Exploring the West - A couple's 2 week travels through CO, UT, and AZ

[JamesDowning]

Introduction:

We just finished our first overland trip out west. We currently live in eastern Maryland, so the trip out there is a long one, but we really enjoyed our travels.

This wasn't a hardcore camping and off-roading trip. Remember, we did it as a couple, and wanted to remain that way after the trip, so we made sure to split things for her and myself. In total we did nearly 6000 miles, with approximately 120 hours in the seat over a 15 day period.

We took nearly 1400 pictures along the route, so it's been taking me a long time to go through all of the pictures, but I'm slowly getting there. I have the first few days written up already, so I'll post them immediately, but the remaining days will take a bit of time, and I cannot promise that progress will be fast, or even steady.

I figured I've enjoyed reading about so many other's adventures, I should try my hand at giving back to this excellent repository of stories and photos. So, here goes:

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My wife and I set out Friday, Sept 9th from Maryland. It will take us 3 days of driving to get to the mountains of Colorado, with 2 planned stops between MD and CO. The first in WV with family, the next in Topeka KS.

We headed out a bit early from work on Friday, and headed out under an ominous sky. We had packed the vehicle the previous day, and it was essentially ready and waiting to go. Those of you that have taken these types of trips before may know the same feeling when you finally set off. Sadly it isn't exactly elation... more of "did I remember everything?"... "what's that noise?"... "hmm, engine is a bit hotter than normal." My mind was running through everything that could go wrong. It took me a couple days to get out of that mindset, and really begin to enjoy the drive, and begin thinking about what we were getting ourselves into.



Soon after hitting the road, we hit the traffic that turned the 6 hour drive into an 8 hour drive. Not great when hitting the road at about 4pm, and getting up early the next morning.



During the remaining dark hours of the drive, we passed the "east coast continental divide". Max elevations were around 2800 feet. Sounds like nothing now that we've been through CO... but those inclines will certainly challenge any heavily laden vehicle. The Trailblazer got a bit hot, but it made it to our destination for the night without drama (I was glad I had installed the powered transmission cooler though).

After a restless night and a quick breakfast with the family, we headed off.

With a conventional road GPS, a laptop GPS, and a SPOT tracking our location, we headed off. We hadn't been past Kentucky by car before, so we were already venturing into new territory in our own minds. Below you can see the layout, including the dash cam setup on a suction mount (I'll do my best at getting some video from the camera up later, but that stuff takes more time than photos).



West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas... needed a rest stop in there somewhere... Here's your first peak at the vehicle we took. It's a mildly lifted Chevy Trailblazer. Unconventional I know, but it does well for our needs and parts are fairly cheap.



Mississippi River, and the St. Louis arch were basically the only notable location of the day.



We stayed at a fancy hotel that night to try to get more rest before the haul to Estes Park, CO for the next night.
Here's a look at the itinerary sheet... and me plugging it all into the GPSes for the day. Megan said she felt like she was navigator for the space shuttle or something with all the tracking systems we had. Maybe it was overkill for much of this trip, but there were times when it was certainly nice to have each item.



Today was also the 10th anniversary of 9-11. I thought it was incredible that even though we were in the middle of nowhere, Kansas, that every single overpass had people or firemen hanging out, waving flags, showing their support for this country. Even though there were no skyscrapers nearby, people didn't forget, and gave their time to show their support. At one overpass there was a single motionless fireman in full turnout gear, holding a flag. That single image was quite powerful and will probably stay in my mind just as some of the other images from 9-11 will.



The rest of the drive was very uneventful. If you've never been through Kansas, it is actually very beautiful, but in it's own unique way. However, the beauty doesn't really carry through the entire 8 hour drive to Denver... at a certain point you just want out... your foot presses on the gas, and the fuel economy goes out the window.



Once we got to Denver, we quickly found a good local food joint and chowed down. This was a place called "Jack-n-grill". Nice fresh Mexican food... if anyone's in the area, we surely enjoyed it. We actually found it via the Food Network's website... seems a couple of their shows have featured the joint.



The last leg of the drive was the prettiest. It took us from approximately 5k feet to 7.5k feet in Estes Park. Much of the drive was in the dark, but we still enjoyed our first taste of the Rockies, and made us look forward to the next day, which would be the first with any time off pavement. The air cooled down, we rolled down the windows and let the smooth mountain air circle around us while we pressed on.



Here's a collage of videos from the dash cam, giving you a peek into our travel for the first few days:

[JamesDowning]

The next day started with a surprising view of the Rockies from our room. Since we had arrived at night, we had no idea what the surroundings may be.



Driving out through Estes Park gave us a nice view towards the Rocky Mountain National Park, which we would be traversing today. This photo makes me want to own one of those homes on the hill in the foreground. Looks like a nice place.



My wife started getting worried about the possibility of high altitude sickness. So she was sure to read up on it. However, since we were going up a one way road, the only possible direction would be up.



At the entrance to the park, we actually opted for one of the annual national park passes, since we would be heading into a few during our trip. It may have saved us $5 during the trip, but it is good for a whole year, so we'll probably get more use out of it.



Every view in the park was extraordinary.



A nice side attraction was the "alluvial fan" that was caused by a dam breach some time ago. Makes for some nice pictures at least!



We took a turn up the Old Fall River Road. This road is a fairly well maintained and well traveled one-way dirt road. Nothing difficult or technical about this road. Heck, there were passenger cars on the road! Still, I can't imagine their ride was very smooth or relaxing, when compared to us. A few nice switchbacks, and some good cliffs. My wife is very afraid of heights, so I felt this road would be a good introduction into the rest of the trip. I figure if she can handle this road, she should be able to adjust to the rest of the trip in time. The road didn't really have any negative effects on her, and she still says this was one of the highlights of our trip in her mind. We sat back, turned on some classical music, and drank in the views.



The views were stunning as we climbed from what appeared to be a glacial valley up into the alpine meadows. I'm going to let some of the pictures speak for themselves.











Some decent heights involved, but nothing too bad.

Here we are with "Coop". During this trip the wife named the trailblazer. In the past I've been a bit wary of naming a vehicle... but since we were really depending on him for this trip, it just felt right. It really brings the vehicle alive, and I think even Megan grew some new affinity for ol' Coop.





Spot the Elk below. He was about 100 feet away, 12 points on his rack. Beautiful animal. He was just sitting there looking around, seemingly enjoying the weather and surroundings as much as we were.



Here's a rough panorama of the area... the alpine bowl was a pretty neat surrounding, especially when you're from the East.



The wife and the truck... a man's gotta be proud of a picture like this.



Once we got to the top, we were at approximately 11,500 feet. No altitude sickness, just a big sky and incredible views in every direction.



Poudre Lake.



The official sign for the continental divide. It's all downhill from here!



We took a short side trail to the "Head of the Colorado River". Little did we realize we would be loosely following this river for the next few days. A few times during the next week we thought back and remembered that whatever we were looking at essentially started right here...



A couple that was also exploring the nearby area then hurried over and said "we think we saw something over here". What was it?!



We finally hunted down the creature in the thick underbrush. Just a female Elk eating some lunch. Kinda neat seeing her in her own domain.



Continued...

[JamesDowning]

More incredible views as we slowly meandered back toward I-70.







On the interstate heading further west... I had a great day, so I spent some quality time hanging out the window snapping shots of stuff. Some were rather ridiculous, so I'll omit them here. Here are some of the more interesting ones. I-70 drops through some very rough terrain, following our friend the Colorado river down towards the reddish rock of western CO.







We made some good time and distance that day (would have been better if we didn't take a 40 minute detour [wrong turn] past Kremmling). Tomorrow we finally get to take a more relaxed pace, enter Utah, and camp.

Video for the day:

[Blain]

Awesome pictures! Blazer looks awesome!!!!

[mph]

Looks like you are having fun! What kind of roof tent do you have?

[JamesDowning]

Probably not one you'd recognize. Made it in my garage specifically for this trip. I'll try to get more into it later, but most of the details are documented in my build thread.

[4x4x4doors]

James,

Excellent! Looking forward to every detail you're willing to share. I know you've been working towards this trip for a while.

Subscribed.

[tanglefoot]

Great report! I just just North of Denver and was in Rocky Mountain park two weeks ago. It's a great time to be there, with the leaves starting to change and all of the elk (and human) activity. I really like the Glenwood Canyon drive as well. I got to take the tour of that long tunnel before it opened--it seems even longer when you're walking through it. I couldn't believe the control room for that tunnel--it looks like mission control.

[BIGGUY]

Nice! I've wondered what that area looked like in the park. Now I have to add it to the list of places I want/need to go.

[JamesDowning]

The next day (the 13th), we headed into Utah and took a back way into Moab. It finally gave us a taste of the red rocks that we had been so looking forward to. It wasn't an off-road route, but it was very scenic. A good way to immerse yourself into this alien land.







Again, we realized we were following the Colorado River, hello old friend.



We pulled off a few times just to enjoy the weather and the serenity of the area. Only the occasional passing car broke the silence.



I saw a few trails I wanted to explore, but I wanted to make sure Megan had some time to explore Moab before we had to head off to camp.



Didn't see many animals, a few lizards and ravens. I guess that's par for the course.



The blue of the sky, the orange of the rocks, and the green of the plants really made for a neat color pallet.



We continued on to Moab, checked out some of the vendors, and grabbed lunch at the Moab Diner. I'm really digging anything with the green chillies in it. Solid meal there, and we got the impression that the employees really took pride in their jobs. Nice to see that, coming from Baltimore.



We had a few options at this point. We could go north to Canyonlands. I had originally reserved a campsite near the northwest side of the white rim trail. I had planned to do a simple out-and-back drive up Mineral Canyon Road, and take the less crazy switchbacks in and out (to try and keep my wife sane (remember, she hates heights)). However, that campsite had been washed away recently and the white rim trail in that area was underwater. The rangers had been kind enough to give me another campsite, but the only way in now was via the Shafer Trail switchbacks. So we had a contingency of heading out to Beef Basin area.

As we were heading south towards Monticello, we looked out towards the Abajo Mountains and saw them wrapped in rain. I had heard that the Beef Basin trail was considered impassible when wet, so I got a bit worried. We quickly stopped along the road while we still had service and I tethered to the laptop. The radar showed the large storm over the mountains, but it didn't look like it would get as far north as Beef Basin. So we pressed on.



Newspaper rock was very neat... it was fun trying to decipher some of the images. Some of the beastly characters were especially interesting. I'm guessing they are some sort of personification of a buffalo, elk, and other animals? Interesting how some of them are drawn on all fours, and others standing.



I especially like the stick turtle.



On to the basin! The road was good, the tunes were good, and the views were stimulating. We checked out a few possible campsites, but kept going, figuring we could find something better.



Megan found the wildflowers fascinating. The splashes of yellow really lit up some areas.



The valley between the mesas was incredible. The view down the corridor was stimulating as we slowly watched the road pass. We got out numerous times to snap photos of things. Glad I brought the tripod.



We were making good time and almost passed up a small side trail. We decided to turn around and inspect it, and wow, what a view!



We decided to pitch camp here for the night, under the friendly face of the Bridger Jack Mesa.



The site was perched at the edge of a little 200 foot deep valley. The light from the setting sun on the rocks made for some nice photos.



Since we were still full from the meal at the diner, we had some simple snacks, enjoyed the views, and read a bit before dark.





Although the moon obscured the stars a bit, the light was just enough to get a nice shot of Cathedral Butte (the right one) and some stars before retiring for the night.



One surprising thing about this campsite was the stillness. Air wasn't moving at all when we went to bed. The silence screamed in my ears... I wasn't used to this at all. My ears strained to hear anything, and thus amplified every little rustle. It had been a year or so since I had last camped. Just to get some sleep, I had to pull out my tent fan and turn it on high. It got cold fast that night, but we found the tent mattress to be fairly comfortable (better than some hotel beds at least), and we zipped the sleeping bags together for warmth. We fell asleep to the drone of the fan, and the gentle glow of the moon.

Video for the day: