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?