Montrose—Nucla—Uravan—Paradox—(Moab, Utah) ; State 90. Montrose to Utah Line, 93.8 miles

Graded dirt road entire distance; chains necessary in wet weather. Winter travel not recommended; inquire conditions locally. Accommodations extremely limited.

Although the old West has largely vanished, a glimpse of what remains is found along this route in the mesa lands and sagebrush country of southwestern Colorado. This rough untamed land, peopled by a few courageous settlers, is the habitat of deer, elk, mountain lion, and small game.

West of MONTROSE, 0 miles (5,820 alt., 3,566 pop.) (see Tour 9c), State 90 crosses the fertile Uncompahgre Valley, an alkali and sagebrush waste reclaimed by water brought from the Gunnison River through the 6-mile Gunnison Diversion Tunnel (see Tour 9c). The valley is narrow, and prosperous farms occupy the hillsides. To the north is the great tree-covered Grand Mesa (see Tour 5E), a mass of green during summer and of red in autumn when frost has touched the scrub oak.

The route ascends SPRING MESA (6,900 alt.), the first of a series of terraces that rise to the top of the Uncompahgre Plateau. This area is irrigated, much of it planted with apple orchards and alfalfa.

Alfalfa was introduced in the Clear Creek Valley in 1867 with seed brought from Mexico. After the establishment of the Colorado Experiment Station in 1888, a study was made of the crop and interest in it became general. Most of the State's alfalfa is grown under irrigation; the seed is sowed on smooth level ground crossed by laterals to facilitate a flood type of irrigation. As a rule, the laterals separate tracts of approximately one-twentieth of an acre, arranged so that water from one can be drained into a lower adjoining section. One flooding before each cutting is adequate, and three cuttings a year are not unusual. One planting produces hay for three years.

Alfalfa provides feed for livestock and poultry, brings cash in the market, and completes a crop rotation that replaces nitrogen in the soil. Alfalfa has the highest poundage of digestible matter of any hay but the native wild variety. Much of it is processed into alfalfa meal. The price of seed is high, and the 25,000 bushels of seed produced in Colorado annually does not supply the State's needs.

West of the valley the highway ascends steadily through a rough, sparsely settled region in which scrub cedar has crowded out all other vegetation. Far to the north are the jagged La Plata Mountains, rising 14,000 feet to rocky snow-covered summits. On higher levels the thinning cedar gives way to sage.

The route ascends the UNCOMPAHGRE PLATEAU (10,000 alt.), covered with vast untouched stands of timber, and crosses the eastern boundary of UNCOMPAHGRE NATIONAL FOREST, 20.6 miles, created in 1905 by President Theodore Roosevelt. It embraces 850,078 acres of Federal, State, and private land. Twenty-three varieties of trees are found in its wooded areas, the predominant tree being the Engelmann spruce. Wild game is still plentiful in this old hunting ground of the Ute as animals wander in from the Ouray State Game Preserve, a 53,120-acre area within the forest near Ouray (see Tour 18).

SILESCA RANGER STATION (L), 21.4 miles, a log cabin, the first habitation house on the route west of Spring Creek Valley, is occupied only in summer. At IRON SPRINGS CAMPGROUNDS (L), 24.1 miles (cleared camping spaces; fireplaces, sanitary facilities}) are springs containing iron salts as the principal element.

West of the springs, great aspens, some 100 feet high and 18 inches in diameter, border the highway. Here live brilliant-hued broad-tailed humming birds, violet-green swallows, and the red-naped sapsucker. Stretches of scrub oak appear as the lower levels of the plateau are reached. The distant valleys are great seas of blue, topped with the jagged white La Platas. The road follows the canyon of the SAN MIGUEL RIVER, fringed with cottonwoods and willows. Here and there through breaks in the red rock canyon walls appear (R) La Sal Mountains, 100 miles distant in Utah.

The highway passes under the wooden flume of the 20-mile COLORADO CO-OPERATIVE DITCH, 32.5 miles, which diverts water from the upper valley of the San Miguel to the fields of First Park Mesa, site of the socialistic Nucla Colony (see below). The ditch crosses a broad level plateau intensively developed as a fruit and vegetable growing area. This region was desolate until settlers succeeded in bringing water to the land and grubbed out scrub oak and sagebrush, to plant apples, grapes, peaches, and potatoes. Sheep and cattle raising are important sources of income.

At 49.1 miles is the junction with an improved road.

Right on this road is NUCLA, 5.1 miles (7,000 alt., 221 pop.), a compact town of neat frame bungalows, center of a cooperative community. In the small grassy park shaded by poplars, school children eat their lunches and townsfolk pasture their cows. Most business enterprises in Nucla were once conducted as a cooperative venture; today, only the irrigation ditch remains as community property. The ditch was constructed almost entirely by hand. To avoid the cost of blasting through solid rock, a large part of it originally consisted of wooden flumes built along the edge of the canyon. During construction, half the colony worked in saw mills and lumber camps to support those digging the ditch.

NATURITA, 54.1 miles (5,427 alt., 145 pop.), is a scattered village of small false-front buildings.

At 56.5 miles is the junction with State 141.

Right on this graded road to URAVAN, 13 miles (4,995 alt.), a mill operated by the U. S. Vanadium Company (open weekdays). The name is a combination of the first syllables of uranium and vanadium, found with carnotite, a yellow viscous ore mined here. This radioactive ore, one of the first of its kind to be discovered in the world, was used in the discovery of radium. Carnotite was first mined here in 1881 for small amounts of gold found with it. In 1898, after the Smithsonian Institution had found that the ore contained uranium, several tons were shipped by two French scientists, Poulot and Voilleque, to the School of Mines in Paris, where they were delivered to Madame Curie and used by her in experiments that resulted in the extraction of radium. The ore was named for M. Carnot, inspector-general of mines in France. Between 1898 and 1928 ores taken from this region accounted for almost one half of the world production of radium. Since the discovery of radioactive ores in the Belgian Congo, processing of uranium has become unprofitable, and carnotite now is mined solely for vanadium, a steel hardener, once considered a useless by-product.

West of the junction State 90 crosses the San Miguel Valley and ascends the dun-colored slopes of Long Park, passing the concrete foundations of abandoned coke ovens, 58.6 miles During the boom days of carnotite mining the mill and general offices of the Standard Chemical Company, original developers of the region, were established here.

The highway traverses the eastern portion of PARADOX VALLEY, an uninhabited sagebrush waste, walled in by massive red cliffs on the north and by rolling hills on the south. The valley was so named because the Dolores River crosses it at right angles, an unusual phenomenon. The "strike" or direction of the valley is northwest and southeast, but the Dolores River enters it on the south and runs in a northeasterly direction to leave the valley through a great gap in the cliffs to the north.

At 74.1 miles is the junction with an unimproved dirt road.

Right on this road, across red sage-covered gumbo, to a SALT MINE (open daily), 2.5 miles Paradox Valley was apparently once the bed of a dead sea, similar to the Great Salt Lake. As the water evaporated, beds of salt were deposited, which in course of time were covered with successive layers of soil and rock. From a 5,100-foot well, brine is pumped for processing of vanadium. The brine is run to settling ponds, where the water is evaporated. Both brine and solid salt are used in vanadium operations at Uravan (see above). A mechanic and his helper, who operate the pumps, are the only inhabitants of this section of East Paradox Valley.

BEDROCK, 76.6 miles (4,983 alt., 100 pop.), is a community on the Dolores River.

Left from Bedrock by trail to the little-known DOLORES CANYON, 1 miles Ranchers sometime act as guides through this rugged area, but the trip should be attempted only by experienced mountain climbers. At MULEBEND, 10 miles, the stream turns east for half a mile, abruptly reverses its course, and returns to within a few hundred feet of the bend.

West of Bedrock the route traverses a cliff-protected section of the valley, devoted to wintering of livestock. A few areas along the river are irrigated and produce small crops, but cattle raising is the chief occupation.

At 82.4 miles is the junction with an improved road.

Right on this road is PARADOX, 1 miles (5,180 alt, 24 pop.), where food and supplies can be obtained.

The highway turns south, re-enters the sagebrush, and twists up the side of NYSWONGER MESA (6,983 alt.), its table-top a mass of scrub oak and cedar. To the north the downward sweep of Paradox Valley appears as a purple lake dammed by sheer red cliffs, while to the west the monotonous vista of the mesa lands is broken by the distant jagged upthrust of La Sal Mountains in Utah.

State 90 crosses the UTAH LINE, 93.8 miles. 16 miles east of La Sal, Utah (see Utah Guide).