Colorado Journey Guide: A Driving & Hiking Guide to Ruins, Rock Art, Fossils & Formations (Adventure Journey Guides) - Softcover

Kramer, Jon; Martinez, Julie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1591932084 ISBN 13: 9781591932086

Publisher: Adventure Publications, 2007

Synopsis

Drive or hike to Colorado’s best destinations for archaeology, geology, and paleontology.

It’s out there. Go find it! The Colorado Journey Guide by Jon Kramer and Julie Martinez is your resource to discovering the best of Colorado. Informative and entertaining, this guide leads you to 46 of the most amazing sites and scenery that the Centennial State can offer: majestic mountains, ancient ruins, secret canyons, hidden waterfalls, and exotic places. Jon’s rating system for significance in archaeology, geology, and paleontology ensures that you find the places that are right for you and your interests, while the accompanying information helps you to fully appreciate each location. Plus, Jon’s candid tips help you to see the sites through experienced eyes. Amazing illustrations by Vernon Morris depict pottery, prehistoric animals, and more—so this full-color guidebook is as visually appealing as it is useful on your adventures.

Book Features:

• Entertaining guide to Colorado’s majestic mountains, ancient ruins, secret canyons, hidden waterfalls, and exotic places
• Driving and hiking options—many sites within minutes of your car
• Jon’s rating system: every location rated for significance in archaeology, geology, and/or paleontology
• Amazing illustrations depicting pottery, prehistoric animals, and more
• Jon’s Notes: inside tips that help you make the most out of every visit

Get The Colorado Journey Guide, and start planning your next road trip. It’s everything you need for the perfect Colorado excursion—right at your fingertips!

About this title

About the Author

Jon Kramer is an adventurer first, and also a geologist, writer, climber and surfer (but not necessarily in that order, depending on the surf). He received his Bachelor of Science degree in geology at the University of Maryland and has pursued life as an adventuring paleontologist ever since. His interests are quite varied and include all things natural. In addition to popular travel and adventure writing, Jon has published scientific papers on critters as ancient as 2 billion-year-old bacteria and as young as 12,000-year-old mammoths. Jon travels extensively with his wife Julie, sometimes settling down for a rest in Minnesota, Florida, California and interesting points in between. Julie Martinez is an explorer, naturalist, freelance artist and formal art instructor. Her appreciation for insects, plants, rocks and fossils started in childhood with a collection that has grown throughout her life. Julie graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, with a degree in Fine Arts and Biology. She initially worked as an illustrator for the medical field but in the late 1980s began a freelance career, which she has enjoyed ever since. Julie’s work is featured in many textbooks, journals and museum exhibits throughout North America. She is also a staff teacher at Minnesota School of Botanical Art. When not teaching, she travels with Jon, exploring the wilds of the world. Vernon Morris is a freelance artist, muralist and adventuring time traveler. His formal art education took place in the early 1980s at the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Vern’s Native American (Anishinabe) roots have been a powerful influence in his life. He maintains a small quarry at Pipestone National Monument where he excavates the famous carving stone every year. He then sculpts it into pipes and ritual objects just as his ancestors did for countless generations. Vern carries his work with him into the wilds and is just as comfortable carving pipestone atop a mesa in the Southwest as sketching scenes from antiquity along the ocean in Big Sur.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Boulder Falls

Directions: Boulder Canyon is along CO 119 west of Boulder. The falls are about 10 miles out of town, while the best part of the walkway is about half that far, marked by signage on the left.

Contact Info:City of Boulder, 303-441-3440, www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view &id=2875&Itemid=1016#Boulder%20Falls

Fee: no fee

Hours: daylight hours

Best time to visit: anytime the road and trail is not too icy

Camping/Lodging: camping nearby; closest lodging in Boulder

Access: easy―but be careful near the falls―the rocks can be very slippery

Jon’s Rating: 5 stars (geology)

Jon’s Notes: There are falls all over this state and a lot that are many times higher than this. So why do we list this one? Stop off to see it and you might actually learn a lesson or two about geologic processes. Never has such a fall been so appropriately named. In this case it’s not just the fact it occurs on the North branch of Boulder Creek, but that there is actually a gigantic―and I do mean GIGANTIC!―boulder that is the star of the show. The huge litholeviathan dislodged from the wall of the canyon above and somehow managed to become wedged in the V-shaped narrows downstream, effectively blocking the flow. Afterward, a small lake built up behind the pinch and eventually the water coursed over the top, a process which continues today.

Edition details

• Publisher: Adventure Publications
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1591932084
• ISBN 13: 9781591932086
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Morris Vernon
• Number of pages: 224