TUESDAY, AUGUST 2:
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| Bear Lake from the Overlook |
Click HERE to see pictures from today
We leave Baker City at 7am to gas up and grab Mom R and Jed a little something at MacDonalds! Mom R is riding with Rick in the Honda and I join Jed in Taxi McLean. A pleasant morning and easy drive down to Boise. Rick takes Mom to departures at the airport and Jed drops me off at the same so I can drive the truck and trailer around to “Cell Phone waiting area” where we wait for Rick to call and say he is ready for pickup. A busy area. I find a spot on the first drive round, but it takes Jed two more trips around in circles before he is able to pull in in front of me.
We leave Boise around 11 am MT, Mom safely through security and on her way to the gate. I continue to drive Honda and trailer to Glen’s Ferry, where we pull off and eventually make connections with Jed who had passed us at some point! We are trying to find the Orange Taco Bus that the Barajas family has moved to this area. We find it, but alas, it is not open for business yet! So we head instead to a little diner and eat lunch there.
Leaving the diner at 1:25, I continue to drive until Snowville, Utah! A total of over 200 miles, which is probably the most I have ever driven with the trailer in my life! A good drive – warm outside, but cloudy so the sun didn’t beat down on you too much. Going over Switzer Pass, we ran into an isolated thunderstorm that was very localized, but heavy in that one spot with rain. Rick and I listen to CD’s 11 and 12 of our Jan Karon book – only one more to go!
From Snowville, I again join Jed, but just through Tremonton and into Logan, where Jed pulls over, we call Rick, and I jump into the truck as it drives by! Rick has talked so much of Logan Canyon and I wanted to be with him when we went through it.
Logan sits in a BEAUTIFUL setting in the Cache Valley of Utah. Surrounded by mountains, mostly green, but probably snowy in the winter. The area has received record rainfall this year, so large areas are flooded and water covered. A birding paradise, but probably also mosquito haven!
Logan Canyon is everything Rick described. I took about 60 pictures from the truck window as we wound back and forth along the Logan River up and up toward a pass, and then finally, at around 7600’ to a rest area viewpoint overlooking Bear Lake. Wow! The whole canyon is lined with gray craggy rocks, deciduous trees, stands of aspens, and the ever rolling river. Fields of a yellow weed like flower colored the hillsides.
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| Our campsite at Cottonwood Camp, Rendezvous Beach, Bear Lake UT |
We drop down through Garden City and south on 89 to Rendezvous Beach at the south end of Bear Lake. This is the site of many of the mountain man rendezvous back in the 1800’s. We check into Cottonwood Campground – finding our spot isn’t EXACTLY what we imagined, but it will work for the night. We are basically in a wide parking space, restrooms right behind us (I can hear the showers running) and our picnic table and firepit are about 150 feet toward the lake – actually right on the edge of the lake in a very pretty spot, but pretty far to carry stuff. AND…there are about three to four other campsites in between us! We put the tail down on the truck and set up our “table” to spread out the buffet for dinner! Chairs in between the trailer and truck and we have a little shade to eat.
After dinner we take a short walk along the lake, eventually getting eaten by the mosquitos which seem to have come out in the cooling air. As I write I am inside the tent trailer and starting to get chilled … the air is definitely cooling off. Time for a little Bible study before it gets too dark!
Our Colorado adventure has begun!!! We are excited. Honda did well today pulling up the hills and down, as we get used to what gears to use when! G’night.
Miles traveled today: 470 from Baker City, OR to Bear Lake State Park, UT.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3:
Click HERE to see pictures from today
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| Hwy 40 as it drops down into Kremmling - Rocky Mts. in distance! |
Wow! What a wild night! We went to bed fairly early (9:30ish) and despite a rowdy group pulling in next to us around 10, still went to sleep fairly well. Night is cool, but not cold. Perfect for sleeping.
At midnight I got up to walk the short distance down to the restrooms (the price I was paying for a very large drink at dinner time!) About an hour later the storm hit….some rain but most WIND, WIND WIND!!! It reminded me of a night on our honeymoon in Wisconsin when we held the tent down hoping to make it through! I was hoping last night that the wind wouldn’t whip up under the beds and lift them off the brackets! Rick said if Jed hadn’t been with us he would have moved to the other pull out bed to stabilize the trailer. Pretty wild. Lasted about an hour plus – no lightning or thunder. By morning it was as calm as calm can be!
Woke up around 6:30 to read my Bible, etc. and then head to the bathhouse for a shower. All up shortly thereafter and we eat and are on our way by 8am. Stop in Lakeville for a coffee (not much available in the little convenience store.)
At 8:40 we enter the state of Wyoming. The route this morning from Bear Lake to Little America on I-80 is all open rolling hills, some mesa like cuts, and grasslands – rich, lush grasslands in places. We see our first coal generation plant shortly after entering Wyoming.
Stop in RockSprings to gas up and switch drivers. Jed hasn’t had a break yet, so he joins Rick in the Honda while I talk the wheel of the Toyota. We are on I-80 for about a 100 mile stretch in the southwest corner of Wyoming. Not much to report on this stretch. Wide, open fields of nothing! We pass the Continental Divide and enter the Great Continental Basin Desert – the round circle of nothingness where water doesn’t flow anywhere!
About 25 miles west of Rawlings, we turn south on Wyoming 789 (Colorado 13) for the 115 miles to Craig, CO. We go through a rain storm here with pretty heavy rainfall. The scenery is starting to gain more hills, but still largely open, grasslands with some trees – aspens mostly. Curvy road in places, but in others, straight as an arrow! Jed jumps in to ride with me for the final 40 miles down into Craig.
We arrive in Craig around 1:45 undecided about our plans from here. Rick is tired – he had been driving solid from 8am on! Also needs to eat! We finally gas up, find a Wendy’s and eat, and in the meantime I make reservations for the RV park in Kremmling, partly because I am unable to make contact with a couple of places in Steamboat Springs that we found in a phone book.
We leave Craig around 3 pm, refreshed and ready for the final 100 miles to Kremmling. I am back in the Honda with Rick, and Jed in his car. And we drive right into a major storm just west of Steamboat Springs. Heavy rain, two inches deep in the highway ruts, and splashing in your windshield. Probably worse for Jed down low than it was for us in the truck.
All of northern Colorado on Hwy 40 has been much more open than I expected – vast grasslands, wildflower covered hillsides, etc. East of Steamboat we enter a scenic highway designation from there until we arrive at I-70 tomorrow. We climb steeply out of Steamboat to Rabbit Ears Pass at 9426’, touching the Continental Divide momentarily before staying on the Pacific side for a while longer! As we near Kremmling, I see snowy peaks in the distance! Don’t know which of the many they are, but they look awesome!
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| Our site at Kremmling - under an aspen tree! |
We arrive in Kremmling right at 5pm and check in, receiving a AAA discount as well. A MUCH nicer site for cheaper than last night at Bear Lake, plus we have electricity, AND wireless internet. (If I can get it to work!) Forest Service campgrounds in the area were all 20 miles or so up gravel roads. Jed isn’t keen on that with his new windshield! Tomorrow night we shall pull into our home for 4 days on the front range of the Rockies at 8600’. We’ll get to do REAL camping there!
Quiet evening writing, reading, eating, and being family! J Good news? So far, we outdrove the storm. But it could catch up with us!!!
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