August 30, 2022 Nevada Brown - Ice cream problem solved

August 30, 2022  Heading to the Nevada Brown

MEOWT!  My human took me to the grassy area for a while.  Then she brought me back.  I refused to walk and when she picked me up I made sure to whine out loud so other humans might rescue me.  She put me in the little house that moves.  I saw her touching another feline…  I jumped out the window and chased it away.  When my human came after me, I ran under a really big house that moves, and laid right in the middle where nobody could get me.  Ha Ha!

My morning walk had a bit of a little twist to it.  It is a weekday and the scent of the candle factory gently escorted me all around.  It was really quite nice!  And the ducks were just chattering up a storm!  People use rental scooters quite a bit here.  They go where they need to then just leave the scooter whereever.

Time to get Hannah ready to move again.  While spouse was draining the tanks, I took Rudy to the park.  He has cabin fever and just sits at the door waiting for us to leash him up.  I let him roam, then decided to take him back to help get ready.  Sometimes, he can really whine when he doesn’t want to be moved.  I stuck him in the truck.  The windows were open and we wouldn’t be long.  I saw another kitty and he let me pet him.  When he crouched, I knew Rudy must have escaped and sure enough, he was coming to check out the new kitty.  New kitty took off.  Rudy ran under the neighbors enormous rig and laid down right in the middle.  I got long poles, then longer ones before I was able to get him out from under.  He is sooo  grounded…

Spouse was a little sluggish in moving and we didn’t get on the road until almost 11.  South on I15 for about 25 miles, then back on the back roads to hwy 6.  Western Utah is desert.  There are lots of rolling desert hills, some farms and some amount of diverse terrain to keep it interesting.  Once we leave the town of Delta, the long flat desert floor stretches as far as the eye can see.  BORING!  There are gazillions of off road trails here (I am thinking it is more of the same only dirtier).  As we get near Great Basin, the mountains form a small pass for a minute, then we take the Baker shortcut to the town of Baker.

This is ugly desert down here at the base of Great Basin National Park.  The park itself is beautiful, we have been here before.  It goes up to high elevation and has a stunning bristlecone forest at the top.  It is also home to the Lehman Caverns, some of the most pristine caverns in the world, as well as being a premier stargazing venue.   It is definitely worth a trip once… 

But twice?  Don’t know if we are going to do it again.  We didn’t even try to get into the park with Hannah.  We stopped at the base at an RV park I likened to the Bates Motel.  It isn’t pretty, but it has electricity.  IT is hot outside, we are tired.  This was the easy way out.

Arty is getting a new black tank.  He won’t be ready for 3 weeks, which should work out perfectly for us… I hope…  It isn’t ours until the money changes hands…

August 29, 2022 Houston, we have a problem... plus we have no ice cream!

 

August 29, 2022  Houston, We Have a Problem

I like when my humans take me to the grassy area.  They let me roam free and sometimes I sneak away.  Then they chase me but I can fit under the big houses that move.  Ha ha!

My morning walk was early, and I stayed close to home as I wasn’t sure what time Bill would be here with Arty.  The plan is that we need to move Hannah to one of the dry camp spaces so that Arty can go in the space with full hookups.  Spouse wants to test the tanks, valves and do all the guy things that he is into doing. 

When Bill got there, the shenanigans began.  I had the liberty of backing up Hannah, all by myself.  I have backed up many a boat through the years, but I had only driven Hannah forwards, so I broke my ‘back up’ cherry today. 

Bill was fabulous.  He walked Spouse through everything with his chipper personality.  He has really taken good care of this rig.  After the lessons, he left so Spouse could do his thing.  He filled all the tanks.  He checked this and that.  I started taking inventory.  The rig has silverware, pots and pans and all sorts of stuff.  I thought I would test the shower by actually taking a shower.  If I wasn’t sold on the rig before, the shower won me over!  Great showerhead and water pressure.  I was in love. 

Then I heard the words…  there is a leak in the black tank…  this could be a deal breaker.  These types of problems can take you down a rabbit hole to who knows where.  Spouse called Bill, and he came to get Arty.  He thanked Spouse and said he would have it fixed and asked if we still wanted it once it was fixed.   YES!  So, for the time being, Arty is not ours… sigh.  And I had the pleasure of back up duty when we moved Hannah back to the hookup site.  The rig is not quite as responsive as a boat, but I can do it.

So, tomorrow we start the most boring part of this trip… we are going to cross Nevada on hwy. 6.  Hwy 6 is also known as the loneliest highway in the country.  We will head towards Reno, then to Grass Valley to visit our friends Rick and Sue.

Stay tuned so that you too can enjoy the various shades of brown Nevada has to offer.

Normally, I don’t like to publish the blog on the same day that I write it.  But I have no idea where we will be tomorrow and if we will have wi-fi so hang tight.

August 28, 2022 Slow Sunday in Utah

August 28, 2022  What to do on a Sunday in Utah

My humans took me to the grassy area and sat while I sniffed and chewed.  Then some humans with canines came.  I jumped on the table and stared them down.  The little one kept trying to sniff me.  I hissed.  They left and then, ack ack ack!  What is happening?  I am stuck! Ack ack ack!  I can’t move!  Ack ack!  I flipped help me mommy I am hanging!  Ack ack!

Spouse came on my walk again today.  We found that we can walk down the main street, then cut over to Bay Blvd. where there is a nice walking path through the industrial area.  There are grassy knolls, streams, ducks and an egret fishing in the pond.  It is a decent walk where I feel safe.  At one point, we walk past a scented candle factory…  oh that is nice!  There is hardly any traffic on this Sunday in Utah.

We made arrangements for Bill to bring Arty over to the Elks tomorrow where we can test all the tanks and the valves and all that stuff.  This is going to be a major hemorrhoid.  We will have to move Hannah out of her spot into one of the dry spots here, and move Arty into the full hookup site so we can do what we need to do.  We will probably keep him overnight, and if it looks good, we will pay the price and suffer the consequences of two rigs!  Which one will we use for the night?  What about Rudy?  Ugh…

First, we need to find a place to store Arty.  We could use the place he is at now, but that is expensive and we don’t know how long, and the weather, and…  Bill told us of a place about 200 miles south that has covered storage, but there is a waiting list for that.  Being Sunday, most other places were closed so we could not find any details, so that will be part of our day tomorrow.

This is going to be an overwhelming adjustment, but we can only do one day at a time.  We will make it work… somehow.

We had nothing really planned for the day.  Spouse did NOT want to go on another scenic drive after yesterday’s adventure, so we spent the day lazing.  How odd is that? 

We took Rudy to his park where he can roam.  When some people came over with their dogs, he sat on the table and let them know to keep their distance, but he wasn’t too perturbed until he tried to move.  His collar got stuck in weaving of the metal table and he flipped over when he tried to jump!  It was scary but I got him before any damage was done, and was able to unhook him, poor guy.  He had such a look of panic in his eyes, I felt so bad for him.  He was soooo obedient on his walk back to Hannah! He didn’t even stop to sniff one thing on the way back. I think he was happy he was home…  Hope he feels that way about Arty…

August 27, 2022 Killing Time

August 27, 2022  Let’s Kill Some Time

My humans walk me over to a place not far where I can chew grass and walk around without being tied up.  I try to sneak under the fence, but they catch me.  I won’t go far but they make sure I don’t escape.

Spouse went with me on my morning walk.  The Elks is just a short distance from BYU, but it is in a business district.  We are tucked way back, which is good, but it does not make for the best of walks, but as long as I feel safe, I will walk.  I will walk around shopping centers, through neighborhoods, over railroad tracks.  I actually find it quite interesting watching how the town functions.  Spouse went with me for a good portion of the walk only because we didn’t know where we were going and I was holding him captive!  But I think he enjoyed it.

Then we got down to business…  We went to Camping World.  In Arty, there are some things we think we should change.  Assuming he is ours, we figured we would look for solutions.  We got some good ideas then checked out the RVs for sale. 

I swear, they should hire me to come in a critique designs.  We checked out several RVs, and big ones at that.  They seem to make things for looks, without any regard to function.  For instance, here is a 5^th wheel with 3 sliders about 38 feet long with a huge tv and salon, but in the bedroom, the closet is only about 1 foot wide.  Really?  I could go on, but all this confirms that Arty is the right rig for us, barring any hiccups.

Coming home, we decided to take hwy. 92 from the I15 to hwy 189 through Provo Canyon.  The map says it is a scenic drive so why not?  Hmmm….  It says we have to pay a fee, but one road goes to the toll booth and the other is a bypass lane.  Lots of people are in the bypass lane so that is what we do.  Not sure about this, but too bad.  The road starts in a canyon, following a river.  It is a Saturday so it is a bit busy as we pass by Timpanogos Cave National Monument (hence the fee).  Lots of people as we drive on.  Then the road starts to climb, and narrow.  I am feeling good as there is a guardrail, something that was a rare sight on the high ground in Colorado.  This is a nice guardrail, until they ran out of money and the guardrail stops, but the steep drop offs continued.  And the road narrows.  We held our breath every time a car came the other way.  It seemed like they were always hogging the road.  It is beautiful with the pines, aspens and high rocky mountains.  I can enjoy it somewhat while Spouse is gritting his teeth.  Hairpin turns, narrow road… a car coming the other way…  Why did we do this on a Saturday?  Like, how would we know, right?  For 25 miles Spouse agonized, while I sometimes enjoyed the stunning scenery.  By the time we got to the Sundance ski area, the road widened some and actually got a double yellow line in it.  By the time we got to hwy. 189, Spouse was done!  We headed for lunch and home.

Time to give Rudy a walk in the garden… 

August 26, 2022 Transacting Business

August 26, 2022  Wherefore Arty Thou?

My humans picked me up and took me away from my birdies.  How can they do that?  I am not gonna look at them all day.  I will teach them a lesson… taking my birdies from me… sheesh…

 I decided to do an early morning walk around the RV park.  This place is huge.  In the over 21 area,  there are well over 100 RVs (at $197 per night!) all in their huge spotlessly clean sites.  There are pickleball courts, pools, spas, and all sorts of amenities.  Back in the sane zone, there is pretty much the same but not quite as nice.  We wanted to get an early jump on getting a site at the Elks in Provo.  It is first come/first serve, and we don’t know how many days we will be here so this would be so perfect for us.

We load Rudy who is totally pissed that we are taking him away from his birds.  He is facing away from us and won’t make eye contact.  He must be really pissed!

We leave the campground and head for Provo Canyon.  Starting with a reservoir at Deer Creek State Park, we see some early skiiers in the water.  Around the next corner, we see a sailboat at anchor…  Hmmm… take advantage of that early glass you skiiers as I suspect it gets quite windy here!

Then the canyon begins.  Huge rocky walls dotted with pines line the way for about 10 miles of utter beauty.  There is road construction, so it is slow going with Hannah.  There is a river running alongside us, calm in some places, rushing in others.  There are a few waterfalls cascading down the slopes.  There are lots of parks worthy of exploring.  Coming into Provo, BYU is the dominant sight.  Lots of businesses line the roads, and a few old houses here and there. 

Arriving at the Elks, it is not yet 9am, there are two openings.  We take the easy one!  YES!  They have five sites with full hookups, and 3 dry camping sites.  By the end of the day, all were taken.  These sites are not pretty to look at.  They are large RV parking spaces on nice new blacktop.  The services are all in the back so you have to run your sewer line quite a ways.  This makes it difficult for us to let Rudy out as he will tangle himself in someone’s sewer line.  The Elks have a little veterans war park right next to the sites with grass and raised garden beds.  We take Rudy over there and we can let him roam without a leash, as long as we keep an eye on him.  He can only be trusted so far.

After we set up, we met up with Bill, the owner of the Arctic Fox rig Spouse has been drooling over…  And yes… it will be ours.  It is a 2018 with about 6000 miles on it (in contrast, Hannah has over 100,000 miles on her).  It has lots of bells and whistles and the price is right so now we have a dilemma…  we need to get them both home.  Obviously, not at the same time!  We will figure it out… I hope!  We have to wait for money to transfer, so we have a few days here in Provo.  And the deal is not a done deal till the money is in Bill’s hands.

We headed back into Provo Canyon, checking out a few of the parks.  There are walking trails and bike trails along the river.  And a great view of the waterfalls.  We checked out the Sundance ski area for just a minute.  The chairlift is running but I don’t see anybody on it.  But I bet is a gorgeous view at the top.  It is late, we are low on fuel, we know we need to come back and look at these places a lot closer. 

Part of me is very sad to be giving Hannah up.  She has been so good to us, and I love her layout.  It is so hard to get newer rigs with a layout that is as good.  Arty (the new rig) is a bit bigger, but with a similar layout.  Some things I like, some things I don’t but it is just a matter of figuring it out and adjusting.  Rudy…  there will be a few new rules…

August 25, 2022 Going West

August 25, 2022  Go West Young Man

I caught a birdie! I caught a birdie!  But my maternal human took it away from me as soon as I caught.  She set it free and it flew away.  Why did she do that?  I just started to have fun with it!

Not much of a morning walk.  The campground crosses the Yampa River but there are no real trails.  You might get a couple of hundred feet but that is it.  So I walked around the park.  I am quite religious with my walks, so I turned on a podcast and before I knew it, I had over 7000 steps.

Back at Hannah, we readied her for her next journey.  Bringing in her slider is painful, but we can still do it, so on we go.  We head west on hwy 40.  Surprisingly enough, at night there was total silence up against hwy. 40.  It was totally quiet and dark.  But now, there are cars on the road. 

The scenery is rolling hill high desert.  It’s almost like a patchwork quilt where one area is nothing but grass, another has stunted pines, and another has the desert sage.  There are a few ranches here and there and you can follow the river by the growth of the trees.  It really is quite pretty given that there are hardly any cars out here. 

We stopped in the town of Maybel at a park so we could make lunch.  Rudy wants no part of being inside.  He wanted to explore.  We gave him a little time but he is getting demanding.

The more west we go, the more arid it becomes.  As we cross into Utah, throw in a hint of red to the soil.  The rolling hills become flat and it becomes more of the monotonous desert for a while.  Then add a reservoir or two, a mountain pass. And some beautiful green meadows and we couldn’t seem to stop driving even though we knew we needed to.

Normally, we are off the road by 3, but we kind of crossed a line.  We either stopped too early, or we were gonna stop too late, which is what we did.  We know there is an Elks in Provo we could do, but by the time we got to Heber City, we were done.  We pulled into Mountaine Valley RV resort.. Oh my… we are in the poor section.  There is an over 21 section… with the really expensive rigs… oh my… at $197 per night… oh my!  It was a little tough getting into our site as there wasn’t much swing room, but we ultimately got in.  I put Rudy outside as we started setting up.  It was all of 5 seconds before he was on this little sparrow.  Fortunately, I was able to get him off before any real damage was done.  I think it had just fledged and was learning the ropes.  I hope he learned this lesson…  Rudy will never forgive me!

Clouds have been threatening all day.  It rained around us, but we only got a few drops.  Good… kept the temperature down… but we are back to shorts and ready for the heat.

Tomorrow, we are going to relocate to the Elks if we can.  Seems Labor Day Weekend is a big thing over here so lodging could become problematic.

The Wi-fi at this high end park sucks!

August 24, 2022 Golf! And Welcome back electricity!

 

August 24, 2022  FORE!

There are lots of canines here.  I kind of stay hidden but one really liked me and I had to stare it down.  I know I am attractive, but no canines, please.

It is warm here during the day.  Actually, it may only be 70 but feels a lot warmer.  We opened the windows in Hannah and it stayed comfortable… that is till about 4 am.  It is 44 degrees out… and about 5 windows are opened.  I close a few and went to sleep.  When I woke, I closed the rest and turned on the heat.  We will do a bit better tonite.  And oh how I love having electricity again… 

There really isn’t much to walk around here.  There is a river in the campground but no trails.  I could walk on the highway, but that’s no fun.  So walking around the campground will have to do.  Besides, today we are playing golf, and I will walk the course.

Steamboat Golf Club is a 9 hole course.  Perfect for us since Spouse hasn’t played since he hurt his back last year.  It is a very nice course with lots of challenges.  I have rust and cobwebs on me.  Spouse is actually hitting the ball pretty good.  The course is in great condition.  

There are sculptures here and there with cute characters.  One had a moose that was obviously watching me play.

One of them was of a couple of eagles, and in between them, a live marmot was resting.  Oh they are cute. 

There were lots in this area, obviously not scared of the eagles!  Whenever you play a new course, you don’t know the ins and outs.  This was the case for us.  Oh, there is a hazard there?  Oops…  I only lost one ball… Spouse lost a few. But it was sunny and beautiful and fun to be out there.  My score wasn’t horrible (52) and I can’t figure out why it wasn’t worse.  I had to make sure I counted all the holes, and I did, so I guess it must be true.  But it wasn’t pretty…

Afterward, we decided to head up to the Pearl Lake State Park.  It is about 25 miles up Elk road… a two line road with gorgeous rolling hills with a ranch here and there.  Some of the hay has been mowed and rolled leaving things looking nice and clean.  The mountains in the background are rugged with trees.  There are puffy clouds and hardly anybody is back here.  It only gets more beautiful when the aspens and pines appear in swaths along the mountains. 

The lake is about two miles up a dirt road.  It is an alpine lake surrounded by pines on 3 sides, and mountains and meadows on one side.  The campground is geared towards tenters, but the sites have good parking for RVs, just no hookups.  At first we were impressed by a lot of the views in the lower campground.  Then we went to the upper campground… oh my!  These are KILLER views!  Reservations are required, but there is a pay station at the entry and it looks like you can get your site right there.  A Colorado park pass is required, but it sounds like you could add that to your daily fee.

Just up the road 3 miles is Steamboat Lake State Park.  The lake is more in a valley, and more spread out.  There are several campgrounds, and most of the sites are large enough for RVs.  In one of the campgrounds, electricity is provided.  The campground is not as pretty, but there are still some nice views, both of the lake and of the mountains.

This was a nice sidetrip that definitely leaves me wanting to come back.  When we got back to town, we ran a few errands.  The ski mountain is such a presence.  It makes even the dullest of parking lots beautiful!

Tomorrow we head west on 40.  This goes through Indian reservations so not sure about cell service or wi-fi for the next couple of days.  I normally do not post on the same day that I write, but given the big unknown to which we are travelling, I figured I would get this out. 

August 23, 2022 Moving Day - On to Steamboat Springs

 

August 23, 2022  Time to move on

I love it here.  There are so many critters I get to play with.  They jump, they fly and they kind of hop and I get to chase them.  It smells so good here.

Today is moving day.  Woke up to 47 degrees outside, 54 inside… turned on the heat for a bit.  When we finally got moving, Spouse came with me on my walk for a while.  We walked down the Monarch Lake Road.  Oh, if only we had TWO working bikes… this road would be so much fun to ride.  It is about 10 miles to the Monarch Lake Trailhead and the end of the road and it would be an easy ride even without an Ebike.  But nooooo… his bike had to take a dump…  oh well… When he headed back, I headed over the dam.  

The ospreys are singing to me.  There are lots of these osprey ‘condos’ and it seems most of them have activity in them.  Although the morning started out gray, where you couldn’t tell the lake from the sky, the sun is out now and even though it is only in the low 50’s, it is warm. 

We readied Hannah for her journey.  It is getting more difficult bringing in her slider.  Spouse has to push the slider while I push the button.  We are on borrowed time.  Shhhh, don’t tell Hannah but Spouse has looked at another rig and we may go see it when we get to Utah…  She has been so good to us it is hard for me to think of cheating on her.  Oh well…

Off we go, first to the Stillwell Campground to dump our tanks.  They don’t have the trees like we had, but the RV pads are perched on a hill with killer lake views.  And the sites have electricity and water, which is real nice!  But they don’t have the Monarch Lake road…  trade offs…

We finished and started our journey to Steamboat Springs.  It is less than 100 miles.  We retrace our steps on hwy 40 through Kremmling, and then continue north passing an arid high desert landscape.  There are mountains, but they are all high desert.  Then you will see alpine meadows, green with streams running through and trees lining the river route. It is so odd to see the lush green right next to the bone dry desert.  We are still over 7000 feet and climbing.  Finally, the mountains turn green with stands of aspens and pines weaving patterns on the mountainside.  It is very rural, a ranch here, and then a ranch way over there.  It is breathtaking as we climb Rabbit Ears Pass.  At the top are pines… to the left, to the right, in front, up above.  PINES!  There are sweeping views of the valley where Steamboat Springs lives, but the pullouts are surrounded by trees so the views are blocked.

Arriving in Steamboat Springs, we end up in a KOA Kampground.  We usually stay away from them as they have too many kids, and we pay for a bunch of amenities we don’t use, but this is what we could find.  It is right of hwy. 40, so it is not very quiet but we will survive for a couple of days.  It has killer fast wi-fi…

We set up quickly as the winds were howling and the skies were black, but we only got a few drops of rain.  We took the truck to the car wash… oh yes, that was much needed.  Have you ever been in a carwash with those rubber things massaging your car, and you get the urge to go to the bathroom?  Me neither…

We walked around the town for a while then drove up to the ski area.  My, has it grown since we were here, oh 30 years or so ago.  The ski village is so much bigger.  I remember enjoying the skiing here and the mountain is a gorgeous backdrop to the town, but I don’t remember much else.  How can I remember 30 years ago when I am only 27, right?

August 22, 2022 Hiking to Strawberry Lake

August 22, 2022  Strawberry Lake

MEOWT!  I love to sniff things here.  And there are critters.  I find their holes and dig there but I haven’t caught one yet.

Another cold night into the 40’s.  It is a bit cloudy, but no immediate threat of rain.  My morning walk was to the pay station.  The beauty of staying in a place where reservations don’t rule is that you can change your mind.  We needed another day so we could hike up to Strawberry Lake.

Strawberry Lake is about a 4 mile round trip hike, with a 900 foot elevation climb.  Spouse found this on his All Trails App.  The trailhead is not marked.  Had we not seen somebody coming out of the trail the other day when we were exploring, we would have totally missed it.  It is just a little notch into the hill.  There is a bit of a pullout for parking.  We get there around 9:30 and only one car is there… the beauty of it not being a weekend!  As usual, Spouse has to fiddlefart around with this gadget, and that gizmo.  I think he has PTSD from watching Gilligan’s Island… a 3 hour tour…  Hiking on wilderness trails does have its dangers, but he is the king of ‘just in case’.  We both had a back pack with our rain ponchos, water and snacks, so we – FINALLY are good to go.

The trail is a series of switchbacks up.  It is dirt mixed with rocks which make for good footing.  Although the trail is wet, it is not muddy, which is a miracle given the rains we have had.  We climb, and climb, and climb.  The trail levels a bit.  Tree roots gnarl their way across the trail making good stairs, but also offering the opportunity to trip on them.  We are surrounded by pines, wildflowers and downed trees afflicted with the bark beetle.  This whole region has been decimated by the beetle.  There are as many dead trees as there are live trees.  

Spouse is always intrigued by the varieties of mushrooms.

At one point, for about 30 feet is the mud.  We climb on tree trunks and pretty much avoid it.  A creek is running alongside us.  It is only a few feet wide, probably the Colorado River!  Eventually, the trail levels out.  We actually see a sign pointing us left.  There are two trails left, which one? 

We take the wrong one… it is only about 100 feet and leads us to a beautiful alpine meadow surrounded by pines.  Hmmm….  This is not a lake… let’s try the other ‘left’ trail.  We followed it for about a quarter mile and then we saw it. 

Strawberry Lake is a sterile lake with lots of lotus flowers or water lilies.  It is surrounded by pines on 3 sides, then the meadow one the other side.  This is prime moose country… but of course we don’t see one.  There is metal ramp and floating dock for people to use to observe so they don’t damage the ecosystem.  Spouse and I are alone… it is quiet… except for the incessant beeping of his hearing aids.  Beep beep beep… he can’t hear it so it doesn’t bother him.  I whined like hell and he finally fixed it so we could enjoy the sounds.  The dragonflies were cracking, birds were chirping… NO FRIGGIN MOOSE!  NO elk, no deer… what gives?  Then some loud humans came and ruined the silence.  Oh well, we can’t hog it to ourselves, right?  One batch of humans is hardly a crowd and they were friendly.

We started down the trail.  Down is more challenging.  Gravity helps you some, but it also helps you slide, skid, and stumble.  Those tree roots that helped you going up are not as kind going down.  Your toes jam into your hiking shoes.  I was marveling at how fortunate we were to have a sunny day finally, and I kid you not… it wasn’t five minutes later when the clouds came and it started to rain!  It was light at first, but we stopped and put on our ponchos.  We got a little wet, but not bad.  We continued down…  Spouse was soooo slow, he gave me the truck keys and I went ahead of him.  I unloaded my stuff and waited.  I sat with the door opened but it started to rain and I had to close it.  Where is he?  I finally saw him come to the street and he looked like he had been run over by a train.  Did he fall?  No, he was just tired and he was not going to drive.  I got behind the wheel and closed the door just as the skies opened up.  Rain and hail… POURING!

Since we were at this part of the lake, I figured we would drive over to the trailhead for Monarch Lake, about 2 miles or so away.  Rain…  When we got to that trailhead, it was
covered in white – hail.  It looked like snow!  We turned around and headed back to camp… where it was dry dry dry!

After a shower and a rest, we headed back to Grand Lake for an Asian dinner.  Spouse saw this place yesterday and it looked good.  It was good…

We also checked out the Stillwell Campground about 2 miles up the road.  We can dump our tanks there.  They have rv spots with electricity and water and killer views.  Probably need reservations tho to get those spots.  Oh well… we loved where we have been.

And we came home to a beautiful sunset at Lake Granby.

August 21, 2022 Rocky Mountain National Park

 

August 21, 2022 RMNP

MEOWT!  MEOWT!  My humans are up early!  MEOWT!  NO!  They are leaving!  MEOWT!

Another chilly night, dipping into the 40’s.  There is a heavy fog hanging over the lake and the skies are gray.  We were going to go on a hike, but figured it might be too muddy from yesterday’s rain.  Most people here don’t seem to pay that any attention.  But for us, we decided to tour Rocky Mountain National Park. 

I figured I would be getting a lot of walking there so I did not do my normal morning walk.  If we get there before 9 from this side of the park, we do not need a timed entry.  So we packed a lunch and left before 7:30.  Rudy so wanted to go outside, but he will have to wait.

Such an easy entry to the park, it is early and the skies are gray, you would think we would see wildlife.  The only wildlife we saw were humans.  Not a lot of folks on the road at this time.  We headed up the mountain, past the spot we stopped at before.  The clouds were thinning and the sun peaked through now and again.

We stopped at a few of the pullouts to absorb the view. At one site, Spouse spotted a giant herd of elk through his binoculars.  Once you got them through the glass, you could see them without the glasses.

 As we climb, we are now above the timberline and enter the tundra.  Vast expanses of rounded mountain tops in a close cropped tundra are breathtaking.  At the pullouts, the views are of rocky crags, some lakes, valleys and just all out beauty. 

We stop at the visitor center, which is the highest in the country, but it isn’t open yet so we followed the road along the mountain tops with the tundra, just drinking it in.  We cross the continental divide and start to descend.  The trees are back.  So many are damaged from the bark beetle.  We ultimately ended up at the Bear Lake Road… only you need a timed permit to enter.  Any more exploring on this side of the mountain would take us out and we wouldn’t be able to get back in without that stupid entry permit, so we turned around and headed for the Fall River Road.

The Fall River Road is a 9 mile one way dirt road that takes you in the back country then up to the highest visitor center.  It is a relatively easy dirt road, although I do recommend peeing before the ride as there are ruts.  It is slow moving.  

There are a few places where there is enough room to pull out to enjoy the side shows.  We stopped at Chasm Falls and took the wee hike down to the viewpoint.  A couple of artists had set up shop and were painting the falls.  

Back on the road, there were a few bicyclists.  They are hardcore as this road climbs about 3000 feet, and there is not much room to maneuver, but we saw them on the top, so they did ok.  In some places there are stunning views.  In other places, we are surrounded by pines.   A couple of the hair pin turns were so sharp, we had to back up to make the turns, but we were never uncomfortable with the road.  We stopped at one point, and Spouse glassed some bighorn sheep way at the top of the mountain.  We saw at least two, but I am sure there were more. 

We also saw a marmot on the side of the road.  I got out and talked to Molly Marmot and she just nibbled away.  I crept a little closer and she was ok with it, so I got her picture.  I gently backed away so the car that came up behind us could enjoy her.  As we pulled away, a dumbass jogger ran past us and scared Molly Marmot away.  Darn him!

As we climb, we leave the trees behind and enter the tundra for the last two miles of the climb.  Just at the end, a few rain drops started to fall.  We parked at the visitor center to check it out, then decided to do it…  The visitor center is at 11,760 feet.  The shortest hike in the park leaves from right outside and climbs to the top of the mountain. 

Let’s talk about this ‘hike’.  It is only about 600 or 700 steps…  it is straight up… in the highest of altitudes…  There are signs that say not to take this hike if there is lightening…  Hmm… it is starting to rain a bit, but we have good jackets.  It is still in the 40’s so it is pretty cold… and we decide to do it… just as hail starts pelting us.  It is small hail, so that is ok, right?  No lightening…  we climb, we huff we puff.  We have been at high altitude since we got to Colorado, so this isn’t horrible, but it is still a bit of work.  Spouse’s new hearing aids are teaching him what hail sounds like when it hits his hood!  We make it to the top, but wait… there’s more… About another 200 steps to the viewpoint… Where it is raining, so the views are not as clear… and then we hear the thunder…  that means lightening and we are the highest things on the planet!  Almost everybody else has already headed down, just about a half dozen of us nut cases up here.  One guy is standing atop some rocks taking a selfie… the lightening would get him before it gets us, right?  The skies then opened up.  Hail is pelting us as is the rain.  Going down is not much quicker than going up especially given the conditions.  By the time we got to the visitor center, we were pretty wet.  But our jackets kept us dry underneath!  We waited a bit, but the rain didn’t subside, so we went to the truck, turned on the heated seats and ate our lunch while enjoying the show.

As we headed back, the rain lightened.  The further we went, it was almost as if it hadn’t rained at all on this side of the mountain.  The road was a little wet, but no puddles were evident.  We stopped at the trailhead for the Colorado River.  Spouse sat in the truck, and I made the half mile trek to the river.  It is a dinky thing at this point.  Kind of hard to imagine the behemoth it becomes.  It was an easy hike through the woods… with thunder rumbling… but it didn’t rain, and my pants were almost dry when I got back.

Never did see a moose…

We stopped at the cute town of Grand Lake, which is right outside the park on our way home.  Lots of shops in a cute lake and mountain setting.  Not as off putting as Winter Park was to us.  This town has charm… and ice cream… sea salt caramel espresso… it was so yum!

We got back to Hannah at about 3pm… The rain started before 3:30… seems to be a trend…  We were supposed to leave tomorrow, but we know we are staying at least one more day… maybe two… because we don’t have reservations…