I think we went too far. I'm pretty sure that the turnoff for the Grand Canyon was NORTH of the I-40!
Wait...isn't this the old U.S. Highway 666?
I don't care if that sign says 191, were turning around. Now.
Church Rock alongside the U.S. 191 near Monticello, Utah
Okay, now, where were we...First we went to the old nuclear weapons site, Rocky Flats, on the west side of Denver, then to Naturita to hear about their work to preserve the icons of their uranium extraction past, and then on to Moab to see how Moabites are trying to clean up decades of uranium extraction and processing along the Colorado River.
The Orphan Mine Headframe Prior Being Torn Down
A little farther (okay, a few hundred miles farther) down the Colorado River is the icon of the American West, the Grand Canyon. During the Cold War, uranium mining occurred in and around the canyon, and along with the uranium mining on Navajo and Hopi land, left a mixed legacy for uranium extraction in Northern Arizona. In January of this year, the Obama Administration pulled public land around the canyon from use for mineral extraction. Up until this point, the debate over whether or not to mine the land had been ongoing in some form or another since the late 1980s, much to the displeasure of environmental advocacy organizations and mining consortia alike.
Here is a video from Eight, Arizona PBS out of Arizona State University (Go Sun Devils!) discussing the pros and cons of uranium extraction near the Grand Canyon. One important thing to note is that the industry representative, Pam Hill, mentions that she was a former employee of Energy Fuels Nuclear. This is not the same Energy Fuels I mentioned in the Pinon Ridge post, but the two are very closely related.
But the Colorado Rocky Mountain High.... I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky... The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabyeee...Rocky Mountain Highhh...In Coloradooo...ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGHH...HIGH IN COLORADO
Sorry...
I'm a bit of a car singer.
By the way, thanks for coming out here for this trip, it's going to be a ton of fun. Now I'm guessing by the huge amount of outdoors gear you guys packed that you plan to do a little bit of recreating here. That's cool, getting into the outdoors is almost a legal requirement in Colorado. Lucky for you, there happens to be a lot of open space for doing stuff here in the Denver area. Western Denver is full of lots of open spaces: parks, trails, musical venues, wildlife refuges set on the site of former nuclear weapons plants. What, you've never heard about Denver's nuclear past? Here, take a look at this:
