Today a nice ride from Craig over a low set of hills to Meeker. Grades in the west are different from eastern mountains. More likely to be a long gradual ascent or descent than a lot of short sharp hills. Today I started with 22 miles of relatively flat followed by 14 miles of gradual climb followed by 10 miles of gradual descent. It was 40F starting but a more comfortable ~70F by the time I finished.

From Craig to Dinosaur there are two routes I considered. The most direct is to follow US 40 for 91 miles and stay in Maybell in between. The route I picked is CO 13 to Meeker and CO 64 via Rangely. I’ve done US 40 twice and decided to try the Meeker/Rangely route instead. This also had an advantage of less daily climbs than the Maybell/Dinosaur section which is hilly. Also an advantage that there were good places to stay in both Meeker and Rangely.

My route started out following the Yampa River along a valley. I passed a large power plant, a mine and then more along the river.

At 13 miles was Hamilton. All I saw was a post office, a community hall and a few houses.

I like these dry landscapes that leave the rock uncovered. Many of these hills along the way.

Iles Grove was an early settler.

These guys from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) stopped as I was at the marker. They were spraying the cracked road areas with herbicide to stop weeds. They were going just slightly faster than I was so passed again later on.

Wide open spaces but headed to thread my way through the hills in the distance. This started a very gradual climb from 6250ft to 7500ft.

Signs said a coal mine, likely a strip mine beyond the hill.

At the top. No sign here but earlier indications were this was the Nine Mile Gap over the Danforth Hills. From here 10.5 miles down to Meeker.

Looking back the way I had come from.

Many of the Mormon Crickets on the road – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cricket However not so many that I couldn’t avoid them.

Upcoming road work for tomorrow. I’m told most of the resurfacing is done but there is still a bridge they are finishing and alternate stopping traffic from each direction.

Meeker has a taxidermy shop with a large skeleton out front.

Overall it was a nice ride and nice to visit a new place in Colorado I hadn’t been before.

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