August 2025 – TooBusyForWork

The Alpine Loop lives up to its hype

The drive from Delta to Lake City was truly awful. Colorado Hwy 149 was so wiggly I got seasick – really! Slow speeds of 30-40 mph with lots of up and down hills made it a miserable drive in the motorhome. I was not in a happy mode when we finally got to Lake City, and our campsite was so small we had to really wiggle around to get in. The owner tried to direct me, and he ran me into tree limbs. I stopped and said the only one who could back me in was Kevin. Owner seemed kind of perturbed, but I was pissed. Luckily the tree branches only rubbed the chrome outside of my mirrors, but that was only because I stopped. Sigh. Once we got in the site and I was able to calm down, I could appreciate the long but narrow site. It has a lot of trees, but luckily an open space for the Starlink. They have a spring that has its own little waterfall along the road. I loved the lush moss.

Monday we discovered our 7 year old Dyson stick vacuum had died. Sigh. And of course there isn’t a good place to get one in Lake City, so we had to head to Gunnison. The road is much easier in a truck, especially with Kevin driving. We picked up the new vacuum, did some other miscellaneous shopping, and drove a bit of the road we will take to on our way from Blue Mesa Reservoir where we will be staying next. The trip here is still heavy on my mind! We had dinner at a fabulous place called Breakfast Hangout and Euphoria. Weird name, but really good food. I had salmon with baked sweet potatoes and a piece of hazelnut crepe cake. Delicious.

Tuesday we did the famous Alpine Loop trail. Yup, it is worth everything you have ever heard about it. If you have a slow internet connection, come back later! I have lots of videos and pictures.

We left about 8:30 and returned around 2:30 with lots of stops for pictures and a long lunch. Our campground, Highlander RV Park, is right on the trail so we took off from there. We had a nice ride around Lake San Cristobal. There are a lot of dry camping available, but it would have been challenging to get the motorhome in the sites.

Easy riding along the lake

We continued on the 2WD road for a while, enjoying the scenery. There were broad meadows, nice houses, and the mountains started getting clearer.

Meadows and mountains

Still early on the trail

Finally just a bit rougher.

Still going up

Getting rougher

The first big pass was Cinnamon Pass. The trail gets considerably rougher, though still a relatively easy ride for the RZR. Can you see the trail switch backing up the mountain?

Trail to Cinnamon Pass

I wish I could say I took a video at the top of the pass, but I didn’t. I did take lots of miscellaneous pictures though.

Even in mid August there were flowers in the meadows

Animas Forks is a state supported ghost town along the Alpine Loop. Lots of pictures from here too.

Old mines and mills were all over the place

Then we headed to Engineer Pass, a more challenging road. There was about a half mile of really rough road with big holes intermixed with ledges. Our little RZR was capable of it, but it was hard driving.

Above tree line

Just more interesting scenery

Coming down from Engineer Pass

The rest of the trip was easier and still lovely. I particularly liked the partially restored mining town of Ute-Ulay.

Ute Ulay town

I didn’t get any pictures of the shelf roads we drove or the really rough areas. During those areas I was holding onto my “Oh Shit” handle! Handy gadget found on the passenger side of all SxSs.

Today I spent time with my sewing materials. I haven’t gotten much time for a long time, and I deliberately said I would stay put all day today to sew. I managed to cut and sew the August block for my Kona Block of the Month. I like the colorway we got for this month.

I also cut a few hundred pieces that I need for a random border for a quilt that will be going into the motorhome when I get it finished. It is much easier to sew the little pieces when they are already cut out. I can do it in small segments of time, but cutting is best done all at one time.

I also experimented with a new fusible for appliqué. I bought this adorable Accuquilt cactus die this winter, and this is the first time I have played with it. After using a few sample pieces to experiment with thread and fabric, I put this adorable design on one of the canvas bags we use for groceries. We wash them regularly, and it will be interesting to see how the appliqué holds up. I used an invisible thread on top with a blind hem stitch with 3 and length 1. I like it!

Tomorrow we head to Elk Creek campground on Blue Mesa Reservoir in Curecanti National Recreation Area. We will have electricity, an unusual thing for a National Park Service campground.

Into Colorado

From Antelope Island we spent the night in Green River, Utah at Green River State Park. Lovely, big sites! We spent the next night at Valley Sunset RV Ranch in Delta, CO. Not bad for a very small campground, and it was inexpensive to boot! We then arrived into the Taylor Park area, our destination until tomorrow.

We are attending the Taylor Park UTV Rally, an annual get-together that has been going on since 2010 or so with a hiatus during COVID. It is a very casual affair. The rally provides access to a dry camping area (for a fee), an evening program with lots of door prizes, a few vendors of SxS specialties, and lots of people knowledgeable about the area. As usual, we chose to go out by ourselves after picking the brains of some of the experienced folks. We just drive a lot slower than most of the enthusiasts who have big, fast machines.

Thursday we drove to Tincup and then to Pitkin via the Cumberland Pass at over 12,000’. Fun little almost mining ghost towns with a few hearty residents. The pass had incredible views. There was so much dust though! It hasn’t rained, really rained, for a long time.

The day started with a lovely sunrise.

Tincup is only 6 miles from the campsite. They have had some bad experiences with OHVs I guess.

All the buildings I noted were out of log construction. Some were new, some very old, and some in-between. It was a busy mining town many, many years ago.

We left Tincup to head up a mountain valley. Beaver sign was everywhere. There are two dams in this picture.

Beautiful beaver meadows along every stream

Cumberland Pass is a famous trail. It can be driven in passenger vehicles, but it is probably best in an OHV. We climbed and climbed.

See that road on the hillside? That’s where we go

The sign said 12,015’ but my GPS said 11,980. Either way it was really hard to breath.

Pitkin is also an old mining town with only a few residents plus some rental cabins. Like Tincup it was mostly vintage log buildings, but it is larger than Tincup and more prosperous. There were two restaurants. We went to one with green chili burgers and huckleberry margaritas.

We came by via the Slaughterhouse Gulch trail. It was a bit rougher, but quite doable. Didn’t get many pictures because we were mostly just in the trees.

By Friday my sinus problems were getting serious. We left at 8:00 am and went to Tincup for breakfast at French’s. Lovely meal. We then headed up to the Texas Lakes trail. We had a bit of a false start when we encountered a water crossing we just didn’t think we were big enough for. We ended up taking an alternate but longer route. The pictures got fewer and fewer as I was feeling worse and worse. The combination of dust and no air was really getting to me. We did see a lot of mule deer this day though. It helps to be the first folks out and about. We saw 12 different deer in various little groups. I am going to post a really bad picture of one that was bedded down maybe 10 yards from the road. Please forgive how bad it is. By this time I just couldn’t get out of the rig, and the RZR vibrates whenever the motor is on.

Luckily I did get some GoPro footage. This is looking at the reservoir from near where we are camped.

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Today (Saturday) I am even worse so no RZR riding for us! We took a big pickup truck trip up and past the reservoir then backdown the opposite side and into Gunnison on gravel roads. Really nice.

A view from near the outlet at Taylor Reservoir.

We leave tomorrow morning. My sinuses aren’t getting much better, but I am dosing myself with every type of allergy relief and cough medicine I can manage. I do fine if I don’t move, but walking around every a little bit starts me coughing again. We will be heading to Lake City to do the famous Alpine Loop, so I am working hard on getting better.

A sad Great Salt Lake

Ummm. Looks like I didn’t publish this! Better late than never.

We had a lovely trip to the Salt Lake City area, and Antelope Island State Park was just as lovely as ever. As I expected, the campground was almost empty. There are around 60 campsites – some dry camping, some with FHUs, and even 3 really nice little cabins. I think the most we ever saw occupied were 9 sites, and that included the 3 camp host sites! This is what we saw as we looked out of our site.

We just hung around the camper on Friday when we arrived. Saturday we went shopping for more fabric for the oven mitt class I am teaching in October. Nice shop called Sew-N-Save with a great selection of fabric. We had lunch at the little Thai cafe in Syracuse. As before, we enjoyed the food and had plenty for dinner on Sunday.

In the afternoon we decided to drive out towards Greer Ranch, an historic homesite on the island. We have been in the builds a dozen times, so we didn’t stop there, but we drove the dirt road south of the ranch to see how far we could get. The lake is so, so, so low! We ended up driving almost to the end of the island. Of course, the island is no longer an island; it has become a peninsula on the south end, and the road ended up about a mile from where the salt flats began that connect it to the mainland. And of course we saw bison! The nursery herd has broken up into a number of smaller herds scattered on the east side of the island. In this picture you can see the green that indicates seeps or springs. This side of the island has a lot of both which is, of course, why the bison prefer this side. Also notice the fence in the salt flat edge of the island. This is fairly new. When the island really was an island, the bison stayed put. The lake has now gotten so low that there was concern they would just walk away. So up went a bison proof fence around the east and south end of the state park. So sad.

On the way back to the west side where we were camped, we were lucky to see one of the fabulous reflections the lake is known for. Pretty nice!

Sunday I had a great time visiting my old church (First Presbyterian Salt Lake City). It is a big gothic church in the downtown area, and it is undergoing a resurgence with a new pastor. The church has been know for its music program for years, and we were lucky enough to be there on jazz Sunday. Have you ever heard jazz played on a massive pipe organ? I got to! Larry Blackburn is the organist, and he adapted a version of “When the Saints.” Never thought it could be done, but Larry (as usual) knocked it out of the park. I got to see a number of old friends, and Kevin and I went to lunch with a couple of them. We got back to the motorhome, and we both took a nap.

This is what our view was this morning as we got ready to leave. We drove through the city pretty easily, and we are now in Green River State Park. Tomorrow we spend the night at a private campground in Delta, CO before heading to the Taylor Park UTV rally.

Heading to Salt Lake City

After the night in Burns, we spent one night (again) in the Mountain Home Elks Lodge lot followed by three nights in the Jerome Elks Lodge lot. We planned the time in Jerome to do some RZR riding in the Sawtooth Mountains near Magic Mountain Ski Resort, and it was a fabulous ride.

We started in a forested area.

Ride Through Woods

There was a variety of road/trails in the area. One type is called a shelf road. They are basically just a bulldozed trail in the side of a steep hillside that drops off steeply on one side. This one was pretty mild, but it does show how they work.

Shelf road

Interestingly enough we also saw this occupied, but quite rustic, cabin. We didn’t see anyone around, and of course we didn’t get too close, but the flag in front was new and waving.

We saw hundreds of animals! Well they weren’t too wild, but we did encounter a large herd of sheep being moved. We never saw the shepherd, but we saw a guardian dog and a sheep dog. Note in the video how the sheep split around an obstacle then come right back together.

Sheep moving

We saw the herder’s wagon, and didn’t he pick a lovely place to put it!

Sheep herder wagon

Of course there were more than just sheep. Note these folks watching us.

More wild animals!

There was just a lot of beautiful scenery.

The trip was around 40 miles, and we took 4.5 hours to do it. That included lunch at a lovely shady spot that I didn’t get a good picture of.

I thought I would add a picture of what the parking lot looked like. In the winter I bet it is MUCH busier with skiers! You can also see the ramps Kevin uses to put the RZR back in the truck.

On Thursday we visited the Minidoka National Historic Site. It is the location of what is more appropriately called a “concentration camp” rather than the innocuous term of “internment camp.” May we never forget the stain on our nation when we rounded up people based only on their ethnicity and locked them away for years. Oh, wait, doesn’t that sound much more current than WWII? The camp was huge, with thousands of people and probably around 100 housing units. Each of the buildings like the white one below held 6 families of between 3 and 8 members.

We would have done more, but we ended up having to take Minnie to the vet. She has obviously not feeling well, and she had lot a lot of weight. After a few hundred dollars of blood work and an ultrasound, she was diagnosed with probable pancreatitis. Lots of meds over the next few weeks, then a revisiting of her blood work.

Today we are at Antelope Island State Park in Utah. Gorgeous, and hardly anyone here! The water is turned off to the entire island, so only the hardy folks are camping.

Ray Benson Sno-Park (again)

Oregon has a number of Sno-Parks designed for cross country skiing and snowmobiling, even dogsledding! Some are open for other uses in the summer. Ray Benson is very popular with both the OHV crowd and the water sports crowds who can’t get a reservation at the nearby lakes. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, and it was beautiful. Here is the view from under our awning.You can barely see the Hoodoo Ski Area to the right.

And there were butterflies! Thousands and thousands of California Tortoiseshell butterflies had recently hatched, and they were busy feeding, or at least according to Oregon websites. The first picture is of a few hundred hanging out in a damp tire track. The video is from under my awning again. Click it to watch in full screen mode.

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Friday we took a 24 mile RZR trip. I must say I am not impressed with Oregon as a UTV location. The rules are onerous; for example, a narrow UTV like ours (50” wide) is allowed on ATV (50”) trails in other states, but not in OR. No driving even on many USFS double digit numbered roads is another example. And then the riders! Very poor trail behavior – driving too fast, blasting around blind turns, etc. We enjoyed the ride, but decided that would be it in Oregon. I will give you a couple of pictures and a video though. The video was taken on the way to the top of Cache Mountain where there used to be an old USFS fire watch tour. Of course it was burned by vandals a number of years ago.😢

Burn scars still have beauty with Mt. Washington behind them

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Since we had plenty of water and the RZR was SO dirty, Kevin used his handy dandy electric power washer on it. This was the real deal job – he completely unloaded everything and washed it all. Sorry for the fuzzy picture.

We take a lot of gear with us since we ride by ourselves a lot. Extra gas, extra water, food, clothing, repair kit and tools, an InReach emergency notification system, even gear to stay the night if we get stuck. Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout!

Saturday we decided to join the crowds sightseeing, but in the pickup. I didn’t take many pictures, but we had a nice ride. We drove through a bunch of heavily forested areas before reaching the Columbia River. We drove along it quite a ways, and we tried to see some waterfalls, but it was not to be. It is prime tourist season, and everything was so crowded we didn’t get to see the falls. I did get one drive-by photo, but that was it. Note to self: Stay away from popular tourist areas on absolutely beautiful Saturdays! We had done the waterfall drive a few years back though, so it wasn’t a critical miss.

To summarize about the Sno-Park, it was fine until Friday when multiple large groups of people came in. The groups were noisy by themselves, and then the OHVs they brought with them were worse. I wouldn’t have minded noise before 9 or 10pm, but we had motorcycles roaring until 11pm on Friday and a generator that ran until well after midnight. There was also a lot of yelling from the groups. It wasn’t like this the last time we were here, probably because the weather was so hot. This weekend the highs were 80 or less, so no need for AC. Yet another lesson learned.

We packed up this morning and drove to Burns, OR where we are spending the night at a small place called Cindi’s RV Park. It has 6 sites, FHU, and costs the princely sum of $35! We are catching up on laundry and some cleaning. We have pretty much planned the rest of the trip until we go to the ayatollah Park UTV Rally beginning 13 August. More on that as it happens.

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