Northbound and Down

     We pulled out of Crawford, Colorado at 9am. and headed to Grand Junction to take a short break and see the Colorado National Monument.  I hadn't been here in over 50 years.  I think is was around '72 when we came to visit cousins who lived outside of Grand Junction back then.  Like most photographs, there's only so much the camera can capture but, here's a few shots from Colorado National Monument.

    Afterward we slipped back down into Grand Junction and restocked at Sam's Club before heading north for an overnight stop in Vernal, Utah by way Colorado 139 north and over Douglas Pass. A scenic drive in northwest Colorado. The pass is known for its steep grades, sharp curves, and dramatic views of the Canyon.  It was probably the hardest workout Georgie Girl has ever had so far.  The speed limit drops to 25 mph as you wind through the sharper curves and steeper grades.  It's a good thing too,  25 mph is all I could get out of her there.  We pulled off at the top and took this pic of the canyon we had just come out of. 

    After that, the drive was almost routine the rest of the way to our next overnight stop at Steinaker State Park Campground.  It's located on the Steinaker Reservoir just north of Vernal, Utah.  Unfortunately, this area as most all of the "high desert" on the west side of the Rockies has been in a drought for so long that the reservoir was down to only 19% of its designed water capacity.  The park itself was very well maintained and our campsite was nearly level. At an elevation of only 5500 ft. we were able to breath easier too.  We settled in for the evening and as I was about to record the blog for the day, I realized there was no wi-fi and a less than satisfactory cell signal so, it would just have to wait. 

    Tuesday morning and a slightly shorter drive was in store so we took our time getting going.  On a positive note, our next overnight stop was on the same road.  No worries about navigation today.  We headed out around 10am and made our way north going past Dinosaur National Park and making note of it in case we happen back this way again.  It was another uphill climb but not near as steep.  This was the view looking back toward the south.

    This was just a beautiful drive.  The scenery was constantly changing and I could have stopped to take in the view almost every mile of the way.  We came upon another uphill climb, just a little steeper than the last but much more manageable and as we started back down we could see the Green River Reservoir in the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area below.

    Its a Huge Lake covering over 42,000 Acres with 350 miles of coastline.  This would explain the inordinate number of vehicles I came across towing boats.  After that, what was such a beautiful drive suddenly became bland. Topping out at an average of about 7500 ft above sea level, this was like seeing an old Western with a cowboy riding out across the plains.  Nothing but scrub land as far as the eye could see.  Thankfully, we noted a Love's Truck Stop was up ahead off Interstate 80 and had the cheapest gas we had seen in the last 5 days.  I try not to think too much about the amount of fuel needed for a trip like this but when the cheapest gas is $4.19 it's hard to ignore.  Still, we saw plenty of stations along the way that were approaching $5.00/gal.  We filled up and drove the next hour towards Boulder, Wyoming where we would make our last "overnight" stop for a while.

    We could finally see the mountains fading into view on the horizon as we approached ever closer to the Highline Trail RV Park.  We got in about 3:30 and I finally got to get this update posted.  Here's the view for this afternoon, an Ultra Hi-Res preview of tomorrows drive through Grand Teton National Park.

Cheers!