New Frontier RV Park - Winnemucca NV

Today, we're headed another 165 miles west to the New Frontier RV Park in Winnemucca NV. We're making good progress; we will make it back to Sacramento by November!

Along the way, we did run into one small oops "you were supposed to remind me we needed gas" moment about a mile and a half from Battle Mountain and the next gas station... It's a good thing we tow...

This was enough...

...to get us here.

You know how you can look back at some adventures (sometimes mishaps) and laugh... well we weren't to that point yet!

We finally make it to the New Frontier RV park. It's a large park, but not many campers were there, which was nice. Note for future reference: The park was clean, and the price was great too.

Loved the pull-throughs! They were exceptionally long. It was nice that there was also a roadhouse restaurant within walking distance, so we didn't have a need to unhook the toad.

Welcome Station RV Park - Wells NV

Just a short jaunt today, about 75 miles westward to the Welcome Station RV Park in Wells, Nevada.

With the trees and grass, it's an oasis in the Nevada desert and looks idyllic and peaceful. However, it's just off the highway, so not very quiet. The park itself is small with only a few full hook-up sites and no amenities. It's not in town, but a good layover on our way home!

Cattle ranch at the back of the RV park

Full hook-up site were not all level. We had to ask for another site.

Bonneville Salt Flats

Homeward bound...~170 miles west, are the Bonneville Salt Flats. There's BLM land just north of the Flats where we'll stop for the night. As we make our way off Leppy Pass Rd, we only pass one other occupied campsite. Looks like we'll have our pick of any site. Before we arrived, we saw pictures of people boondocking in the area. They had margarita glasses rimmed with salt from the flats, so we thought the campsite would be on the flats themselves. It wasn't, which, as it turns out, was probably a good thing.

We found a nice spot behind a rock outcropping. Across the road were some rocky hill just waiting to be climbed, and Tom and Tank were more than willing to oblige.

There were no people, dogs, or cars around for miles, so while we were here, we let Tank have his freedom.

He took full advantage of this, disappearing for long stretches of time. His coloration was perfect for blending into the dirt, rocks, and brush, so at times, we did get a little worried, but he always returned a tired but happy pup.

The next day, we stopped at the Speedway on the way out. There was still water covering parts of the flats. When things dry out in the summer, the BLM prepares the salt flats to be used for speed racing. Despite the water, we did pass lots of tire tracks in the salt along the way.

The salt flats are actually very pretty to look at; the water is very blue and the salt sparkles in the sunlight. Because of how pretty it is, it was surprising to read about how harsh crossing the salt flats were for the pioneers and their animals. Crossing the salt flats was one of the obstacles that made the Donner Party late for crossing the Sierras.

Tank further confirmed the harshness of the flats by starting to limp almost as soon as he stepped out on the salt (he had run all over kingdom come the day before, until his paws were raw). Not to worry, we got him off the salt and washed off his paws asap. So in retrospect, it was good that our campsite was on dirt, not salt.

Mountain Valley RV Resort - Heber City UT

Next stop? Heber City, 223 miles northwest of Moab, nestled in Utah's Heber Valley between Sundance and Park City. It's a small town, population right around 11,000. The Wasatch Mountains on the northwest separate it from Salt Lake City. I gotta admit, I've been looking forward to this area. A couple of years ago, I saw a TV show that featured homes in Park City, which is not far from Heber City. The skies were so amazingly blue, I was looking forward to coming to Utah and seeing for myself.

We're staying at Mountain Valley RV Resort, which is located slightly south of town. It's a pretty nice place, well-kept with great views of the Wasatch Mountains. Nice laundry room (one of my favorite amenities) and they have a couple of dog runs. One's pretty large, which makes Tank happy, and has a nice green, mowed lawn with no mud holes, which makes me happy (have I mentioned that Tank loves to run through mud?) Cell signal was good, which was nice because we were finally able to get on the internet and make arrangements to store the RV while we are in Mexico. Let me tell you that finding short-term storage for an RV is no easy feat!

Look at the sky!

Scouted out some homes for sale while we were in the area. This is not the place that you will find a cozy home to retire in. Houses around here are meant for BIG families (seemed to average 3000+ sq ft). Someone recommended the town of Midway about a half a mile west of Heber City. There's some nice biking roads between the two towns. The homes in Midway were on more acreage, had a good little more upscale county home feel to it.

Took a short trip north to visit Park City UT (my dream blue sky town). Park City is a very popular ski area, but no snow right now. As for the town, it's a lot of condos all close together. Sunday downtown in the off season is pretty empty.

Moab UT

Our calendar tells us we have to move on if we want to see any of Utah before we head home. We drive 178 northwest to reach our next destination, Moab Utah. The drive into Utah has some pretty interesting rock formations. Utah's nickname is the beehive state. This formation looks like a beehive to me, but we're told it's called Church Rock.










Once we reach Moab, we check out Yellow Circle dispersed camping, the ACT Campground and Environmental Learning Center, and the Sand Flats Recreation Area campground, none of which have much of a view. So we take the long, dusty, bumpy drive to the Willow Springs Trail, which is known as a popular dispersed camping area.

Very popular; felt like being in a campground...

A view of the line to get in (after we had gotten in)

Our retirement life philosophy seems to have become: "we'll get there when we get there", and we don't let common sense (like getting started early to beat the crowds and enjoy the cool morning) intrude on our days. As usual, we weren't in any big hurry to get going (aka slothlike). Arches was about a twenty minute drive from our camping spot. By the time we got there, there was a pretty long line to get into the park. It took about 1/2 hour to file into the park. We were surprised by the number of people visiting the park, especially since summer vacation was over, and most kids were back in school. Once we got thru the entrance, the traffic thinned out and the crowds were not that bad.

Our first stop was at Balanced Rock. There was a nice easy trail that circled the rock, so you could get up close and personal with it and see it from a 360 degree perspective.

We then continue north up to the Devils Garden area. This area has a campground, which was closed due to road improvements that affected the entire park. All park visitors had to be out of the park by 7 pm each evening, but I digress. The Devils Garden area is home to a number of rock formations, among them are: Tunnel, Pine Tree, Landscape, Partition, Navajo as well as others. 

Tunnel Arch

Landscape Arch

We spend a good deal of time there hiking up and around many of the arches before moving on.

Pine Tree Arch

Navajo Arch

From there we head over to the east side of the park to see Delicate Arch, which is the iconic picture you always see as the symbol of Arches National park. I'm not going to show a picture of it, since we decided not to take the trail to it and have only distant viewpoint pictures. 

On Wendy's insistence (this time), we have one more area to view which is on the east side of the park called the Windows Section. In that area you can see: the Parade of Elephants, North an South Windows, and Turret arches, just to name a few.

The sun was going down and we needed to start heading for the park exit and back to camp.

Durango CO

Heading 45 miles east for one more stop in Colorado, Durango. I'm assuming that we're heading farther into the desert, but as we drive, the trees start to reappear. As it turns out, Durango is a pretty Colorado town down (as in lower in altitude) at the southern end of Hwy 550 (the Million Dollar Highway)...

We're staying at Alpen Rose RV Park. It's got lots of trees with golden leaves and is wonderfully empty because it's getting ready to close for the season at the end of the month.

The best part for Tank is their 2 acre dog run. Tank loves it! He sprints from one end to the other every time he visits.

Downtown Durango has a comfortable, homey feel. It has lots of eateries and is lively at night. It has some pretty terrific things, one being delicious Tibetan, Nepalese, and Indian food at the Himalayan Kitchen...I never knew home made naan was soooo heavenly...

Sherpa Stew (a lamb and chicken curry stew)

Daal Bhaat Masu (lentil soup, two curries, yogurt, cucumber, and basmati rice)

another is Southwest Sound, a little music store that had a lot of oldie CDs for Wendy.

For Tom, Durango proved to be a pickleball mecca. According to Tom, they have a couple of ex-professional tennis players who are are 5.0 ranked pickleball players, (Tom readily admits to have received a sound whuppin). All in all though, very good competition there . So, of course, we had to spend a couple of extra days there.

Mesa Verde National Park

Next stop...Mesa Verde National Park, 129 miles southwest of Ouray, which takes us out of the San Juan Mountains and National Forest and into the Colorado desert. Although we do not take the Million Dollar Hwy, the drive is still spectacular. The back way takes us back through Ridgway and around towards Telluride.

We pulled off the road and had a nice little lunch stop by a river

We are staying at Morefield Campground in Mesa Verde National Park. It's a 10 mile drive up the mesa from the park entrance to the campground.

The next day, we do the 700 Years tour. The tour is a historical overview of the Ancestral Puebloans and includes visits to pithouses and cliff dwellings. These Native Americans existed peacefully here for around 700 years without the same benefits and technology we have today. As a nation, we've only made it a little past 200 years. We could probably learn a lot from them.


















I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but viewing the cliff dwelling from across the valley, they were amazing!

But nothing compared to climbing up, down and through the Balcony House.

The chance to tour Balcony House made it an exciting and thoroughly enjoyable tour.

Ouray CO

We're heading south (all of 18.5 miles) to the town of Ouray, our next stop. Ouray in southwest Colorado is tucked into a narrow valley surrounded by the San  Juan Mountains and National Forest. It is a quaint little town with a population of about 1000 and an elevation of 7800'. For those of you (like me) who have never heard of Ouray, it is known as the Switzerland of America. Our friends, Josh and Kristen (whom we met way back in June in Rainer OR) recommended that we come here to see the fall colors.







Our first evening, we decided to inject some money into the local economy by enjoy a few beverages at Ouray Brewery. They have seating on the roof where you can quench your thirst and watch the world go by below you.

After quenching our thirst, we move on to a the corner restaurant for a dinner of authentic coconut curry soup, chicken in peanut sauce and Pad Thai. Yummy and very reasonably priced. 

While there, we do a four wheel drive trip in the mountains 

taking in sites like old silver mines, some of which, sadly are now being cleaned up by the EPA because of arsenic and various other chemical leaching into the soil and water table.

Imogene Pass

and Yankee Boy Basin

before heading back to Ouray.

One of the other things Ouray is known for is ice climbing. Each year, the town creates the Ouray Ice Park in the Uncompahgre Gorge by spraying water down the canyon walls. This is the venue where they host the Ouray Ice Festival. It was a little too warm to start building the ice falls when we passed by on our four wheel drive trip. 

Can you imagine this canyon filled with ice falls?

As beautiful as it was during the day up in the mountains, a cold front was moving in and our next day was a snow day. 

We (okay maybe Tom) were planning on taking Hwy 550 (aka the Million Dollar Hwy) to Mesa Verde, but this section of Hwy has been named to the USA Today's list of 'Worlds Most Dangerous Roads'. With the snow and ice left from the storm the day before, we decide "discretion is the better part of valor," and we take an alternate route to Mesa Verde National Park... Maybe next time?