Saturday, September 1, 2012

Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and the road home


September 1…….Greetings from just outside Dallas, Texas where it’s about 100 in the sun. It doesn’t seem like it’s been almost a month since my last post so I’m apologizing for another long post. This will be the final from the road. I had planned to be home tomorrow and just west of Tallahassee camping with Stephanie and James right now but Isaac and the truck engine conspired to make sure that wasn’t happening.

Aug 5 thru 7

I set my goal at reaching a National Forest campground 22 miles back a dirt and gravel road that was quite nice and it’s about as remote as I can get with this trailer. Be sure and look at the location via my SPOT link.

 myspot
 Latitude:38.23588
 Longitude:-107.53719
 GPS location Date/Time:08/05/2012 16:50:30 EDT

 Message:This is my check-in from Spot. All is well.

 Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/8_2YZ/38.23588N/107.53719W

 If the above link does not work, try this link:
 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=38.23588,-107.53719&ll=38.23588,-107.53719&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

 I have a beautiful campsite in a grove of Aspen trees and I hope to stay here about 4 days watching wildlife and taking some walks. When the breeze blows, as it is right now as
I type this, the whole grove quivers and when I first witnessed it yesterday it
reminded me of the grass skirt hula girl dolls you used to see in the back window of cars except this was like seeing thousands at the same time so now I’ll have that picture in my mind anytime I see Aspens.




Last night I sat outside a little before dusk and watched a group of deer graze here in the grove not 50 feet from me. I’ve also had 3 or 4 hummingbirds come visit and hover right in front of me. The campground is at 9100 feet and at times I feel it and find myself gasping for air. I did sleep ok which is my big concern. I did succeed in beating the heat, the highs here are in the 70’s and last night the low was 47. About an hour drive from here it was in the high 90’s.  I’m planning on heading over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I did a brief drive thru about 15 years ago when it was still a National Monument. I am now in my 5th month on the road and I’m approaching 17000 miles yet there is still so much to see and I’ve only been in 12 states. I could make a career of this but I doubt Linda would agree.



The walls of the Black Canyon are up to 2000 feet high and geologists estimate that the river erodes up to 1 inch of riverbed rock per century so it’s been eating away for a longggggggg time. The river does have an unusually steep gradient dropping an average of 95 feet per mile thru the canyon.

Once back at the campsite I sat outside under the canopy to a light shower of rain and never did do a fire. This campsite is so quiet at times and so peaceful but I feel the altitude.

Today the 7th is planned as a nature day at the campsite. I’m looking for a trail to the reservoir and need to recharge the deep cycles. My campground is carved out of an aspen grove and they dominate the nearby mountains. The dirt road that got me here continues and within 5 or 6 miles from here goes over an 11000 foot + pass. I think I’ll explore that in the pickup tomorrow. The Hummingbirds continue to visit and will hover less than 5 feet from me and be there for what seems an eternity for a Hummingbird but is less than 5 seconds. This has been repeated many times in less than 2 days. I should take a hike to view the reservoir but just sitting and watching and listening to the Aspens in the wind is worth taking the time to do, it’s one of nature’s symphonies.





The hike to the reservoir overlook was rather short but a nice walk through the Aspens ending with a panoramic view of the nearby peaks. The plaque with the mountain heights reminded me just how high I am back in this wilderness.  While at the overlook a heard and saw black bears down along the reservoir shoreline. One was hollering and it sounded like a mother yelling at her kids. I decided to exit the area quickly and saw more deer on the walk and they were back thru my campsite again last night.

Aug 8

The drive to up thru the pass was quite nice and scenic and I threw in a short walk in a high meadow.




Tomorrow I’ll head over to Gunnison which is only about a 70 mile drive. It will be hard to leave Silver Jack, it’s so peaceful.

Aug 9 thru 12

I’m camping at North Bank CG, a National Forest site in the Taylor River Canyon a little northeast of Gunnison. The rock formations just UPHILL from the camper look like they will come tumbling down someday. When’s someday?




The Taylor River is dammed upstream from here at the head of the canyon forming a reservoir so I drove up. The road climbs from 8500 feet to over 10000 feet and then you reach the Taylor Dam and as the road turns you see the reservoir sitting in this huge valley and on the east and north sides of the valley are 12 to 14 thousand foot peaks. The valley sits above 10000 feet and the tree line ends not far up the surrounding mountains. It was an incredible site.




I had to drive around Gunnison some since I was there in the 90’s and I did a day trip to Crested Butte and walked the streets a bit and drove up Kebler Pass road to a lakeside campground at 10550 feet.  It looked great but there’s no way I can camp above 10000 feet, wish I could. The forests on the pass road looked beautiful.




While camped at North Bank I chatted with the campground hosts more than once. Jan and Everett are real nice folks from Ohio. As far as hosting goes they’ve got it tough. They are supplied no hookups. I enjoyed our conversations.

I did hike a bit of a trail right by my campsite. The trail was primarily setup for mountain bikes and was very steep as it rose toward the top of the canyon. The views were quite nice but I gave up after about ¾ mile as the trail was almost to the top but never seemed to reach the top.

August 13 & 14

Heading for Great Sand Dunes National Park about 130 miles to the southeast. The drive was on good road and part of the trip was over a 10000+ foot pass and for about 30 miles I didn’t see another car and there are no towns but lots of beautiful scenery. My campground goal is San Luis State Park about 10 miles from the National Park. I find the campground almost empty. It is nice to have electric and the views aren’t bad.




 Once the Sun set then the stars starting showing and it wasn’t long before the Milky Way stretched across the sky almost straight overhead with lightning in the background over the mountains. I knew the Persoids Meteor shower was occurring very soon but hadn’t been able to verify the date until I went to the National Park visitor center and learned that the peak had happened my last night near Gunnison. So I missed out on the meteors unless 1 small one counts. The sand dunes are a bit hard to believe and seem out of place. The story is that the mountain range immediately east of the dunes has a jog in it and the prevailing winds deposited sand, from the mountain range to the west, into that jog. Those same winds carried the sand up into the mountains but rain and snow melt washes it back down to the dune level and occasionally the winds blow from the east and move sand back into the dunes. So they don’t really change much in height or area. Their age is not clear. They are as high as 750 feet and are extremely impressive.





August 15

I’m heading a little further south then back west on Route 160 into southwestern Colorado. My goal is Vallecito Reservoir about 15 miles northeast of Durango. There are numerous National Forest CG’s along the reservoir and I was successful in getting a pretty good spot. I’ve got a nice view of the lake and it appears quite low. This campground is at 7800 feet and I’m affected by the altitude a little. It looks like I start having issues above 7000 feet and I’ve been at that altitude or higher for about 3 weeks and I can’t say I’m adjusting much. My original plan for this area was to go to a CG northwest of here near Silverton but I checked and found it sits at 9800 feet and I had to change plans.





August 16

Today is a stay in camp day since I had to move this morning less than 1000 feet due to not knowing the site I was originally in was reserved starting today. So I’m catching up on these entries. I’ve been getting lazy and letting it go and have some thoughts and ideas I ultimately forget and never relate here. I’m cooking a pork roast on the grill as I type and enjoying the temps. It gets to around 80 during the day and 50 at night…..just about right and very little humidity. My thoughts are starting to turn to home. It’s getting harder to enjoy the days with my traveling partner gone. We each needed a break from the other but that point has passed and I’ve still got 16 days to go.  I have been and still am quite comfortable living on the road like this and I think I could do it full time with some long stays mixed in. I’m planning on a little beachside camping near Pensacola on the way home to get back into a flatlander mood…LOL.

August 17

I’ve been anticipating a trip to Silverton, Colorado along with the drive. The road traverses two mountain passes over 10000 feet and the high country between them with the town nestled down in a valley.




Since I didn’t want to have too much excitement in one day I ended the day trip with a visit to the Laundromat, in Durango partner.

August 18 thru 20

It’s a short drive of around 65 miles to the next campground that happens to be in Mesa Verde National Park. There is one campground, Moorefield Village, and I remember it from our first visit to Mesa Verde and specifically the deer in the campground. There’s plenty still there.




One morning I saw one of the Fawns having breakfast compliments of Mom. My camera wasn’t close enough!

This is my third visit to Mesa Verde. I feel a connection to this place. I’m saving Monday for my “in the park” day. Monday is the day of a Pro bike tour race from Durango to Telluride and the road closures and traffic jams are something I want to avoid. So for Sunday I headed to Hovenweep National Monument west of Mesa Verde. It’s another collection of Pueblo architecture built of the edge of canyons.





I had never seen the area in Mesa Verde know as Long House so that’s where I’m headed. There is evidence of ancient people living in Mesa Verde starting around 1400 years ago and their community evolved and grew over a 750 year period. It was only in about the last 125 years of their community that they built dwellings down under the cliffs. It appears that in the early 1200’s they left the area and we aren’t sure why. Long House was very impressive, be sure and check out the additional photos I’ve uploaded into the online album.




August 21 thru 23

Time to turn back to the East and dip into New Mexico and end up somewhere near Santa Fe. The drive from southern Colorado into New Mexico was impressive. At one point the road tops a pass above 10000 feet and there was a lake and a National Forest campground that looked real nice and would have been cool but I knew I’d have trouble sleeping at that altitude. Then later you’re driving along a relatively flat landscape covered with sage brush and all of a sudden the bottom falls out it’s the Rio Grand river gorge.




 So I decided on a KOA in Santa Fe for the next 3 nights. I’ll watch some TV and use wifi. It’s a small campground but very well maintained and very quiet, my space is minimal but it is just fine. Old town Santa Fe was just a short drive and I took a walk around town and had a really really good Burrito from a small little shop. I’ve heard tons about TS Isaac and based on the Hurricane Centers forecast there is no sense in my heading east. My plan had been to be in Pensacola, soaking up rays on the beach, starting next Monday the 27th.



August 24 thru 27

Since heading east is a bad idea I’m going south to Carlsbad, New Mexico and revisit Carlsbad Caverns NP and checkout Guadalupe Mountains NP, a new one for me. I’m leaving cooler temps behind but I have to adjust at some point and if needed there are some cooler mountains not far away. I’ve got a nice campsite at Brantley Lake State Park just north of Carlsbad. The area is desert scrub at about 3500 feet and it was 97 at 4pm yesterday but I’ve got water and electric so I can run A/C during the hot day and open up the screens at night. The majority of the trip has been so cool at night that this is the first time I’ve unzipped to the screens around my bed for an entire evening. I was up around 3 am and went outside to checkout the stars since the moon had set and the Milky Way was shining brightly. The caverns at Carlsbad are so big it boggles the mind but they lack the smaller beauty and color variations that we saw in Lehman Caverns in Great Basin NP back in May. I had forgotten just how vast these caverns are.





The drive down to Guadalupe Mountains NP was scenic and the park itself is quite big but the majority is backcountry and access is by foot or horse. One of their areas is an old homestead from the early 1900’s with a spring that flows at 6 gallons a minute in an otherwise high desert landscape and it enabled the early settlers to grow a variety of vegetables that they could take to market via wagon.




August 28

 Given the latest info on Isaac it’s still too early for me to head east and I’m tired of the heat so I’m heading west to the mountain range just east of Alamagordo. They lie in the Lincoln National Forest and the Sunspot Solar Observatory is located here on the top of a peak that overlooks the State Park I stayed at in April in the 3rd week of this trip. In the picture below the April campground is at the bottom of the canyon you can see dropping off to the west.




The National Forest campground is nice, a big pull through site and we are around 8500 feet. I think I can handle 1 night of 8500 feet. As you drive west to here the land starts to rise and eventually you leave behind flat desert scrub and rolling hills give way to forested mountains as you climb from 3500 feet to about 10000 feet over the course of about 40 miles then just after climbing to about 10000 feet the mountains western edge drops to 4500 feet to a plateau in about 10 miles.

August 29 & 30

I reluctantly left the Cloudcroft area and headed east back thru Artesia, New Mexico. I would like to revisit this area someday. Immediately east of town, after driving by scores of oil rig support companies, I started passing oil rigs pumping away for as far as I could see on either side of the road. That lasted until western Texas. As usual I picked a county road over the nearby Interstate. My goal was just west of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. About 17 miles west of the town of Snyder, Tx fate had a different plan when my F150’s engine decided to spit out one of the sparkplugs. Must have tasted pretty bad!! At first I thought I’d blown another trailer tire since I heard a loud pop (the sparkplug being ejected) but not as loud as a tire usually is. As I slowed and pulled over I heard the machine gun of the engine due to the open sparkplug port. By chance a Texas DOT truck was driving by not even a minute after this happened and he pulled over to assist me. A few minutes later another DOT truck joined us. We found the sparkplug lying on the engine and tried to reinsert it but the treads were gone. As usual my cell phone was worthless but the DOT guys let me use theirs and I attempted to use my Allstate RV club to get a tow for the truck and trailer. I’ll be rethinking our relationship with Allstate after their failure to get me a tow. After waiting and at times being able to speak with Allstate for over 3 hours and being told they couldn’t obtain a vendor I finally decided I would run the engine and creep on the shoulder into the town of Snyder. I made it to town and found a little RV park and the folks found me  a spot knowing it may be awhile to get the truck fixed. Luckily the town has a Ford dealer and I spoke with them and arranged to get it in their shop the next morning. They are well versed in this problem and they attempt to tap the head where the plug was and insert a new sleeve to accept a spark plug. If this doesn’t work a new engine is the typical solution. Luckily they were able to put a sleeve in mine and got it done the same day for less than $400. Dodged a big one so far but it’s pretty hard to have much confidence in this engine now. I’ve put over 200K on engines many times yet I’ve never had anything like this happen and this engine has 117K on it. By the way 3 other cars pulled over to offer aid, 2 of them turned around to do so, when I was on the side of the road. Great folks in West Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      




Aug 30 & Sept 1

So I’m leaving Snyder and heading east and praying the engine holds to get us home with the intent to go to the northeast side of Dallas to a KOA where I can have internet and check road status to the east of me. In Snyder you can see a windmill generation farm to the east but as I drove southeast it continued and I passed over 1000 of those monster power windmills over the course of about 25 miles.

 So I’m typing live now and intend to leave here tomorrow morning and make it a long day if road and gas conditions allow. From the info I’ve found I-20 thru Louisiana and Mississippi look ok. I’ll post the grand finale from home next week. As I’ve headed toward home I’ve had mixed emotions about ending the odyssey. While I’ve seen so much there is so much more, an endless dose of America the Beautiful waiting for continued exploration. I will never get enough of seeing this country of ours and if my health and finances allow I will continue to dream big and plan grand adventures. Tonight is my 152nd consecutive night on the road and in that time we only had 6 nights in Hotels and 3 of those were the planned stay at the Palms Resort in Las
Vegas. The last Hotel night was the last week in May.  But I must admit the closer to home I get the more anxious I feel to be there.

I’m sitting outside right now and it is forecast to be 100 in Dallas. We’ve got a nice breeze but some significant humidity as well so this is part of my reintroduction to the Southeast. Kinda sucks! I’ll take 9000 feet thank you.

So stay tuned for my final entry and thanks for coming along, hope you liked the photos as much as I liked sharing them. As usual look for the new photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/103943218564105837637.
 New albums are titled:
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado
 Brantley Lake SP  New Mexico
Cloudcroft, New Mexico
Carlsbad Caverns NP, New Mexico
Gunnison_Crested Butte, Colorado
Hovenweep NM, Colorado
Mesa Verde NP,Colorado
San Luis SP New Mexico                                                                                 
Silver Jack CG, Colorado
Snyder , Texas
Vallecito Reservoir, Colorado

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