From Flaming Gorge to Loma, Colorado

Friday, Sept. 24 - We left Flaming Gorge this morning and headed out through the Ashley National Forest to Colorado.  I saw 4 antelope run by the RV this morning, and Joe had to stop for another one crossing the road as we left the campground.  On our way to our fuel/soda stop at Manila, I saw 6 deer (Joe saw 10, but we were driving separately).  And we saw 2 turkeys along the same area we had seen them yesterday, probably the same ones, but we couldn't see the third one.

We had a hard pull coming out of the National Gorge, we seemed to go straight uphill for the first 13 miles, topping out at 7734 elevation.  After we got through there, we continued uphill through Uintah Pass, with a summit of 8428.  On that road, we came through a grove of trees, we assumed aspen, that was just glowing with color.  This picture is just past the curve where we came into the grove, so it doesn't show the full impact, but it was one of those "wow" spots.

This is another scenic route, and there were some beautiful views coming down off the mountaintops.

There was a mine (we don't know what kind) right along part of this highway.

We came to the Steinaker Dam and Reservoir, which was very blue and we could see it from pretty high up as we came through the switchbacks coming down off this mountain.

Shortly after entering Colorado, we stopped for lunch along a site with petroglyphs.

The next mountain pass (Douglas Pass, elevation 8268)  we had to go through had 10 switchbacks and 5% to 8% grades.  It was a long pull and just after we crossed the summit, we came upon an accident.  Apparently someone had gone off the cliff, and they were just bringing the car up.  The cliff was really steep and probably more than a thousand feet drop.  It had happened sometime earlier because there were no emergency vehicles still there, just the wreckers.  Here's what the cliff looked like.  Those little white places on the left are vehicles.

We picked out a campground just 6 miles north of I-70, a little west of Grand Junction, Colorado.  We lucked out because there was only one space left, and that was due to a cancellation.  But it was a really nice state campground, with lots of trees and grass, right on a small lake, Highline Lake.

We got off the round about 2:30 and had some nice down-time sitting outside enjoying the shade and watching other campers coming in.  There was a bicycle brigade of 3- and 4-year olds, with training wheels still on the bikes, then a few older boys with "bigger bikes" that made several circles around the campground.  It was pretty warm here -- we are at 4700 feet -- and I got my shorts out for the first time since leaving Arizona in May.  The warmer it gets, the slower Joe drives, so I don't know when we'll ever get home!

Flaming Gorge - Day 2

Thursday, Sept. 23 - I got up early this morning, and watched 26 antelope from my kitchen window go down to the river to get a drink.  This is a pretty nice campsite.

I took some pictures of the sunrise for Joe, since he never gets up early enough to see that.  You can even see some antelope in this picture.
 
As the sun started hitting the mountains across the river, I took some pictures of that too.

This campground has wind shelters at every space, and you can see them here with the moon setting.

Once I got Joe on the move, and fed, we explored this area today in the car.  There was a little snow on the mountaintops that probably came down last night, since we had a little rain at the campground.  We took a loop road through Sheep Creek Canyon and Geological Area, where a lot of the rock formations date back millions of years.


 

We kept looking for bighorn sheep, but never saw any on this look.  We drove on toward the Flaming Gorge Dam and saw some beautiful views of the river. From the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, water flows via the Green River to the Colorado River and eventually ends up in Lake Powell.  The dam is 502 feet high and contains 987,000 cubic yards of concredte.  It was completed in 1964.  We took a tour of the dam.  This area including the dam and bridge look a lot like the Roosevelt Lake area.


You could buy fish food and feed the fish on the river side of the dam, which created a feeding frenzy.  The fish hanging out here were pretty good sized, and they get fed several times a day from the tourists on these dam tours.
 


As we drove back toward camp, we took some side roads but never really scared up any wildlife.  Some of the roads were already closed for the season, and others were for "authorized personnel only."  I need to get Joe a t-shirt or baseball cap that says "Authorized Person" because he does NOT think any gates or roads should be unavailable to him.  He thinks he should be authorized for everything.We did come upon 3 wild turkeys (hens) just beside the road, so Joe made a U-turn and we got a picture of them. them.

As we drove back down through the canyon, we could see the "flaming" part of the name.  It was a very pretty drive, but you need to be on the water (which we weren't) to get the full effect of the colors of these cliffs.

As we drove into the road to our campground, we took another side road to another campground and found our new best friends, the antelope, grazing near the water.

We rested and read for a while at the RV, then Joe took me back to the little town of Manila (approx. 10 miles) for ice cream (yes, Dana, I got my ice cream tonight too).  We drove through the little town and checked out the gift stores and gas stations.  There was a deer grazing right in someone's yard, and we saw another deer beside the road on our way back; luckily, we saw it before it darted across the road.  The full moon was rising on this trip so, of course, we have pictures.

Flaming Gorge - Day 1

Wednesday, Sept. 22 -- Happy Birthday, Bridgette. 

Collins and Marilyn are in Ellensburg, Washington, today meeting some friends they knew from Collins' service days.  Dave and Mazie got home a week ago Monday, on the 13th, and are busy getting the Silver Streak they drove this summer ready to sell.  They are having a hard time adjusting to the Arizona heat, even in Sierra Vista, and Jeff called last night and told us not to come home yet because the heat had not broken, so I guess we'll stay away a while longer.  We got our second chip in the front windshield on Monday, coming out of the Tetons.  This one is on Joe's side (the other one is on my side), so we hope they don't spider out before we get home.

We went back down to the hot pools last night about 7:30 for our final soothing soak.  The middle pool was quite a bit warmer since they had just refilled it, but it felt pretty good.  This morning, we broke camp and set out for the Flaming Gorge National Forest down on the Wyoming/Utah border.  The wind through the Wind River Canyon wasn't as bad today as it was when we drove in, but we hit pretty strong winds later on when we were driving through the high desert of Wyoming.  I got better pictures of the Boysen Reservoir and Dam today.

We went back through Riverton, then on to Lander, Farson and Green River, driving through Wyoming's high desert.  It looks a lot like the area around St. Johns, Arizona, with lots of sage brush.  There were some sand and rock formations, and we saw several antelope along this route, a couple of herds of 12 and 20, then singles and doubles.

The town of Green River had some rock formations and this is where the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area starts.  There's a lot of history about this area, including the fact that dinosaurs roamed here and John Wesley Powell began his 1869 expedition here.

We stopped at the Flaming Gorge Visitor Center and got some information about campgrounds (many had already closed for the season) and some maps.  We had a little trouble getting turned around here because the exit was blocked off with construction.  We ended up having to unhook the car to get turned around.  As we turned off the highway onto the road to the campground, we saw a few more antelope, and when we drove back to the campsite, there were several antelope roaming around the campground.

Even as we ate dinner, I could see an antelope through my kitchen window.   I think we saw about 50 antelope in total today.  Prety cool!  We had a few rain showers as we drove, and this evening a little shower has set in.  We are parked right on the bank of the Green River.  Tomorrow we will go exploring in the car.
I'm a little behind in my posting, since today is Saturday, Sept. 25, but we are finally at a campground with Wifi, so I'll try to catch up.

Thermapolis Day 2

Tuesday, Sept. 21 - We weren't sure what we were going to do today -- whether to stay or move on.  I got up and went to the laundry first thing to get our swimsuits and towels washed.  The pool is divided into 3 sections, from "pretty warm" to "hot" to "really hot."  They were cleaning the two hotter sections this morning -- draining them completely, then pressure washing them to get the algea off, then spraying a mixture containing a little bleach on the bottom before allowing them to refill.  They clean the 2 big sections every other week, and the smaller one every week.  The pool is fed by the Sacajawea Well, named for the Indian Squaw who led Lewis and Clark to the Pacific.  The well was drilled in 1918 in a search for oil, but instead of oil, hot mineral water was struck.  The pressure was so great that it destroyed the derrick when it came in.  Currently, the well flows at the rate of 1.3 million gallons of 128 degree water each 24 hours.  Calcium and sulphur are the greatest components in the mineral water.

The pool had a concrete bottom, unlike most of the hot springs we have been in this summer.  Joe went down to oversee this work while I finished the laundry. 

The fountain was really steaming in this morning's colder air.  Once they finish cleaning, they pull the plugs on the cooler pool and let it drain into the second pool as the hot mineral water comes in from the other end.  By this afternoon, we will be able to get back in.

The pool measures 235 feet by 72 feet and holds 84,600 cubic feet of water.  With 1.3 million gallons flowing from the Sacajawea every 24 hours, the water in the pool is exchanged every ll hours.  However, algea does grow on the bottom, and is very slick, making it difficult to walk.  It will be nice to get back into the pool this evening after the bottom has been cleaned.

We decided to head into town (1 mile) for breakfast and see if we could locate a barber.  We had a great breakfast and finally found the gal who cuts hair (she was not a barber).  She gave us both haircuts.  As we came out of her shop, a deer was in her yard.

Then we drove out through the Hot Springs State Park, which is right at the edge of town. There is a bison herd here, and we got a great picture of a big, old bull who was keeping a pretty close eye on us.

The park maintains a free-roaming herd of 24-27 adult and yearling bison on a year-round basis, but we only saw a small herd of 9.

There are supposed to be burros here with the bison, but we didn't find them.  We drove along the river road which just winds on through town.

As we ventured on, we came upon some interesting rock structures, some were sort of cave-like with swirls of different levels of stone.

There was a White Sulphur Spring and a Black Sulphur Spring on this road.  We could see the white stream, but the hole for the black one was too deep and we could not see any water in it.

The White Surphur Springs had a cave-like structure where the water came out.  Fortunately, there were no wild varmints hidden in here (except Joe).

The State Park has several hot pools, one bathhouse that is free to the public, and other pools that cost $10 for all day.  There are also hotels within the state park that have hot spring pools.   Some of the pools could be seen as we descended off the hill.

We finally headed back to the RV -- it's amazing how time gets away!  We did some housekeeping chores -- Joe defrosted the refrigerator, and I vacuumed.  That's enough housekeeping for one day.  Time to go get in the healing waters of the pool.

We are leaving here tomorrow, heading to Flaming Gorge, Wyoming.  But after two days of 85 degree temperatures, Joe has begun telling people that we are going home by way of Wisconsin -- northern Wisconsin!  So  Arizona needs to turn the heat down so we can come home and see our grandkids.

Thermapolis Day 1

Monday, Sept. 20 - This morning we pulled out of the beautiful Grand Tetons National Park, after a quick stop at the General Store for donuts (not as good as Tim Horton's, though).  We decided to head east to the town of Thermapolis, home of the world's largest mineral hot springs.  We seem to be closing these national parks as we leave -- end of September they start shutting down most of the campgrounds.  We saw one deer this morning, just as we pulled out of the campground.  The fall colors are something to see, though, with the mixture of reds, oranges and yellows amongst the green pine trees.

Unfortunately, these pictures really do not show the richness of the mountainsides. We went over Togwotee Pass, elev. 9658, seemed like we climbed for the first 30 miles after leaving the park (Hwy 26).  This highway has open range and we came upon some cattle grazing right beside the road.  Luckily, none decided to head across as we passed.

The scenery along this highway was beautiful.  This is the Teton National Forest.  We spotted a wolf crossing an open field.  We headed into Riverton, then turned north through Shoshoni to Thermapolis.  This drive took us past Boysen State Park and Boysen Lake, which was pretty good-sized.  This highway follows the Wind River for miles and miles, and I think we crossed it about 10 times.  It eventually changes names to the Big Horn River.  The Big Horn River is one of the few North-flowing rivers in the U.S.  It joins the Yellowstone River in Montana, which joins the Missouri River near North Dakota, which eventually joins the Mississippi River.  What a roundabout course it takes!

This scenic byway took us through tunnels, one right after the other, in Wind River Canyon.  We had had the 3-tunnel thing once before, on the way to Cody just after the Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir.

The wind really blew through this canyon, and it was all Joe could do to keep us on the road.  The scenery was beautiful, and there were some campgrounds along the river, but we knew it would be too windy for us there, so we drove on into Thermapolis. 

The printing on the big rock says "World's Largest Thermal Hot Springs." 

We decided to stay at the Fountain of Youth RV park because it has a hot pools right in the campground.  It was 85 degrees today, so we were not too sure about getting into the water, but we finally braved the elements and got in, about 5:00 p.m.

We missed Mazie here because she had been going with us to the hot springs most of the trip.  Marilyn joined us on the last one, so we missed here too, but we were on our own here.  This one has a fountain with water flowing up into it, too.

At night they light it up with red lights and it looks like hot coals at the bottom.  Very pretty.  We went back into the water a second time about 7:30 p.m., but my swimsuit wasn't quite dry so I was a little reluctant.  And we knew it was going to be a cold walk back to the camper.  But it was fun.  Of course, these mineral hot springs always smell like rotten eggs, so we took showers after both dips.

Joe picked up a paper this morning and saw that the "managed fire" in Yellowstone that we had seen on Wed. had pushed beyond the "contained" line and was not an uncontained fire, due to the high winds and dry weather that we had experienced there all week.  Lightning had started the fire last Tuesday, the day before we saw it, and we assumed it had been started on purpose, but now we know that just because it is a "managed" fire does not mean that.  I don't know if "controlled burn," like we see in Arizona has the same meaning or not.  Hopefully, they will get it under control quickly.