If You Want Space, Go To Utah

Yes, it's a catchy song by Christine Lavin, but
it's also how we spent our Sunday afternoon.
However, it wasn't on purpose that we ended up in
Utah. We both had that "we need to get out of this
house" look on our faces so I thought I would surprise
Lynn with a short trip to an area near Grand Junction
we hadn't been to before. We drove through
Colorado National Monument to Glade Park. We've
been to Glade Park before but never went "straight"
on the road through it. We always turned to the
right. Mistake. I had looked at a map previously
and thought it dead-ended in about two miles.
Uh, no. It didn't. It kept going and going.
Our sense of adventure kicked in. This was a road
called "DS 00". Not the name of a road that stirs
the imagination, but in Mesa County, "D Road" and
"24 1/2" road is about as creative as it gets, so
I suppose "DS 00" shouldn't seem so odd. We drove
through a canyon-like area that reminded me a bit
of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. This area had several
small arches in the surrounding cliffs. In fact,
Mesa County has the second highest concentration of
natural arches in the world, after the Moab area in
Utah.
Along the way, we also saw several geckos,
including one that had a very lime green-colored
body and a lemon yellow-colored head. Of course
I didn't get a picture of him. Aargh!
We drove by a tiny building that was the Coates
Creek School; A little one room log cabin
that had a boy's outhouse and a girl's outhouse.
Built in 1926 (old for Colorado standards),
it is now a state historic site.
In ten more minutes we found ourselves in Utah.
This has to be one of the loneliest state border
crossings in the U.S. If it weren't for a sign
that said "Mesa County" on it, we wouldn't have
even known we crossed the border. No "Welcome To"
signs on either the Utah or Colorado side. Shortly
after we crossed, the paved road ended so we decided
to turn around and head back. It was pretty amazing
how much green was in the desert. Every place
there was even a little bit of water it was green.
Otherwise it was dirt...not just boring dirt, but
red, brown, black, gray, yellow, white, even
light green...dirt. Really colorful. A beautiful,
albeit strange kind of road trip.