Mosquitos and Storms- Utah to Idaho

8/27/11 Day 22- No storm last night in Moab! We packed up from the campground early and headed out to beat the high afternoon temperatures we hoped! We took highway 191 to 70 through Green River, UT the turned north on 191 through the little towns of Price and Helper. Working our way to Provo, Mark had to bear the terrible road construction or should I say destruction of the highway systems in the Provo/Salt Lake City area. We decided to stay in Provo at the Utah Lake State Park and call it a day in the mid-afternoon.

Utah Lake State Park was booming on this Saturday since the Utah half-marathon was finishing right next to the campground and all the recreational watercraft was launching! The campground was nice- bordering the largest fresh water lake in Utah. It is apparently loaded with different fish and interestingly it only averages a 9 ft. depth. I found out all about that when I tried to swim in it and there was a dead fish on the shore and the water was warmer than the KOA pool was.

Mark was working on making "red-neck fried rice" AKA rice-a-roni with fried spam cooked in! After a little game of football with the rubber football we found it was time to get out the bug spray! The camphost warned us about the mosquitos that come out with a vengence after the sun sets. Well, he didn't lie about that! Soon after that onslaught a thunderstorm hit the area so we retired to the tent for the night as well as everyone around us!

8/28/11 Day 23- Good morning and good bye Utah Lake mosquitos. Putting the wet tent and tarp in the motorcycle trailer we headed north for breakfast at McD's and regrouped! We were so glad we came upon the bird refuge outside of Brigham City. It was just us on the whole 14 mile area and even the interpretive center was closed due to it being a Sunday. This is a 74,000 acre refuge of marshland, water and uplands. You could even see the salt deposits along the marsh. The road apparently ends at the Great Salt Lake but at the end of the 14 mile road it was closed to road construction! So our Salt Lake viewing had to take place from the glimpse from the highway!

More of the bird refuge. There was a rare fisherman on the riverbank this morning. We could hear the birds but didn't see very many.

A few sandpipers callling it home. They were singing like they were in the church choir this Sunday morning. I would too if I knew I had all this acreage to call a safe haven!

Distant shot of the refuge with the Wasatch Mountains in the background. We had the mountain range in view on both sides from our last campground.

On towards Idaho we went on I-15. The Caribou-Targee National Forest mountains are in the background as we head north. Another beautiful sunny afternoon for motorcycle riding. We have over 3,600 miles on the bike so far.

Hello Idaho and farewell Utah. It's bittersweet to know we are working our way home but we feel so fortunate to have experienced this new adventure and travel to areas we have never seen.

About 40 miles over the Utah/Idaho border we ventured off to Downey. Population about 600. Crossing Malad Pass at 5,500 ft. seemed like nothing compared to all the 10,000 ft. passes we'd been over in Colorado! We had read about a Hot Springs Campground so decided to make it our home for the night.... boy we were in for a surprise!

Downata Hot Springs Campground nestled in the trees along highway 91. We were the only campers in the 100 campsites besides the camphosts. The place had literally shut down the day before because school had started in the area! No open pools, waterpark, hot springs, store but the bathrooms were open and they had great internet access! I worked on this blogsite for the rest of the afternoon and early evening! Mark relaxed and grilled up some tubesteaks for dinner.... we promise to eat better when we get home! Well, we discovered that the tent does stay waterproof at night and we can survive an entire night of thunder, lightening and rain. We have NEVER seen or heard what we did this night. Earplugs didn't even come close to diminishing the thunder or the train whistle throughout the night 1/4 mile away. The ground was rumbling and we had lightening 360 degrees. It was beautiful to watch but a little scary since there was only 1-2 seconds max inbetween the lightening and thunder. It made for a good story and I'm here to tell you that we did survive! No mosquitos though just horseflies since we were adjacent to a horse pasture! We wondered where those horses hunkered down for the night :)

Utah We Go! Moab and The Arches

8/25/11 Day 20 continued- Good bye Colorado and Hello Utah! Wow, after we literally made it through Bedrock (seriously the last town on the edge of Colorado) the temperatures were soaring in this canyon up to a little over 100. We crossed over the base of the La Sal Mountains and headed north to Moab, UT.

We checked into the Moab KOA where we had enjoyed a stay last year. The driver of the motorcycle was brilliant and rented a camp cabin as he looked up above the canyons and saw a storm brewing! Here we are enjoying some HOT 100 degree sunshine before we went for a swim. And lucky we got the cabin to throw our sleeping bags in because a 4 hour rain and thunderstorm hit hard. Those cabins filled up quickly with tent campers! I spent some of the time downloading pictures to the blog with the s-l-o-w internet connection.

8/26/11 Day 21 Up to a beautiful morning with the redstone cliffs in our background of our campsite. Mark scrambled up some eggs and after breakfast we headed out to view the sites of Arches National Park. It was only about 8 miles up the road from our camp. We decided to stay a second night here so we could enjoy Arches and then come back to relax for the afternoon at the campground. Hopefully some swimming without a thunderstorm!

In one of the parking lots at the view points we came across this motorcycle. For the motorcycle afficionados we had to take this picture. It's a BMW R1200 and the bike had been all over the world. It had 4 different types of spare tires mounted on each side of the bikes wheels and inside the tires he had extra gas cans and water bottles wedged inbetween that! The whole bike was tattooed with stickers from all his ventures including Germany, Argentina, other S. America spots, San Francisco, Yellowstone, the Yukon and catch this one.... Winthrop, WA!! We got close ups of that one. He had the requisite rubber chicken hanging off the cargo rack on the back! It made us feel like we are on a motorhome!! We have seen so many vehicles from all over the country. Most of the campgrounds seem to have more foreigners than USA travelers. It's fun to listen to all the different languages.

Back to the Arches sights! Arches has the greatest concentration of natural stone arches in the world showing the natural effects of erosion of the Entrada Sandstone 150 million years ago. There are more than 2,000 arches, red canyons, spires and balancing rocks. This structure is often referred to as the Three Wise Men or Tower of Babel.

"The Courthouse Towers" viewpoint. Each turn had a new expression of the what Mother Nature treats us with. It was nice to view all this again since we had done so much canyon touring last year. It's the only one we are going to visit this time.

The Sand Dune Arch area. It was just like at the beach with a breeze into between the rock walls on a sandy floor. It was just missing a body of water that I would have gladly jumped into!

The infamous Delicate Arch. We hiked up the rocky trail, 1 mile roundtrip, to get closer to the arch. We passed on the 3 mile hike since it was in the 90's by now! From here we passed by Devil's Garden Area and viewed the old Wolfe Ranch. Spectacular sites and we are so appreciative of what we have been able to do. Back to our camp cabin that we rented for another night. We got a good afternoon swim in and I worked on the blogsite inbetween swimming laps! Life continues to be good and we will head northwest tomorrow towards Salt Lake City. It's nice to be footloose and fancy free on this venture. It's a test of our stamina, our patience, our tolerance of constant weather changes and being a short distance apart 24 hours a day! So far the grade is an A! We are signing up for another week of this motorcycle touring school..... YEAH!

The Farewell to Colorado - Cortez to Telluride, CO

8/24/11 Day 19 continued... After a stop in Durango at the Harley shop and the Texas Smoke BBQ, for the best pulled pork sandwiches, we hit the highway to Cortez, CO. On the way into town is this great view of Mesa Verde and the "silhouette of the Sleeping Ute". We had spent a day here last year and would recommend highly the tour of Mesa Verde. Rolling hills, horse ranches and cow pastoral land brought us into the town of Cortez.

Check out this view of Mesa Verde from our campsite! This was the KOA and we got a huge open field to ourselves for our tents. This was our last night to camp with Barney as he was making his way back to Orange Co, CA in the morning and we would start our journey out of Colorado towards Utah. We enjoyed a much needed swim in the pool before a thunderstorm made them kick us out! Nothing like 95 degrees with pouring down rain, thunder and lightening.... Not quite like the Northwest!

Luckily we had already set up our tents and Cowboy Mark didn't have to saw down this tree to decrease our chance of getting hit by lightening! He was practicing with the backpack saw my Dad gave us for the trip!

8/25/11 Day 20- Said our good-bye's to Barney and Mark and I took Highway 145 to Telluride, CO. We followed the Delores River on the opposite side of the mountain range of the Million Dollar Highway. We completed the "circle" of scenic byways this way! It was a pretty drive along the riverbed, canyons and small farms.

One of the little towns, Rico, along the mountains before Lizard Pass. We have fallen in love with the Colorado that we've seen so far. We may be ready to get down to some lower elevation though since we've been mostly over 6,000 feet for the majority of the 3 weeks we've been gone.

A little lake that we got to view for awhile during a construction stop. Finally, an easy picture to take while the bike was stopped! Don't have to delete the blurry ones this way!

Telluride, CO- elevation 8,792 ft. This is from the Mountain Village. Wow, what spectacular houses and lodging in this ski village town.

After lunch in town I talked Mark into a gondola ride up the mountain from town. A thunderstorm had just started and it was pouring down rain but we tackled the adventure anyway.

Just to prove that he did it! What a great way to see the town and mountain.

The journey up the gondola ride in the rainstorm! Telluride down below where we had just eaten at the local brewpub. Amazing how much you can do in 2 hours!

Leaving Telluride towards Placerville. Nice ride along the San Miguel River with an opportunity to wear our raingear for a short time. Onwards to Utah we went and the temperature just kept climbing as we weaved our way on Highway 145 in the back boonies of the southwest corner of Colorado.

Ouray, CO and The Million Dollar Highway

8/23/11 Day 18 continued- South on Highway 550 to Ouray, CO. The Uncompahgre National Forest including Mt. Sneffels at 14,150 feet surrounds this town of 4,260 residents. What you are looking at will be the start of the Million Dollar Highway route tomorrow!

Into the town of Ouray that afternoon. How do you pronounce it? Well, the locals say "yoo-ray" so that became the joke with Barney over the next couple days. You Ray? No, I'm Kathy! The town has been referred to as the Switzerland of America. We stopped at the local visitor center and they recommended the Ampitheater Campground in the National Forest to camp at for the night. Off we go to check it out.

This was at the base of the campground in the Swiss Alps AKA the Uncompahgre and San Juan National Forests. The campground was up a winding road, over a wood planked bridge and up into the gorgeous forest. We lucked out and got a campground there. The area was formed from a volcanic explosion many years ago and we got to reap the benefits that were created by Mother Nature.

Up at the top we go. This viewpoint was just a couple hundred yards from our campsite. You can view the entire town of Ouray from here. It was beautiful at night with all the lights on and the stars filled the sky. We got both tents on one big site and enjoyed a good nights sleep nestled against the rock walls and forest treeline at 8,400 feet elevation.

8/24/11 Day 19- The Million Dollar Highway Adventure! What a scenic ride on the motorcycle from Ouray down past Silverton. Through the portal of a tunnel, looking backwards you can see Mt. Abrams. We continued on seeing some of the most spectacular chasms that were so deep that you can't see cliff tops nor canyon bottoms from either side. Bear Creek Falls cascaded right under the highway, too. Steep cliffs, no guard rails, and multiple switchbacks on a downhilll grade going south give this ride some of it's reputation!

A hint of what we got to experience on this fantastic ride. No sweat for the drivers! Great views for the passenger!

Over Red Mountain Pass at 11,018 feet and getting some views of the road we had been on and the scattered buildings on the ride. The weather was perfect.

Looking back at mountains behind us in awe. Each turn gave us a new treat to log in our memory banks and the camera!

Into the old mining town of Silverton, CO. The town boasts 531 people and a darling yesteryear mainstreet. It has often been used as a movie set for Westerns and is the terminus of the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

After crossing the Molas Divide and Coal Bank Pass at 10,000 ft + we came upon this little gem- Electra Lake.

Ta-da among the wildflowers! Enjoying the great mountainside views by an appreciative backseat rider. On to the bottom of 550 we go to Durango! We have about 3,400 miles on the bike so far.....

To Black Canyon of The Gunnison

8/22/11 Day 17- On the road again... Barney, Mark and Kathy took off about 8 am from Stacey's. We had to say good bye and move on with our journey. Thanks for the great time in Colorado! On to Hiway 285 through some more mountains towards Gunnison we went. Over Kenosha Pass at 10,001 feet and then Red Hill Pass at 9,993 feet. There were nice roads, beautiful mountain sides and wildflowers. With each turn we would open our mouths in awe.

Stopped in Buena Vista for roadside hamburgers and chili then back south on 285 towards Poncha Springs. The Sawatch Range includes the Collegiate Peaks aptly named Mt. Princeton, Yale and Harvard. They top out at 14000 plus feet.

Turning west on 50 Monarch Pass was our highest one at 11,312 feet! This was our last crossing of the Continental Divide on this trip!

We dropped down to 5,400 ft. elevation in Gunnison and called it a night at the KOA. This is the gateway area to the Gunnison National Forest and the Curecanti National Recreation area. Barney got to enjoy our yummy fried spam and cheese sandwiches for dinner! We had a nice night around the campfire and listened to stories from the neighboring Harley riders from Montana!

An evening stroll took us down to the Gunnison River only about 1/4 mile from our campground. The river rafters were pulling there rafts out across from us. It was tempting to stay another night and do some rafting tomorrow but the Black Canyon calls instead!

8/23/11 Day 18- Curecanti National Recreational Area. There are 3 reservoirs formed by dams on the Gunnison River- the Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal. Water sports are a big attraction here as well as trout fishing, camping and hiking. It was a great ride in to Montrose.

Cimmaron, a classic little one stop shop town! We attempted to buy gas but they didn't have premium so it was either pan for gold or on to Montrose so that's what we chose!

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Elevations range from 6,500 to 9,040 feet. We took the 14 mile south rim scenic route. We saw some of the deepest portions of the canyon. Some of the Earth's oldest base rocks ( 1.75 billion years old) have been cut by the river to a depth of 2,722 feet. At the top, the narrowest distance between canyon walls is 1,100 feet but at the river it was 40 feet. And yes, we made the journey down on the bikes!

The requisite sign marker of where we were! This is how I keep track of all the thousands of pictures!

Another view from the top of the canyon. You can see the riverbed below.... that is the next adventure.

You can see the warning signs that talk about the East Portal Road down to the river. It is a steep 16% grade of continuous switchbacks down into the canyon. The park ranger let us leave our little motorcycle cargo trailer at the top! No vehicles allowed over 22 feet in length. I don't have any pictures on the way down because of holding still for Mark!

After the "little" trip down we headed down the path to find a place to get out in the river for some cold water to cool off our feet! And boy did it feel good. We even got to see some 6" trout swimming around our little piggy's!

Evidence that we did indeed go to the base of the Black Canyon! Mark, Kathy and Barney on our continuing cousin adventure! Back to Montrose we headed and had a great lunch at a local brew pub. Ask us about the 50/50 burger! Not sure where we will land tonight but are heading south to Ouray. The weather remains warm and dry! Life is good and it has been a great day so far.