August 10,2014 after corn

Gateway Auto Museum

Sunday after the Olathe Corn Festival my daughter Kalena her husband Joe, Royce and I drove North out of Montrose on High Way 50 toward Grand Junction. We turned off West on a high way that leads to Gateway and Naturita. It is a road none of us had ever been on before. Turned out to be a beautiful drive. High rock cliffs closed in on us in a curvy canyon. The rocks were stunning in height and colors. This opened up to broad meadows with black cattle, every thing was so green. They have had so much rain, the grass was high and the trees and bushes were thick.

44 miles later coming in to the Town of Gateway you could see some remnants of an old town. They have a new convenience store, then down a hill and there is the new Resort. The Resort Property is spread out behind stucco walls, away from the old town. Inside curving roads lead you past manicured lawns, landscaped gardens, Restaurants, a Hotel and the Auto Museum we have come to see. Plenty of parking, not many people out on a Sunday.

You can go on line to see how extensive the collection of cars is. It is marvelous ! The mussel cars are great. Joe found the SS he had as a kid. 100 years of history - one of a kind cars - Jimmy Johnson's Race Car in the Race Shop. It was fun seeing all the old cars, but my favorite was the first one we saw, a big old Buick in the lobby. A convertible, 195 -, really big and beautiful. They trade the cars in and out with some they have in storage, so it may not be in the lobby for long.

Across from the Museum was one of the Restaurants, a Grill. We had BIG Hamburgers and  a chicken Flat Bread with lots of veggies. The waiter was good and turned out to be from Montrose ! He had a roommate and lived in a dorm at the resort. After we ate Kalena and I walked around and looked at the different plants. Quite a few we did not know the names of. We saw Humming Birds, Humming bird Moths and Large Black Bees.

On the way back we stopped in the canyon and read an interpative sign that told us about a seep in the area and another sign about a home site.

Great Day.