Another one of THOSE days on the way to Colorado National Monument

Friday August 22 & Saturday August 23, 2014
Saddlehorn Campground Colorado National Monument
Fruita, Colorado

 

 

**   First off, I must apologize to those great guessers in my West Side of Rocky Mountains post.  Jodee Gravel of On The Road Abode wins the non-prize for knowing what both of the gadgets were. 

The first is a crumb scraper.  Congrats to Jodee who was first to identify it. She also knew that the second was a traveling egg crate.  If you have to pick up or deliver eggs in a buckboard, you’d need some springs to protect them.  Isn’t it great!!   S

Second right guess is Laurel of Raven and Chickadee and third is Pam of Nomadic Newfies.  Thanks so much for your guesses.  And I’m so sorry I forgot to put the answers in my last post. 

We have just left Capitol Reef National Park where there is no internet for over 11 miles.  Even with our booster there just isn’t a signal to boost.  I’ll still be writing about our summer at Christmas at this rate.

 

Back to Friday and leaving Rocky Mountain National Park….

 

 

 

David wants to make one last stop at the Donut Haus before leaving Rocky Mountain National Park so he is up uncharacteristically early and says when he arrives at 6:30 there are 5 cars in the parking lot.

But he is able to bring back the goodies.  One chocolate donut and one coconut donut are missing from this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On his way back he finds a herd of elk in the Moraine Park along the campground road. I’ve never seen so many elk in one place at one time.   It is so nice of them to give us one last look and this time at the huge herd.

 

 

 

 

I know, lots of elk pictures but I think these may be it for a long while.

 

 

 

 

Notice how close the elk are to Ruby.  They don’t seem to give a fig about her or us.

 

 

 

We are making two stops on our way; one goes great, the other is Camping World.

 

When we leave the campground, we are driving separately again partly because of the Rocky Mountains and partly for efficiency.  I’m going to stop in Boulder at the Whole Foods while David goes on with Winnona to Camping World in Golden Colorado to get a new toilet.  This one hasn’t been holding water for a while.  We’ve replaced a number of things and I’m tired of throwing money and time at it so we’ve called Camping World and been told they have what we need.

The trip to Whole Foods goes swimmingly.  It’s the biggest nicest Whole Foods I’ve ever seen.  Lucky Boulder.  It has everything and more.

Camping World, not so much.  We get there and they don’t have what they said they had.  We need a left pedal, they only have a right pedal.  We need one that has a hose hook up, that’s an extra adapter kit which of course they don’t sell.  I say just forget it and keep the one we’ve got which works ok, it just doesn’t hold water.  We’ll get one some other place.  David says all Camping World’s are alike, they tell you anything to get you in the store.  So, he buys the toilet and says.  we’ll figure out how to make it work.

 

 

I don’t think they are Irish but they call it River Dance.

 

 

We are spending the night at River Dance RV Park just off of I-70 in Gypsum, Colorado.  It’s an extremely nice overnight campground.  A bit pricey for us.  FHU $35.71 with Good Sam discount.  Immaculate laundry and bath house. Nice large sites in the shape of an H with parking for the RV in the long arm and the car in the short one.  Ruby is parked behind the bush at the end of the picnic table. We’ve become more inclined to do an overnight in FHU between boondocking spots.  We can do laundry, take showers, vacuum the carpets and all those things I don’t do if I am using the solar and LP for long periods. 

 

 

 

 

David and Winnona have a mishap.

 

 

I get there ahead of David who has had a problem in a traffic circle.   He is in the circle.  A woman enters the circle at a yield sign and hits Winnona in the front fender.  The woman jumps out of her car and is talking on her cell phone before David even knows what happened.  She called her husband who tells her to call the police.  She does and tells them she was rear ended.  WHAT?  The officer comes and can clearly see that isn’t the case.  He says the damage to each vehicle is less than $1000 so he isn’t going to write it up.  David reports that her vehicle had so much prior damage that you couldn’t even tell there had been an accident.  When I look at Winnona I see the other woman’s pain and a clear large crack in Winnona’s bumper.  For us this will not be a less than $1000 fix.  The policeman obviously doesn’t know about fiberglass RVs.  I would like to take a moment here to ask,  what happened to real bumpers that actually protected you from “bumps”?  Bumpers that were metal and useful not just decorative. 

So we’ll be out the deductible for this accident that was not David’s fault.   How could she not see Winnona?  Or was she thinking she could “squeeze” in rather than wait?  David says there was no one else in the circle and she came out of nowhere.

It begins to rain.  Only the duckies are happy about this.

 

 

 

SATURDAY

 

We continue on to Fruita Colorado and Colorado National Monument.  The entire trip is on I 70.  It spits rain off and on and pours down to almost invisibility at one point.  Even though it is dark and dreary, this is an eye popping drive. 

Those of you who have made this trip will understand what I mean.   The scenery is drop dead gorgeous.  All I can keep thinking is what a shame to have people driving so fast through this gorgeous place and along the Colorado River.  How could anyone ever hike through here and enjoy this glory with the sounds of interstate traffic.  Such a shame to ruin this amazing place.

But it gets me where I need to go and I’m sure the rest of the folks on the road feel the same way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 130 miles, I arrive at exit 19 and turn left to enter the monument. 

I climb climb. climb through amazing beauty on a road too narrow and curvy for pictures.   I arrive at the turn to the campground and there is the formation known as Saddlehorn.  The campground sits just beyond it and is named for it.

 

 

 

 

 

While I wait for David and Winnona, I go over to the visitor center to pick up some information.  I get hiking information and find out about the programs and that there is a film.  But the most amazing things here are the views.  There is back porch to the center and it has chairs for just sitting to take it all in.

 

 

 

This isn’t a framed panorama or a glassed in view, this is outdoors in real time.

 

 

 

 

David and Winnona have to drive down the middle of two short tunnels to get to the campground.

 

 

The drive up to the campground is spectacular.  it goes up and up and around and around on the edge of the gorgeous formation.  Not sure I’d want to be driving Winnona especially through the two short tunnels where the height is 11’4”.  When I see this I ask the rangers and they say “oh just drive down the middle”.  So I call David and tell him.  No charge like at Zion.  No traffic to stop since they are short tunnels and everyone can see everyone coming and going.

 

David arrives and tells me no one was in either tunnel.  After looking over the sites which will fit Winnona and looking at the few of those that are anywhere near level we get Winnona and Ruby settled into site 20, a nice pull through.  No need to remove the dolly.  $20 a night or half of that with a senior pass.  Nice restrooms, no showers, no water take on, no dump site.  Be prepared if you come here.   But it’s a beautiful campground and a beautiful National Monument.

 

After dinner we go over to the visitor center where behind it the Canyon Rim Trail begins and runs along the rim of colorful wedding canyon for about a mile. 

 

 

The rim walk itself is beautiful and the views of the canyon are extraordinary as the sun sinks lower and shines on the features.

 

 

 

Isn’t it just amazing how this little canyon wren seems to have the same colors as the rock on which I see her?  The beauty here is just everywhere you look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We watch the sun drop lower and lower.  What a great time of day to be taking this hike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the sun down and the sky beginning to color the canyon takes on an ethereal look that almost seems unreal.

 

 

 

It is beginning to look like a painting.  I did nothing to these photographs.

 

 

 

 

 

The end of the hike brings us to just below Books Cliffs View where there is a small shelter open to the view.  We look up and see that a ranger is doing a program.  We climb up  to find out what it’s about.

 

 

Lucky for us it is all about the geology that has made these amazing formations.   What a classroom he has for explaining the layers.   You can see the chart in the lower left but he can point out and show us just where the kayenta, wingate, chinle, and morrison layers are.

 

 

By the time we leave to walk back to the campground it is nearly dark.  Luckily we can walk the road.   Along the way we pass around the saddlehorn and I get this picture of it silhouetted in the night sky.   We’re certainly going to have a beautiful few days here.