Tag: colorado

RV Adventures: A Trip Out West! Day 25 & Day 26

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Today we were on the road by 6:30 AM. to leave Moab and head to Chapman, Kansas. This is the first of our two days to get back home. The skies were beautiful as we headed out of town.

Leaving Moab, Utah

Our drive has been uneventful today. We didn’t have any traffic delays, issues on the road or with the RV! Whew!

When we hit the mountains of Colorado the temperature fell from 90 degrees to 54 degrees! Our gas mileage wasn’t very good when we were driving in the mountains.

Colorado Mountain Peaks

Our route took us through Fruita, Colorado which had several roundabouts. The town has added sculptures to the roundabouts that we drove through.

For awhile I-70 was parallel to the Colorado River.

Colorado River

We passed several ski resorts. One was Vail.

Vail Ski Resort

We also drove by Copper Mountain Ski Resort.

Copper Mountain

Bridal Veil Falls is near downtown Idaho Springs, Colorado. The falls spills out of Soda Creek and then flows into Clear Creek.

Bridal Veil Falls

Our granddaughter did a FaceTime call with us! That was the highlight of the day!

Near Evergreen, Colorado we saw rafters on Clear Creek which runs along the freeway!

Rafters on the Clearcreek!

Our overnight was at Chapman Creek RV Park in Kansas and was located just off of I-70 which was perfect for us.

Day 26

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

We left Chapman, Kansas a little after 7:00 AM and our destination is home! The last day of our trip and it was raining. This was the only day where we had to drive through rain.

Late morning we got ahead of the rain and the sun was shining!

Wildflowers along I-70!

Our drive was going smoothly until a car motioned for Dave to pull over. Our tow dolly was smoking near the tires. Thank goodness a driver let us know before we had a fire! We sat for a little over an hour to let the wheel bearings cool down. But it turns out the issue wasn’t with the bearings but with the emergency brake that got triggered. We believe that happened because of all the bouncing on the freeway. Every time we stopped for gas, we checked the emergency brake on the tow dolly.

The rest of our drive was uneventful and there wasn’t much to see in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio. Our travels for the last 26 days have taken us to places in the United States that we have never visited and were overwhelmed by the beauty of our country. We put over 2,000 miles on the Prius, and over 9,000 miles on the RV. It was a trip to remember!

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes

RV Adventures: A Trip Out West! Day 5

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

We were on the road by 6:30 AM and Chris and Skyah got up to see us off. It was so good to visit with him and see the area.

  • Getting ready
  • Skyah
  • The views as we departed.

We needed to be on the road early because of that complete closure on route 50. It was only going to be open to one-way traffic from 6:30 to 8:30 AM. It takes about 30 minutes to get to that route from Chris’ home. Thank goodness we made it in time because it won’t open again to one-way traffic at 12:30 PM-1:30 PM. The workers are fixing rock slides and improving the road.

  • Rte. 50
  • Beginning the one way
  • Construction on both sides
  • Rock slides
  • Going through the one lane.
  • Finally at the end of the detour!

We lost about 45 minutes because of the slow traffic and narrow lanes. Of course this was so much better than taking the detour which was narrow and full of switchbacks!

Some of the scenery as we drove along Rte. 50 toward Grand Junction, Colorado.

We left Colorado and entered Utah. The speed limit jumped to 80 mph and almost all of the vehicles were going that speed or even faster!

  • Goodbye Colorado!
  • Hello Utah!

Our next stop was at the Ghost Rock view area. It was a chance to stretch, use the restroom, check the car, and look at the view! We have better pictures from our camera but we left the adapter at home to download from the camera so it will be a real treat to see all of those pictures when we get home again. So all of the pictures on this trip are from our phones. It’s great that the cameras in the phone very good except for zooming in close!

We continue to drive along I-70 W and the scenery was changing as we drove along.

  • The Green River
  • The most interesting item being towed, a plane.

We drove by the San Rafael Reef View Area. The harsh elements from eons ago created this “swell” in the surface of the earth. It has been eroded and the sandstone shows different colors. The wind and water created these incredible formations! You see buttes, canyons, pinnacles and mesas! Wow!

  • San Rafael Swell

This is like a broken record but we were in awe of the beauty of our country. It was good for our souls after a year of being home, except for our RV adventure up into Michigan in the fall. The wide-open spaces here we come!

Along I-70, near Orangeville, UT and the stupendous rock formations!

We passed Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home off of US-89. It was comparable in size to the “tiny homes” or “she shed”! He was raised in this remote cabin in Utah. Butch Cassidy, was born as Robert Leroy Parker in 1866 and he was the oldest of 13 children. You can read more about his life online.

Butch Cassidy’s Boyhood Home

We were so excited when our granddaughter did a FaceTime call (well, actually, her dad made the call). It was perfect because we had the chance to talk with her before we got to our campground and we didn’t have cell service. We know it’s great to disconnect, but when it’s your grandkids calling, you are thrilled to take the call!

Our granddaughter gibbering with us!

Around 5:00 PM we made it to our campground, set up camp and walked around the area. The view from our RV was magnificent and there were some friendly horses on the site.

  • Our campground for the next few nights.
  • The view from our RV
  • The horses want to know what treats we have for them!

This evening we relaxed because tomorrow was going to be a busy day exploring Bryce Canyon.

RV Adventures: A Trip Out West! Day 4

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

What a view to wake up to in the morning!

  • Our view from the front of the RV!

Today our nephew, Chris, is able to take the day off of work and spend it showing us around Gunnison and Crested Butte! We started the day with breakfast at the Back Country Cafe in Gunnison and it was nice enough to sit outside. We all enjoyed our food and we were ready to explore the area.

Chris was our “tour director” for the day. He drove toward Crested Butte to show us where he used to live and the mountain and surrounding area.

The picture below was taken from the car as we drove on State Highway 135 on our way to Crested Butte. I know we’ll be saying this a lot but the views were incredible.

Gunnison National Forest is in Gunnison and other counties in Colorado. It is beautiful as we drove into Crested Butte. Chris drove us up the back side of the Mount Crested Butte as far as we could go. The top area is closed off because it isn’t the start of the high summer season. We noticed not all of the places were open.

  • l
    Looking out from Mount Crested Butte.
  • The view from as far as we could drive.

Mount Crested Butte

Chris took us to a trail where we walked for awhile to look at the wildflowers along the mountainside. Some of the flowers still haven’t bloomed yet but it was still a lovely walk.

  • The lupins were beginning to bloom
  • Soon the entire mountainside will be in full color!

We drove from a paved road to a dirt road where the RMBL (Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory) Research station is located in the town of Gothic. The town is surrounded by the West Elk Mountains. Gothic was a silver boomtown in 1880 and by 1890 the prospectors moved on. In the early 1900s a biology professor at Western Colorado College, Dr. John Johnson, took his students on a field trip to Gothic. In 1928 he set up a field station in the ruins of the old mining town. Today, the RMBL has become internationally renowned for its scientific research on high-altitude ecosystems. We could see the old Town Hall built in 1880 and walk in a little museum that was also the General Store and Visitor Center. In the Visitor Center we met a girl who is spending the summer with her father at the research center. The rest of the year she lives in Washington. She told us she loves coming here every summer.

  • Gothic
  • Former Gothic Town Hall
  • West Elk Mountains in the background.
  • A researcher’s residence.

The temperature was in the 70s and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! It was a perfect day for Chris to spend with us.

  • Driving along Gothic Rd.
  • We took a selfie!
  • The snaking East River.
  • Gothic Mountain

The Aspen trees were standing tall and swaying majestically in the wind as we drove through a grove of them.

We were surrounded by mountains and the views were breathtaking. Chris told us the name of all the ranges we were looking at. Don’t ask us now the names of all of them!

For lunch we drove into Crested Butte. First we walked around the town which didn’t take long. Again some of the shops and restaurants were closed. Chris recommended pizza at The Secret Stash. It was busy but our service was great and so was the pizza, including a gluten free pizza! We took leftovers with us, enough for another meal!

  • Coal Creek flowing through town
  • The Secret Stash

After lunch Chris headed back toward Gunnison on a different road and we went through the town of Almont surrounded by Gunnison National Forest.

We visited for a while when we got back to his home and played with his puppy and his roommate gave us a tour of her art studio. The owners before my nephew were collectors of art and did some sort of art themselves. The natural light coming in is perfect for her paintings. You should follow her on Instagram, heidi.annalise.art! After dinner, we watched a movie together and then headed to the RV next door! The sky is amazing and you can see the Milky Way over his home because he is out of town and up a hill. If you look closely at the picture below you can see the mountain in front of his home and many stars!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Chris and head to Utah!

RV Adventures: A Trip Out West! Day 3

Monday, June 7, 2021

We pulled up camp and on the road by 6:00 AM. We did drive by the World’s Wonder View Tower which was built sometime after 1926! It’s a shame that no one took care of it and kept it as a tourist stop. It would be fun to say you climbed the six stories and looked out! Right now it is run down and the contents inside have been auctioned off. We read online that a group of Colorado residents purchased the tower and it was reported that they would restore it, but that happened in 2016!

  • World’s Wonder View Tower
  • Area beside the tower

Back on I-70 for a little while before we turned and started a southwesterly direction. Again not much to see on I-70 except windmills and fields and then on route 24 more farms and then a glimpse in the distance of mountains! When you look at that picture below, ignore all the bug splatter on the windshield!

  • Windmills
  • Fields
  • In the distance, our first glimpse of mountains!

We drove through Colorado Springs and we could see Pikes Peak off in the distance. It was their morning rush hour so there was some stop and start driving.

The scenery was beautiful as we climbed in altitude.

Route 50 followed along the Arkansas River. There were many rapids and the water was flowing quickly! We did see several whitewater rafters!

The road had many twists and turns and some steep grades on the Monarch Pass! The elevation was 11,312ft above sea level. It’s a good thing Dave was driving. He did an excellent job! It’s a good thing we didn’t read about the Monarch Pass until later. This is a time where “ignorance is bliss”! After we came down the pass, we could smell that the brakes were hot so pulled over in an area and parked and had a lunch. This gave the motor and brakes a chance to recover from the extreme up and down and winding roads and our nerves a chance to calm.

  • One of the scary curves.
  • An Aspen Grove
  • One view from our lunch stop.
  • Our lunch stop for us and “Miss Daisy”!
  • The view from our spot looking the other direction!

Another hour and we were parked at our nephew’s home in Gunnison! He had room for us to park and also unhook the Prius. We quickly set up and went exploring along route 50 to wear the road is closed due to construction. We turned onto the alternate route to see how it would be when we leave to head to Utah. Well, let us tell you it is a narrow two lane road with switchbacks and not a lot of guardrails.

It was a scenic drive as far as we went toward the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We didn’t get any pictures because we missed the one pull off that had some room. It was beautiful but we aren’t going to take that route! Below are some pictures from along route 50!

  • Blue Mesa Dam

After our exploration, our nephew was finished with his work for the day so we had a chance to catch up and also meet his adorable dog!

  • Meet Skaya
  • Our nephew and his puppy!

Our view from the camper was spectacular! It was breathtaking!

Our nephew took us into Gunnison and we got to see the town and had dinner at a restaurant, Ol’ Miner Steakhouse and the food was delicious. It was a good day and we’re happy to be here for two nights! Tomorrow Chris is off work and he is going to take us to Crested Butte where he used to live and other sights around the area. It will be another fun-filled day with family!