We left Red Bay this morning. Until about an hour after we got up we weren’t sure if we were going to stay an extra day or leave. Last night a front came through with a significant amount of wind, and it was forecast to be windy until Wednesday morning. The worst will come on Tuesday, and it seems we really shouldn’t be going anywhere that day. The motorhome and I don’t handle 45-60mph wind gusts very well! We finally decided to head out, but we didn’t leave until 11:00 to let the storm get a bit farther past us.
We did get pretty much all of our miscellaneous work done while in the area. The motorhome looks fabulous! $$$$ but the body work and paint look great. The drip rail that joins the top cap to the sides needed a complete recaulking and repainting. That took one day. The second day was putting the new bay doors on and repairing the two that didn’t need replacing plus painting everything. We also had them polish our headlights, and they look like new. The whole thing took 2 days and 4 hours (they were long days), but we got to stay in the motorhome while they worked. This picture was taken by the guy who did the FABULOUS wash and wax – Ricky Johnson of RV Cleaning in Vina, AL. Note I am wearing my “No Kings” shirt. We both attended a protest in Florence, AL while the rig was being washed.
Isn’t she pretty?
We had Lindsey & Winchester make washable slipcovers for our pilot and co-pilot chairs. These are to protect the seats from the claws of our cats. They never scratch the furniture on purpose, but they do launch from it some times! The can be tucked much tighter than shown, but this was after driving all day, so don’t blame the manufacturer for the looseness.
Front of new seat coversBack of new seat covers
We also had top covers made for both recliners. Again, this was really just to protect against “launch” scratches. The fit quite well when tucked down a bit.
Protection for recliners
I also had L&W make washable, removable covers for our dining table chairs. These are well-built IKEA chairs, much sturdier than the originals from Tiffin. But they had a very light colored seat, and they were starting to spot. The woman who took the measurements and delivered them said these were the first she had ever done. I am quite happy with them.
Chair seats
L&W also re-upholstered the headboard, but it is virtually indistinguishable from the original so I won’t show a picture. L&W makes all the soft furnishing Tiffin uses, so the similarity isn’t really surprising! While my side of the headboard was just fine, kevin reads in bed so often that his (rough) hair had caused some minor holes in the vinyl.
Today’s travel finds us in the parking lot of an Elks Lodge in Sikeston, MO. The temperature is cool enough we don’t need AC, so we are just dry camping. Tomorrow we will be well north of St. Louis at Canton on the Mississippi at Lock and Dam 20. We plan on staying there Monday and Tuesday nights due to the wind storm coming. It is a nice place to settle for a bit since we can watch the barges lock through. Wednesday we expect to be back home! I admit that I am completely ready to be done traveling for a while. By 3 1/2 months, I am usually looking forward to home, and we have been gone for over 4 months this time. Now to get to all the doctor and dentist appointments we have scheduled between now and Christmas when we take off again.
After the Elks Lodge we chose to stay at a KOA west of El Reno, OK for a night. We got some laundry done, cleaned the tanks, and generally reveled in the idea of unlimited water LOL! The next night was at the Grand Casino parking lot outside Shawnee, OK. We took a short day because we really, really needed to get the motorhome washed! There was a Blue Beacon on I-40 in western Oklahoma City, so we took the time to get it washed. It is always an hour or more, because they are always busy. But the Casino was an awful place to spend the night. We had been in such quiet places for months that all the noise and lights kept me from sleeping well at all. Ugh. I begged Kevin for no more parking lots, so we stayed the next two nights at Corps of Engineers campgrounds, one in Russellville, AR (Old Post Park) and last night outside Hernando, MS (Hernando Point). Both were lovely and quiet.
Hernando Point was where we found out the truck’s battery was 100% dead! Kevin tried to charge it with the MH and the battery cables we had, but they were cheap ones and didn’t do a good job. So off we went to the next bigger town, the metropolis of Senatobia, MS population 8,500. Of course it was 20 miles from the campground! We made it to an auto parts store, but they didn’t have the booster and cables Kevin wanted, so he ended up at a Walmart nearby. Hard to park a MH at the auto parts store, so I parked on the street and he walked to the stores. Got back to the campground well after 6:00pm, and we started the generator and the new charger to get things working. We didn’t want to leave the truck, parked in a closed boat ramp area, so the CG host said we could just boondock in the lot instead of the site we had reserved. By 9:00 pm the truck was 40% charged, and we turned off the generator. The next morning Kevin charged the truck a bit more, then he drove the truck to Red Bay while I followed in the motorhome. Once we got here, he was able to isolate the charging line error in the umbilical that connects the powered items in the truck to the motorhome. He will fix that first, then he’ll see about getting a new battery for the truck. It has been my experience that once a battery is completely exhausted, it is not reliable in cold weather or under loads. If we were in civilization all the time, I wouldn’t worry because you can always find someone to give you a jump, but that is NOT where we generally stay!
So tomorrow Kevin gets to rewire umbilical cords (dead one and the spare which was from the Jeep). Should keep him busy. I intend on getting a bunch of oven mitt blanks quilted, ready for cutting on the Accuquilt. He will probably finish first!
This next week is for getting hte motorhome worked on. We have some body work (oops!), getting some slipcovers for the pilot and co-pilot chairs, covers for our dining chairs, and replacing the headboard fabric. We will also get our yearly engine, chassis service, and generator service plus a real detail job on the MH. There are a few minor things we are getting repaired too, but just little nits and lice stuff. However we have to be at the body shop ten miles away at 6:00am! Shiver!
We spent our last night in Ignacio visiting a bit of Chimney Rock Monument and a Native American flute player. The weather was threatening as we drove up, and it got worse. Lightening and thunder were all around us, so the planned outdoor aspects of the visit were superseded. We got to listen inside the Visitor Center, but I did get just a hint of a small ruin, shown below. The giant kiva and the Big House were out of reach this time, so I guess we will have to go back!
One of the smaller ruins at Chimney Rock
We drove to Farmington, NM where the Rocky Mountain Motorhome Association, a regional group from the FRVA, was having a rally. It was our first time at a regional rally, and it was a nice change.It was small enough (100 or so rigs) you got to meet people more easily. The Frustrated Maestros I mentioned last time were a blast! Not all were great musicians, but the purpose is FUN, and I am pretty sure everyone had a lot of that. It took me a while to get into a popular music style since I do so much more formal choral music, but I finally figured it out. Now if only I didn’t get so nervous singing a solo!
Oh, I have to mention that the Verizon service at the Fairgrounds where we had the rally was astonishing! Look at this screen shot; even Starlink could only run at about 180 or so.
I have never seen speeds like this!
In addition to singing three mornings, I also taught a class on making oven mitts. The students got to pick their favorite fabric kit, quilt the fabric, cut it with the Accuquilt, machine bind the edges, and then finish sewing. We had a blast! One of the nicest groups of folks I have ever had the pleasure of teaching, they had enthusiasm and great attitudes as you can see from this picture (yes, they gave permission). Everybody finished one mitt completely, and the second mitt didn’t need much more work but wasn’t quite finished in the two hours we had. I had so much fun picking out the fabric, and I have quite a few kits left. Guess what some of my Christmas presents will be?
We had so much fun
All good things must come to an end <sigh>. We are heading to the Red Bay, AL area for work on the motorhome, so most of the rest of the trip will be pretty boring. We spent the first night out of Farmington at the Santa Rosa State Park in NM. We would normally have planned on somewhere closer like Albuquerque, but the Balloon Fiesta is running and there isn’t a place within 100 miles at a reasonable distance. But the state park was lovely. There was a lot of water in the lake since they have had heavy rains, and the area was a lot greener than we had seen it before. Here is a picture Kevin took from our site. The only issue we had getting here was a major accident just a few miles from our exit to Santa Rosa. It took us about an hour to go 3-4 miles! Somehow a semi had destroyed their trailer (peeled the roof right off!) and crunched the tractor pretty good just at the start of a big construction zone. It was awfully tiring driving 2-3 mph. Just about everyone was well behaved, but I was glad to get to the campsite.
Santa Rosa State Park campground view
We are now in a crowded Elks Lodge parking lot in Amarillo, TX. There are 7 other MHs here, and we are parked awfully close to each other. But the price is right, and it is fine for a single overnight. I got the chance to clean up and sort all my sewing stuff, so that is good. We plan on averaging 200-230 miles a day to get to Red Bay on Saturday. We stay in a parking lot there too!
I probably won’t post again unless I get some sewing done. I have a pair of oven mitts that are partially complete that I was using as a sample, so I need to finish them. I also have the October Kona Block of the Month to finish. Oh, and all those Christmas presents!
We actually drove the Byway on Monday, 21 September, first – Cortez, Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Ridgeway, Telluride, then back Cortez. The eastern loop was lovely, but the western side was considerably behind it in color. We thought Thursday would be close to the peak color, so we drove from Cortez to Silverton again then. I took SO, SO, SO many videos, but I am not going to inflict them on you. They are lovely, but videos take forever to load. So you will get a very abbreviated tour of stills, mostly taken from the videos.
If you blow up this one you can see the color on the mountain plus a bit of the color in the undergrowth. Note the aspens this low weren’t doing much.
Color on the mountains in the distance
But the trees made up for it as we continued!
Mostly goldGold
This picture shows both the hillsides with yellow, green, and gold, plus the line of traffic all wanting to see it with us. People were actually quite well behaved though. There are a number of construction areas, but people waited their turns nicely.
Hillside between Durango and Silverton
And didn’t I say things got better? Notice the aspens intermixed with the conifers on this higher elevation hill.
More mountain color
This was the stand out spot! Not yellow but orange/gold.
All I can say is WOW
And for contrast, here are a few pictures from Monday. It was very overcast and cloudy. Note there is some color, but it was amazing what four days difference can do.
Not as vivid
Red Mountain is between Silverton and Ouray. The area shown is a mine that is being reclaimed for pollution issues.
An old mining flume
I love how Silverton, 9000+’, gets such lovely color. It was really, really crowded though!
Silverton
We moved to the Southern Ute Fairgrounds RV Park today. Full hookups means lots and lots of laundry! I will spray the shower, sinks, and toilet too. It’s nice to get some real cleaning done without having to worry about water, and we have so much dust in all the corners!
I actually have done some work on sewing tasks, though it doesn’t always seem like it. I am teaching a class next week at the Farmington RMMA rally, so I finally packaged all my fabric and insulation. I will work on my samples tomorrow probably. We will be heading to Chimney Rock National Monument for a special activity – a Native American flute player will play while we get to watch the night sky. I am looking forward to it, though we will definitely take warm coats and a quilt for our legs.
Ready for class
We leave on Sunday for the Farmington rally. I am trying out the “Frustrated Maestros,” a chapter of singers and instrumentalists who entertain at rallies. We sing at 8:00-8:45 the main three mornings of the rally. That is, by the way, a God-awful time for a singer! I will have to get up early to get my voice warmed up for that time. While most of the songs are old standards, some I have never heard of. Not complaining because some of the standard repertoire of the groups is awfully dates, but I have had to spend a significant time listening to the play list on YouTube. Most of the new stuff is definitely country/rock and indie. I have no idea how they will get a choir to sing them, but I am guessing we will just try to be close to each other. Even really well trained choirs with professional singers have difficulty with lots of 16th note runs and odd rests. I miss singing so much though! Hoping this works out well. We practice a total of 12 hours!
We had one of the loveliest Goldilocks-type days on today’s ride. We carried the RZR to Bradfield Recreation Area (a parking area next to the Dolores River near the Bradfield Campground). We off-loaded it (oh I mean Kevin off-loaded it), and we headed across the river and up the mountains. The temps were in the 70s, there was just a puff of breeze, the sky was brilliant blue with a few puffy clouds, the mostly BLM roads were easy, and the scenery was spectacular.
Here’s what it looks like as we leave the truck. The landscape was sage with some nice pines. It was just us as we left. There were 3 others here when we got back. And the correct comment on the ramp length is “My what long ramps you have!” Yup. Makes it easier to get the rig on and off. The brand name is actually “Long Ramps.:
Those ramps …
We were in mostly a sagebrush area as we headed up the mountain and towards McPhee Reservoir. As usual, click on the link to see the video. And sorry for the edit; I accidentally deleted the first video.
After the last picture we took a series of sharp switchbacks down to the edge of the reservoir. There was a pickup of men heading out to fish, and there was a couple on a canoe trip. The boat was pulled up on the shore, and they were walking around the rocky shore many feet below us. The water is very low.
We then decided to head to the Benchmark fire tower aka Benchmark Lookout. Absolutely beautiful ride there. As we took the last turn to the lookout, the trail became dirt and a bit more rutted. However the oak scrub (Gambel oak maybe?) was in glorious shades of orange to red. Sadly the GoPro didn’t capture the colors well, and I didn’t realize it until I downloaded them. Kevin got a couple of good iPhone shots though.
And then the lookout itself showed up. If we had been a week earlier we could have visited it, but it is closed to visitors now. We did have a lovely lunch break where the final few hundred feet of road was closed.
It was a total of about 60 miles over 4 hours, including a long break. You can put a lot of miles in when you are driving good gravel roads. However the RZR is so much more comfortable for driving gravel than the truck. Something about 10-12 pounds of air in the tires!
We are still in Cortez, and we have decided to stay her a bit longer. The Elks lodge parking lot is very quiet, and there is so much to do in the area.
We decided to visit the Bar D Chuckwagon in Durango. We’ve been a couple of times, and it is always fun. Dinner was good if you like pepper, but I couldn’t eat most of the (well-cooked) steak because it was just covered in pepper! I was not a fan. The music is always fun though.
The musicians at the Bar D
Another day we visited the Canyon of the Ancients Visitor Center. The outside has numerous native flowering plants. I was amazed they still had columbines!
I love columbines
The museum was absolutely fabulous! Lovely curated artifacts from the surroundings placed in context of the land. It was probably the best Ancestral Pueblo museum I have ever been to. There are over 1.5M artifacts, many gathered when the nearby McPhee Reservoir was being built. The water is very low due to the long-term drought in this area.
McPhee Reservoir and the bathtub ring
The half-mile switchback trail to the XYZ ruins had some beautiful views. One significant view is of the Sleeping Ute Mountain on the Mountain Ute Reservation.
Sleeping Ute in the background
Once we got to the top of the hill we were able to see the Escalante Pueblo ruins.
Escalante Pueblo ruins
Another day we went to the Lowry Ruins. It is more extensive than the ruins near the Visitor Center. Part of the ruin, the taller pieces, is covered for protection against the elements.
Part is covered
Some of the ruin is two stories tall. The homes and workshops were generally accessed from the roof, and the builds were built into the ground some. The walls were very thick, and I am sure it was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The climate was significantly wetter and cooler than it is now.
Thick walls
The main attraction is a great kiva, one of only a few known in the Four Corners area. Quite impressive!
The Great Kiva at the Lowry Ruins
We have been enjoying the little towns of Cortez and Dolores nearby. We have met friends for lunch at Montezuma Mexican Restaurant (good mole!) and other friends for pizza and beer at Dolores River Brewery. We also took a Ghost Tour of Cortez. It was more a history tour of downtown than a lot of ghosts, but, since I don’t believe in ghosts but love history, I enjoyed it.
One of the claims to fame in Cortez are their numerous murals. This one is at the origin of our tour.
Big!
There were a number of black light posters scattered around. They are lit with black lights at night, powered by solar panels.
Black light mural
We have been eating out some too. The burgers we had at Burger Boy Burgers was absolutely fabulous. The Elks Lodge has decent drinks, but the food is nothing to write home about. We are just hanging around to do some RZR trail riding and to do the big loop in the truck to Durango, Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride to see the trees some time next week, day dependent on the weather. Hopefully we will see the aspens glowing.
I have no idea why I sometimes just don’t get in the mood to post. Maybe I get overwhelmed with beautiful things, and I have trouble deciding what to show. Ok, I’ll go with that one, at least this time.
We spent four nights at Elk Creek campground in the Curecanti National Recreation Area. Nice sites with electricity, a rarity for NPS campgrounds. My youngest grandchildren had noted I hadn’t sent them any post cards (bad grandma!), so I picked some up at the visitor center. They didn’t have any way to mail them though, so we had to wait until we got to town. Gunnison wasn’t too far away, so that is where we spent some time. I came down with a UTI, so I had to spend time at a very nice clinic and the local pharmacy. Sigh. They don’t allow UTVs in the park, so we kept to the truck. Pretty country though. Kevin got an oil change on the truck and we did laundry – fascinating stuff. Not all of camping is sightseeing!
After Elk Creek we stayed at a BLM dispersed site halfway between Alamosa, CO and Great Sand Dunes National Park. We were in a large sagebrush covered area on the flanks of Mount Blanca, the fourth tallest peak in Colorado. While we could ride the RZR there, the trail got rougher than we like about 5-6 miles up the trail to the top. The area is called the Lake Como dispersed area, but we sure never saw a lake. As you can see from the photo, it is a pretty isolated area. We were at least 100 yards from our nearest neighbor. We took Minnie to a vet in Alamosa for follow-up blood work. Thanks fully everything is perfectly normal! She is acting like her old self again, and I am thrilled.
Sunset, the motorhome, and the Clam shelter.
One of the other things we did while we were here was take a long waited for ride on the Toltec and Cumbres Scenic Railway. Kevin bought tickets a few months back for the “Parlor Car.” It was pricy but absolutely worth it. It was an enclosed car with half the number of seats. Each seat faced the window and was comfortably padded. Since we went a bit over 60 miles over 5 hours, that padding was important! I can’t begin to pick the best photos from the trip, but here is a sampling.
At the stationGrandpa rock (use your imagination)Lovely canyonsSome population in the high meadowsWe had the back car
And of course we went to Great Sand Dunes. It was intermittently raining so we didn’t get out much. I am always thrilled to see just how huge the sand dunes are. If you blow up the picture a bunch you can see two people on top of the far dune.
People for scale
And like most parks, the animals get to know people won’t harm them. This doe and twin fawns are an example. They were perhaps 6 feet off the road and totally ignored us.
Not scared of humans at all
After the dry open sagebrush of Lake Como Road, we splurged on 10 days at the 4K River Ranch in Red River. We had a big site right on the river, though we did have to move for the last 3 mights a few sites farther down the row. Full hookups of course (laundry!),and green, lots of green. We had a few dozen teal ducks keep us company, and there were lots of other birds flitting around. The ground squirrels had obviously been fed by previous campers, and they would come within inches of our feet. Kevin’s sister came over for a few days, and they did some sightseeing and hiking. It was nice for Kevin to have a hiking partner since that’s something I can’t do anymore. He also took her on her first side by side ride. She had ridden an ATV before, but she agreed the SXS was a lot more comfortable.
The old Questa Church was lovely. At one point an entire adobe wall fell down, and the community spent 49,000 hours of work to rebuilt with original techniques.
Questa Church
As a change from the barren sagebrush We had grass and trees. Those led to visitors.
NeighborsMore neighbors
We also had our first significant mishap of our SXS career. There was a very deeply washed area where our tire slipped and we ended up tipping sideways. It wasn’t anything really serious; both the rig and us were fine. But it was slow going to get the right on its four wheels and get it winched out. You can’t work very hard or very long without a break at 9600’! We also decided we needed a winch with a longer work cycle. Ours had to rest 20 minutes for every 5 it was working, so it took quite a while to get it all done. Yes, we travel by ourselves a lot, and yes, we carry a full complement of self-rescue and self-support gear. Still took us (well, Kevin) two hours to get us all out. Just as we got on top of the washed out area and stashed the gear back, along comes two rigs that could have helped! It never fails.
“Kevin, I don’t think we should be lying on our side”
After Kevin’s sister left, we visited Taos more extensively. We finally got into the Taos Pueblo World Heritage Site after being disappointed three other times due to religious ceremony closures and COVID closure. Fabulous place. The church, San Geronimo, was lovely. Here is the outside. You can’t take pictures inside, but it was lovely too – very traditional southwest.
Taos Pueblo Church
The Pueblo itself is well worth visiting. We took a guided tour, and she was worth her tip. The three story adobe buildings have the homes of multiple families inside them, but no more building is allowed there due to structural concerns. Families still live in the houses, but most are only used for ceremonial or tourist businesses. Building is allowed for one story adobes, but since the homes inside the wall cane have no electricity or plumbing, there isn’t much new construction. The older ones are occupied though. Our guide said 40-60 people live full-time in the historic Pueblo, but thousands more live just outside in more modern houses.
Three story buildingsOne story buildings
When we left Red River on 12 September, we spent one night at the Sante Fe Elks so I could pick up a prescription, then we spent two nights at the Farmington Elks. The Sante Fe site was just dry camping, but Farmington had electricity. We didn’t need much because the weather has been quite pleasant. We are now at the Cortez Elks lodge, staying until Friday morning, 19 September. Then we will find one night at a FHU campground to get laundry done and generally clean up the rig and ourselves before heading to the Rocky Mountain Motorhome Association Ramble. Kevin is going to help with parking, and I am joining the “Frustrated Maestros” musical group. I am also doing a class on sewing oven mitts,
I actually have done some sewing, but not a bunch. I made a cover for a little folding table we have, but I forgot pictures. I also finished the September Kona Block of the Month a bit before the last day! As usual, it hasn’t been pressed, and I noticed just now that I have some spare threads here and there. Oh well!
I like the colorway for the month
We do have some things planned while we are here, so I will try to be more diligent at posting.
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.
Silly rocks but cute waterfall
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.
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?
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 meadowsSage meadowsStunning mountains
Animas Forks is a state supported ghost town along the Alpine Loop. Lots of pictures from here too.
Houses and businessesThe big mill ruins is for sale!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.
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 like the pinks and reds
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!
Cute appliqué
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.
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.
Thursday sunrise
Tincup is only 6 miles from the campsite. They have had some bad experiences with OHVs I guess.
Tincup takes speed limits seriously
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.
Almost everything built out of logs
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.
Cumberland PassViews for milesLots of old cabins and mines around
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.
Pitkin log buildingsMore views
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.
Bad deer picture
Luckily I did get some GoPro footage. This is looking at the reservoir from near where we are camped.
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.
Lakes and mountainsThis was about 10,000’More mountain lakesA 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.
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.
Notice the empty!
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.
Bison and the fence
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!
Reflections in the salt-laden water
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.
