Boom Days, Leadville, CO

A Stubborn Burro, Boom Days, Leadville, CO

Sunday, August 5 - Leadville, CO, - 160.3 Miles Today, 12,449.9 For the Trip

I got a late start, partially because I drove to Craig's City Market to see if they had my favorite ice cream. They did, so it was worth the trip. In any case, I climbed up & down along US 40, and CO 24, including the highest so far for the trip going over Tennessee Pass at 10, 424'. Not the highest for the trailer - that was11,158' approaching the Eisenhower Tunnel on I 70 last year.

I met Anne at her house in Leadville, parked the trailer in the National Mining Hall of Fame for the night, and headed into the center of the city to attend "Boom Days." They have all kinds of things going on over the weekend. Today was some drilling competitions, the Burro Race, and a gunfight. More photos on today's LakeshoreImages page.

The burro race was interesting. The burros have minds of their own. Even though they were some of the first to complete the course, when they hit the final 100 yards they decided to stop. It was great fun watching the drivers trying to get some of them across the finish line. Others just trotted across.

I'm going to spend the night in Dick & Anne's spare bedroom - first time in 94 days in a real bed. Don't know if I will be able to stand it, but I'm up for trying!

Until Tomorrow!

Craig Campground, CO

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, WY & UT

Saturday, August 4 -Craig Campground, CO - 249.4 Miles Today, 12,289.6 For the Trip

I changed my mind & drove down the east side of Flaming Gorge on US 191 because I didn't want to shoot into the sun & I wanted to see Firehole Campground. Wish I had know about it before I stopped at the KOA - much nicer, and although they didn't have hookups, they did have showers & a dump station, all that I really needed. Oh well, next trip! You can see the smoke from upwind wild fires in some of the photos. I had thought of staying at one of the Dinosaur National Monument Campgrounds, but the one I wanted was not recommended due to the smoke.

I continued south on US 191 to Vernal, UT, then took US 40 east. While they call US 50 "The Loneliest Road", US 40 can't be too far behind. Very little traffic in either direction until I reached Craig, CO. Neither the map or the AAA/Woodall books listed campgrounds in Craig, but my GPS did list Rocky Mountain RV Park in Steamboat Springs. I set it for that & it lead me to Craig Campground just outside Craig, a city the GPS couldn't even find. It is interesting that if you do a city search the GPS can't find most small cities, but if you do an address search it has no problem. I suspect they limit the city size to make a search easier since they don't let you choose the state first & you would have to scroll through a large number of cities to find the one you are looking for if it is a popular name. Of course, letting you choose the state first would solve the problem, but who knows why Garmin doesn't do it that way...

Anyway, I stopped for the night at the Craig Campground, Site 3. Good shade, full hookups, and while a bit expensive at $38.00, it is the only campground in town. Evidently, there is a balloon festival going on in a park here in town. I may try to find it after dinner to see if they plan an evening launch. Since it seems to be fairly windy, they may only launch in the mornings...

Dinner will be a steak & potato salad - there is a Safeway in town & I stocked up on supplies. If I'm lucky, I'll make it to Leadville tomorrow. If not, it will be one more day.

Until Tomorrow!

Green River KOA, WY

Bison Along Gros Ventre Road, Grand Tetons, WY

Friday, August 3 - Green River KOA, WY - 192.2 in the Park Miles Today, 12,040.2 For the Trip

Rather than bore you with the only photo I took today ( the campground) I'll use one from yesterday.

A change of plans - after taking a second look at the map & talking with John, a fellow camper at Gros Ventre, I decided to take US 189 & 191 to the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and cross Colorado on US 40. I stopped for the night at the Green River KOA, site 76. Not the nicest KOA I've been in since it is basically a gravel field with hookups and enough wind to rock the trailer even while still hooked to the RAV4 & the stabilizer jacks lowered. Still, it has showers, which will be nice after two days without them, and with the hookups, I got a chance to drain the tanks.

I'm not sure which side of the gorge I'm going to drive down tomorrow - WY 530 looks to be closer to the gorge than US 191, but in the morning it will be photographing into the sun. After talking with the campground staff, I'll probably drive down the west side on WY 530 & hope for the best.

For those observant of the campground photos, you may notice that in yesterday's photo the white tire cover on the RAV4's spare is missing. It shredded while driving through the Tetons. It wasn't all that inexpensive, and I would have expected to have lasted longer that 12,000 miles - maybe I'll look for a metal cover...

Dinner will be a salad & tuna fish sandwiches - trying to cook in this wind would be a waste of time & I want to use up the rest of the onion & sweet pepper I used to make the hash the other day.

Until Tomorrow!

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Grand Tetons National Park, WY

Thursday, August 2 -Grand Teton National Park, WY 187.0 + 51.5 in the Park Miles Today, 11,848.0 For the Trip

Driving along US 20/26 I passed the three Buttes & stopped to take a photo of the largest, Big Butte. Lots of antennas all over the top. I continued on 20/26, then 26, then 31 (quite a climb over Teton Pass - 8,431'.) After that it was into the park & Gros Ventre Campground. I'm in site 92, a dry (they all are) site not too far from the bathrooms. No showers, so that will have to wait another day.

There was a herd of Bison along Gros Ventre Campground Road - I stopped twice to take some photos. I also drove out to Mormon Row for a couple of images. Not the best time of day for it. I also made a couple of stops at places I haven't been to before - I drove to Deadman's Bar where they were digging out the boat ramp with a Payloader, and Schwabacher Road, both of which give a nice view of the Tetons over a stream.

This is the latest I've visited the Tetons, and I miss the snow on the mountains. There is some there, but much more impressive in June & July.

After that I came back to the trailer to download the images & post today's page. Alas, although I do have a Verizon signal here at the campground, it is not fast enough to upload the images & pages. After I build the pages I'll drive into Jackson to post them. I also want to fill the RAV4 tank since the plan is to head out on US 26/287 tomorrow.

Until Tomorrow!

Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID

Lava Cascades at Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID

Wednesday, August 1 - Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID -161.2 Miles Today, 11,609.5 For the Trip

Whether it is cool enough or not, I'm in Carters of the Moon Campground for the night. It was 89°F when I stopped, but now at 4:35 it is 93°F (but DRY HEAT, at least that is what they tell me!) I'm hoping that at this altitude (almost 6000') that it cools off once the sun goes down. I won't be able to shoot the milky way like last year since there is a full moon that will wash out the stars.

I didn't get the site I had last year (site 38) because it was already occupied (there were 2 people in the campground when I got here) but I have a better site - 25. I could have kept the trailer connected, but I wanted to see a couple of the areas that were closed last year. I climbed the Inferno Cone which I skipped last year (not because it was closed, because I was lazy) but did get to see the Snow & Spatter cones and hike out to the Tree Molds, both of which were closed last year. By the way, if you hike to the Tree Molds, don't believe the 1 mile description. It may be one mile as the crow flies, but the trail is more like 1 1/2 or more.

You will have to put up with lots of tree photos - love the shapes of both the live & dead ones here in the monument. They are at today's LakeshoreImages page.

As to dinner, of course it is going to be the rest of the pork loin. I'm really sick of pork loin sandwiches, but being a cheapskate, I won't throw it out. So, I drove to the grocery store in Arco (40 miles round trip - money spent on gas doesn't count) and bought some vegetables to make hash. After that, even tightwads toss what ever is left over!

I hope the wind dies down. I had to close the awning since it was rocking the trailer so much I was missing the keys while typing (well, maybe a bit of an exaggeration) In any case, it is windy. The campground is starting to fill up. A large shadow maker (the name some fiberglass trailer owners give to 40' Class A's) is 2 sites down from me but all the surrounding sites are still empty. Since it is a full moon tonight, maybe there will be an interesting rise to photograph.

Until Tomorrow!