Had a fun trip with the Delockroys and my family to the Picketwire Canyonlands south and west of La Junta, Colorado. We signed up for the US Forest Service’s new Guided Auto Tour which is an alternative to the 5+ mile hike in the heat of South-Central Colorado! This was very near the old Santa Fe Trail and features a bunch of history; old and “new”. The USFS employee was very knowledgeable in the Geology and History of the area including many legends and stories! I was a little bummed that we didn’t see the Petroglyphs that were advertised all over the brochures; those were along the trail you hike in; but I guess there needs to be some incentive to get folks to hike the trail too! 🙂
The main reason for the trip was to see the Jurassic dinosaur tracks–Brontosaurus and Allosaurus side-by-side! These are the longest tracks by far in any Morrison formation and for sure the longest set anywhere in North America. Â There was some flooding in August that had not been cleaned up yet (not the terrible flooding we had along the Front Range in September) but it still was fantastic. Â Normally the Purgatoire River is a trickle and you don’t get your feed wet; that wasn’t the case as you’ll see this trip! Â Colorado has had a much wetter summer than in the past decade this year!
The video says it all; enjoy! Â Feel free to comment on YouTube or this blog posting if you have any questions! Oh, and a shameless plug; my band Multicast‘s song “Spitfire” is the soundtrack to the video. Enjoy!
Greetings Dave,
We loved your video. We are taking the trip next month and our question is; do you really need a 4×4 car? Will they not let you take the trip otherwise? In you video one of the cars looks like an all wheel drive which we have in our newer model Subaru Forester. Any advice would be appreciated.
Steve
Hi Steve. Regarding 4wd, i would contact the Commanche Grasslands office in La Junta and ask them. It was dry when we went and there was only high clearance needed in my opinion. I have a vw touareg and all was fine for us. If it is wet, however, the clay roads would be slick and/or muddy and it would have been more of a 4wd adventure… 🙂 Make sure you have a good spare, no one on our trip had a flat, but i could see how that could easily occur.
Have fun, it is a wonderful trip!