand made sandwiches and hand made ice cream at the sandwich shop.

After dinner a storm blew through bringing high winds and even a few giant drops of rain. That was a refreshing change after 5 hot days in the desert. My weather app says this area has received 1.72 inches (4.3 cm) of rain so far this year.

The evening was very warm. I expected the temperature to drop more rapidly after dark at 5900 feet elevation.

Distance: 26.9 mi. (43 km)
Ascent/Descent: +1173/-481 ft5. (+355/-146 m)
Average Speed: 8.5 mph (13.6 km/h)

Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 211 miles (340 km)

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