We're in the West Now

We are truly in the west now, and our California license plates no longer get oohs and aahs for how far we've come. Today, Monday, October 12, there were more California license plates in a parking lot at Bryce Canyon National Park than any other single state, even Utah. When we saw the sign in Kansas last week that showed the halfway point between New York and San Francisco I guess I should have felt that we were in the west, or when we were in Dodge City a true "Old West" town, but it wasn't until we crossed into Colorado that I felt we were in our western home region, and that feeling was confirmed when we crossed the Continental Divide.

Not too far west of Dodge City, Kansas as we passed through Syracuse, Kansas on Tuesday, October 6, a sign on the highway caught my attention, but not long enough to get a picture: "Home of the first all female city council." The only real change we noticed as we crossed from the prairie of Kansas to the prairie of eastern Colorado was that the trees were different. Not long after entering Colorado we found a state camp ground to camp for the night on John Martin Reservoir. There were two campgrounds to choose from but we chose the least expensive of the two - only cheaper by $8, and definitely harder to get to with less amenities, but we had the whole campground to ourselves for the night.

We finally made it to the west - this sign is actually in Utah next to an out of business tourist stop.

Missed getting a picture of a sign welcoming us to Kansas, but here is one saying goodbye.

As we drove across southern Colorado, it lived up to its nickname of Colorful!

Our Campsite at Point Campground at John Martin Reservoir State Park in Colorado.

Part of the 99 empty campsites in this beautiful place of seeming emptiness.

Wednesday night we chose to camp at a KOA again, this time so we could watch the vice-presidential debate on TV. We were glad we did so that when we read online the critiques from all sides we had already seen the whole thing. That was near Colorado City, a little out of our way on the way to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Great Sand Dunes NP is quite unusual with its mountains of sand up against the mountains. If you have ever seen Sand Mountain on Highway 50 in Nevada, it's quite similar, but bigger and protected from the OHV use at Sand Mountain. At Great Sand Dunes NP folks use special "snow" boards and sleds to slide down the mountains of sand. We chose not to walk all the way across the sand to the base of the sand mountains, but plenty of people were. We hiked a mountain trail with views of the sand dunes and got plenty of sand walking on our return to LesThora. I had to remove my shoes multiple times to get rid of all the sand that was getting packed in them.

We weren't able to camp in Great Sand Dunes National Park as the campground was reservations only and by the time I tried to get a reservation there was no availability, but we found a very sweet dispersed camping spot not far from the park.

Rob and I played a round of mini-golf at the Pueblo South/ Colorado City KOA campground just before sunset. The mountains were hard to see through the smokey skies. Fortunately we have experienced clear skies ever since.

The dunes behind us

A trail leading toward the sand dunes with the mountains behind

A glimpse of the sand dunes from our trail

Some fall color on the trail we took

Can you see the "specks" of people walking across the sand?

To me it resembled a picture of people walking across the Sahara Desert.

A view of Sacred White Shell Mountain from our free campsite on Thursday night, October 8.

My little campfire at sunrise at the Sacred White Shell Mountain dispersed camping area.

Crossing the Continental Divide on Hwy 114 in Colorado

The drive on 114 through the Rio Grande National Forest was stunning!

We have driven through many areas that are every bit as beautiful as the National Parks.

Our lunch spot on the shore of Blue Mesa Reservoir on the Gunnison River

Some of the fall colors we have been driving through - this in Colorado, but we have seen beautiful fall color in Kansas, Colorado and now Utah.

After a truly beautiful drive on Friday, October 9, we arrived at South Rim Campground at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in time to snag a first come first serve campsite. There is such a variety in the way the National Parks handle their campgrounds and how they are allowing visitors to access the parks. We walked the one mile nature trail to the visitor center from our campsite, bought a pin for my hat, got our National Park Passport book stamped and signed up for the last two spaces remaining for a ranger lead "Rock Stomp" program on Saturday morning. This was the first park where we were able to participate in a ranger lead program - most parks have not had any offered. Saturday morning we walked along the edge of the canyon with a ranger and six other visitors to learn about the history of this unusual chasm in the ground, created over billions of years. After the ranger program we drove to various lookouts along the rim of the canyon before heading west to Utah.

A Picture that doesn't begin to capture the depth and beauty of the Black Canyon.

Notice the layers of mountains.

The Gunnison River, about 2000 feet below the rim of the canyon.

There was an option, we didn't even consider, of hiking to the bottom.

We did over hear the orientation talk given by a ranger to a group planning to do it. His description mentioning chains to help you scramble up and down, poison ivy, rattle snakes and other dangers like getting lost didn't encourage us to reconsider attempting this feat.

The "Painted Wall" that is the tallest cliff in Colorado showing the different rock striations

A chipmunk eyeing our lunch

Saturday, October 10, we entered Utah with the intention of finding a spot to camp along the Colorado River on Highway 128 near Moab so that we could then go to Arches National Park on Sunday. Rob and I were at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks six years ago. We loved them and always wanted to come back and spend more time there. Because we couldn't get a reservation for the very small campground at Arches NP we knew we'd only be able to have a short visit there, but thought that would be OK. As we drove down 128, a drive that Rob described as feeling like we were driving in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, we learned that there was to be a half marathon on Sunday and the highway would be closed all morning. We also found the campgrounds along the river completely full and when we got near Moab there was horrible traffic. We decided to head away from the area and skip those two parks this trip since we'd already been there in the past and we didn't want to deal with the huge crowds. We found a parking lot to camp in along the highway leading away from Moab. We talked to others who were parked there and learned that it had been the parking lot for a Chuck Wagon Restaurant that went out of business 5 years ago. It was an adequate spot to spend the night before heading to Capitol Reef National Park on Sunday, and it was free.

Part of what we saw along Highway 128 near Moab, Utah

The old abandoned chuck wagon and store - looking like a ghost town

The view from our parking lot campsite

A bunch of freeloading campers, including us.

There was highway noise, but the campers, just like in every free place we've camped, were quiet and the ones we met were very friendly.

Roadside rock formations

Sunday, October 11, we arrived at Capitol Reef National Park and enjoyed the Fruita historic district and the park's scenic drive before taking a wonderful hike that climbed up on a Mesa before finding a beautiful quiet dispersed camping area just west of the park to spend the night.

Two enormous, very old Cottonwood trees at Fruita in Capitol Reef National Park

Some of the redrock behind the historic Fruita section of Capitol Reef National Park.

Notice the two large cottonwoods on the right.

Part of Capitol Reef

Looking down from part way up the Chimney Rock Trail Loop.

LesThora is in the picture.

The trail on top of the mesa

The trail going down from the mesa top

Another free campsite with incredible views and quiet neighbors

Today we drove through more incredible scenery, beautiful fall color, and Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument before making it to Bryce Canyon National Park where we were delighted to find they had a free park shuttle running. When we were first planning this trip we had looked forward to taking advantage of the free shuttles that operate in many of the more popular National Parks, but because of Covid most have been shut down this year. We parked LesThora at the park entrance and hopped on a bus that had half the seats removed so we could properly social distance. Our first stop was the visitor center to get our passport stamped and pick up a park map. I didn't get a hat pin because I already had one from six years ago. I just took the one off my overfull hat and put it on my current hat, the brim of which is beginning to get quite heavy with the pins representing the parks we've visited this trip. We got back on the shuttle and headed to Sunset Point where we took a hike down, down, down into the Canyon. The whole time we were walking steeply down we realized we'd have to walk back up, but we felt sure the trail we'd take back up wouldn't be as steep, and probably it wasn't, but it was still a good climb. Bryce Canyon is not really a canyon, but a series of what the park refers to as amphitheaters. It's really weird how you walk along before the edge of the "canyon" in a forest with no sense of what you are coming to, and then, there it is down below you. After our hike we caught another shuttle to Bryce Point where we enjoyed more scenery from the top and then caught the last shuttle back to the park entrance where we reunited with LesThora and the cats and headed to a nearby KOA for the night to do laundry and write a blog.

Some beautiful Utah color

A view of a tiny part of Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument and part of Highway 12 that was originally constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30s.