Going to Gateway

Red Rock Grandeur

“Now why did you say you wanted to come here again?”  I asked my friend, Paula, as we stopped in this middle-of-nowhere place called Paradox, squinting beneath the beating sun in search of a gas station, a store or some other significant sign of life.  My head pounded fiercely by now and both our car and I were positively parched.  

“I wanted to take some pictures of Paradox Valley, you know for that contest I told you about, the one to raise awareness about possible uranium mining in the area,” Paula replied as she drove across verdant plains framed by cliffs the color of buff, sandstone and ochre.  This contrasting display of nature must be the paradox, I blithely thought to myself as my head throbbed and we rolled through this shadow of a town, Paula clicking her camera like a sniper in a passing S.U.V.

We realized by now that there was no easy way to cleave our way through these rocky walls to Gateway, our ultimate destination, normally just a two-hour plus drive northwest of Telluride.  Our detour to Paradox had proved scenic enough, but now we needed to speed up our travels.  We had no choice than to turn around and drive back to Bedrock, the little speck we passed through on our way to Paradox Valley.  

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