Colorado – TooBusyForWork

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.

Out of Quartzsite for this year

We left Quartzsite on Monday, 23 March, planning on gradually working our way home to Iowa. This is the picture Kevin took on Sunday night of the sunset. It was taken through a long lens, and then it had be reduced in quality some, but it is an impressive sunset view from our campsite.

We first went to Lake Havasu City, spending 4 nights at the Elks Lodge there. I went to a “Staycation” with the Havasu Quilters guild Monday through Wednesday. The problem was that I was still very, very sore from my back spasms. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I intended. I finally sewed up the quilt block for March’s Block of the Month, but I am not very happy with it. It is not only not my best work, it isn’t even my average work. Oh well, it will do though. I made some little scrubbers for gifts from a kit I have been hauling around for a couple of years. They will be cute in a gift package of a mug and hot chocolate mix (the fabric is hot chocolate related). I also finished all the 8 star blocks I needed for my Christmas quilt, but I didn’t get much more accomplished. All day Monday back would spasm for 30-60 seconds while I just tried to breathe through it. It really sucked. Tuesday was better with no spasms, just soreness. Wednesday the pain was bad. The staycation is normally a treat with lots of good companionship, good food, and lots of sewing time.

After LHC, we headed north to Monticello, UT. We spent one night at the NavajoLand RV Park in Tuba City, AZ on the way. It was decent but not really set up for a rig our size. In Monticello we are staying at the Western RV Park. It is another older campground where we barely fit, but they obviously just redid their sewer system with a lot of fresh gravel on all the sites.

The reason we are in Monticello is because Kevin bought a new side by side! The shop is in Grand Junction, CO, and we drove the truck with the old RZR in the back from Monticello to there. Why? Because when we leave here tomorrow we are headed back to Monument Valley, UT and then to AZ to complete all the paperwork. We had planned on picking it up after we left Monument Valley, but they had rebates that expire tomorrow. But first a bit about the trip up to Moab on the way to I-70. I don’t think we had ever driven the road headed north, though we have done it southbound a few times. It is a glorious drive. There was haze and we had a schedule to meet so only a couple of pictures, and those were through the windshield. The first was the lovely La Sal mountains south of Moab. Lots of snow on their peaks.

And then we started getting to the fabulous rocky outcroppings as we got nearer to Moab. I loved this one the most, and I named it “Haystack.”

And here is Kevin in the brand new rig! It is a Polaris RZR 900 Trail Sport. We got a very good trade in, rebates, and additional deals because they had a bunch of 2024 rigs still in stock. It is a 900cc engine with 75hp and real doors that don’t require contortions to get in the rig. Even the seats are more comfortable. Now he gets to keep the UPS driver busy bringing all the accessories to make it street legal and comfortable. Things like roofs, windshields (front and back), mirrors, and storage boxes are all aftermarket. Kevin has a great time shopping for them, and putting them all on will keep him busy when we get home. I can hardly wait until we can take it out on the trails!

We leave tomorrow for Monument Valley. I will post as we finish that portion of the trip.

Edited to add: We had an absolutely fabulous late lunch at Bella Thai in Moab. It is probably the best Thai food I have ever had! I wanted to make sure I had it in the post because I look back a such info later on.

From Utah to Wyoming

We left Bear Lake on 6 July. We spent the night at Red Desert Rose Campground in Rawlins, WY. Nice enough place, a bit careworn, but they were trying to have grass between most of the sites, and the pull throughs were HUGE so no unhitching. We left fairly early on 7 July to head to a Boondockers Welcome site just into Colorado between Laramie and Wyoming. It didn’t work out. First, the road in was 8 miles of awful washboard (12 miles total from the highway), and secondly, we could not get level no matter what! We tried 3 different locations in his field with every block we owned, and nothing worked. We finally gave up, took the awful road back to the highway, and headed to the Vedauwoo area of the Medicine Bow National Forest only a few miles back west.

I was a bit skeptical we could find a spot on a Friday afternoon, but we scored a truly primo spot! We stayed here before on our way to Arizona in June, but this time we aren’t rushed for time. They have a system I think is the future of dispersed NF and BLM land – identified sites, very well separated and private, and free. We were lucky and got site 4. This is the view out our door.

The scale is hard to imagine. Look carefully at the bottom of the “nose” for a human for scale.

Another photo for scale. Those tiny white dots were climbers.

This cubist delight is just to the right of our site. It is huge too.

On Saturday we decided to take out the UTV. It rained on Friday night, and the area has had a lot of rain on other days. The meadows are amazingly green, and the roads were amazingly muddy.

We had planned a circular trip leaving and arriving from our campsite, based on the official Motor Vehicle Use Guide. However a couple of hours in, our published “open” road was marked by a “No motor vehicles” sign. It was obvious a lot of people had ignored the sign and continued, but we didn’t feel comfortable with that. We then just turned back and rode some other dead end trails, just to see the sights. Of course we saw more rocks! I do love rocks.

This was one sight that puzzled me. It was an open pasture, fairly but not completely flat with a number of low embedded rocks in the surface. There were a number of these pipes, some capped and some not, seemingly randomly arranged over maybe 1/2 an acre. Mining? Old foundation? I couldn’t see any other artifacts, just the pipes.

And of course we have seen flowers. The white ones were smaller than a dime and close to the ground. Indian Paintbrush is the state flower of Wyoming, and it bloomed in profusion along with the other standard flowers we have seen. The yellows were not as common. They are Alpi e Sunflowers, and like other sunflowers, rotate during the day to follow the sun.

Today we decided to take the truck along the Snowy Ridge Scenic Byway. It was a good decision. Beautiful country south east of Laramie. We hit snow line at about 9000’. We topped out just under 10,400’. Hard to breathe when there isn’t any air!

There were lots of interesting sights along the road, but this observation point was particularly interesting.

The views were incredible. This was generally southwest and the next picture was more south. I am pretty sure those snow covered peaks in the second photo are in Rocky Mountain National Park, one of my favorite places.

Note the “watermelon snow.” The pink color is from a bacteria that thrives on the snow and glaciers. And yes, the skies really were that blue!

Looking from the observation point to our parking spot

There were dozens of alpine lakes along the way. Some were ephemeral and dry up in dry years, but some are large. This is one of the large ones right next to the road. It was busy with anglers and hikers.

We ate a late lunch in Walden, CO at River Rock Cafe. Very good food, and great home made peach cobbler. We came back to the motorhome a bit tired, rested, and then enjoyed the late afternoon sitting outside and watching the climbers on the rocks behind our campsite.

Tomorrow, more UTV trails.

I love the Bighorn Mountains

We left Salida early on Sunday on our way to Cheyenne. It was one of the most tiring drives I have ever made. We took HW 50 to I-25, and that part was lovely. Yes, the road was twisty since it followed the Arkansas River, but it was beautiful and not too busy. We took a cutoff on CO 115 that was fine too, dropping us off south of Colorado Springs. All that enjoyment changed when we hit I-25! I think the entire front range is under construction! Lanes were narrow, busy (even on a Sunday morning), and nerve racking. I drove from south of Colorado Springs all the way to Cheyenne without a break, but that was stupid. I was really, really mentally exhausted by the time we stopped. Note to self: don’t do that again!

We stayed in another Boondockers Welcome site Sunday night. It was set high on a hill in the northern suburbs, and it was really easy to get in and out. We had some lovely weather and didn’t need the AC at all. I didn’t do anything except crash though the views were lovely. We left the next morning in no rush to make it to Buffalo, WY and the KOA. We had wanted to stay 5 nights, but when we called 2 weeks earlier they only had 4 nights available. We did exciting things like laundry and watched some streaming shows (we hadn’t had good enough data service to do that until now). We did do a lovely drive along Hwy 16 from Buffalo to Tensleep.

I like the combination of rocky peaks, forests, and parks.

We investigated boondock spots along Hwy 16, and we ended up staying at Grouse Mountain Trailhead about 10 miles west of Buffalo. Amazingly it had a small amount of cell data, but I couldn’t post pictures.

Onour last full day, two cattle trucks deposited a bunch of calves to fatten up on the meadow grass. It was impressive watching the cowboys work the cattle. I couldn’t get a picture of the border collie they had working with them, but the dog was definitely helping. Also note the clouds. It rained a lot! It would rain hard for 30 minutes, the skies would clear, they would cloud up an hour or so later, and a big drizzle would come. Then the clouds came back and more rain would follow. It did it pretty much the entire weekend.

Oh, and I think the cats are doing just fine in the motorhome! They sleep snuggled up in the driver’s seat a lot.

The bad news was that on Saturday morning the Forest Service came by to tell us they were closing the area to all activities on Monday morning due to an invasive grass that was discovered. We drove Hwy 16 again, and we found a few decent places, but most were muddy from the rains. We also took some scenic drives. One of the prettiest was Crazy Woman Canyon.

Crazy Woman Creek was a noisy mountain stream

We decided we would stay a Lake de Smet north of Buffalo because it was gravel and not muddy. The weather was still lovely on Monday, and the solar was cranking! We didn’t need the generator at all.

We had planned on driving Hwy 16 to Cody, but we were told there was a lot of construction. I really didn’t want to get a bunch of tar on the motorhome, so we drove Hwy 14 to see how it was, and it is completely doable. We decided to head that way. We had thought about spending Tuesday night somewhere along the road, but we decided to just stay put at Lake de Smet. It is a decent spot with good sized sites, gravel pads, and no hookups. It also has no reservations, so it is quickly filling up for the upcoming holidays.

We will take off tomorrow to Cody for a rally with the FMCA Diesel Club. Full hookups will seem pretty luxurious!

More sightseeing in Salida

We arrived last night at another Boondockers Welcome site in Salida, CO. They are having a big kayak festival this weekend, and the town is really busy. We decided to do some sightseeing today, so we drove across Monarch Pass to Crested Butte. The Madonna Mine is one of the biggest sights on the eastern side of the pass.

The pass is high enough that Kevin and I were both yawning a lot to get more oxygen in our lungs. We live at 800’!

The views in Crested Butte were the standard lovely vistas.

Looking from Mt Crested Butte to Crested Butte

We had Father’s Day dinner tonight because tomorrow will be a hard day. We are driving all the way to Cheyenne, WY, and we have to get going early to miss the hoards coming from the front range into Colorado Springs and Denver. The roads can come to a complete halt by late afternoon so we want to get through early. Our host has been lovely here, and we are going to another Boondockers Welcome site before heading to Buffalo, WY and a real campground! We disconnected from our host 20 amp electricity as soon as it cooled down enough to turn off the AC, and we will be running on battery and solar until we get to Buffalo. Checking out the new lithium batteries!