Camping – Page 2 – TooBusyForWork

RMMA Rally and heading home

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 Lightening and thunder were all around us, so the planned outdoor aspects of the visit were superseded.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.

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?

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.

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!

Fall along the San Juan National Scenic Byway

One word – WOW!

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.

But the trees made up for it as we continued!

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.

And didn’t I say things got better? Notice the aspens intermixed with the conifers on this higher elevation hill.

This was the stand out spot! Not yellow but orange/gold.

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.

Red Mountain is between Silverton and Ouray. The area shown is a mine that is being reclaimed for pollution issues.

I love how Silverton, 9000+’, gets such lovely color. It was really, really crowded though!

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.

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!

RZR ride from Bradfield to Benchmark Lookout (and back)

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.:

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.

Climbing the first mountain

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.

Here is the path to the lookout.

On the way to the lookout

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.

The lookout

On the way back we took some side trails, just because. At least we weren’t on gravel passenger vehicle roads the entire way!

A side trail

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!

Cortez, CO

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.

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!

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.

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.

Once we got to the top of the hill we were able to see the 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.

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.

The main attraction is a great kiva, one of only a few known in the Four Corners area. Quite impressive!

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.

There were a number of black light posters scattered around. They are lit with black lights at night, powered by solar panels.

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.

Procrastination in posting

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!

Currecanti National Monument

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.

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.

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.

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.

Red River area USFS “trails”

Easy riding

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.

As a change from the barren sagebrush We had grass and trees. Those led to visitors.

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.

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.

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!

We do have some things planned while we are here, so I will try to be more diligent at posting.

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.

GX010813

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.