I'll Take a Pass

We are on our third day of travel since leaving Aztec, and this is my first opportunity to sit down with a good signal and write a blog post. We did leave on Friday, and made our way to Fruita, Colorado along US 550, the million dollar highway, through Silverton, CO. It has been a few years since we drove the full length of this road, and it is a bit stunning to see it again. Silverton was blocked off with a row of traffic cones; the city did not want any corona virus visitors!

Russ' middle brother wins Mother's Day.

This arrived the morning we left.

The R-Pod on Molas Pass.

The view from Molas Pass facing North.

Silverton, CO from above.

From our lunch spot near Red Mountain Pass

The bag of chips is so puffed up at the altitude,

we were nervous about opening it.

We drove over so many mountain passes, I've not kept track of them all. We stayed our first night on the return trip in an RV park we've visited before, Monument RV Resort in Fruita, CO. Last time we were here, we were able to spend a day at the Colorado National Monument, but alas it is now closed for COVID-19. We did manage to cross the street to the Colorado River State Park. We skipped it last time, so this was a treat. We walked the Little Salt Wash Trail.

The sign says it all.

You can see the edge of the Colorado National Monument

in the red rocks on the far left across the river.

Russ on the riverbank.

This was a paradise for geese. We saw several pairs with goslings.

As we left the next morning, we continued north towards Dinosaur, which entails climbing over more mountain passes. I didn't even document the first one, but I did fully record Douglas Pass. The last time we made this trip, we were towing the R-Pod with our old Subaru Outback, and we almost stalled out on Douglas Pass. I'm pleased to report we had no such trouble with the Toyota.

You can see the road up the pass as the top of the lighter color.

From the top of Douglas Pass looking back to the south.

We ate lunch here at Canyon Pintado after descending from the pass.

We stayed the night at the BLM White Mountain Road Dispersed Camping Area. It will be my favorite all time camping spot. The views over Green River, Wyoming and the Green River canyon were so amazing, the photos will never show the scale of the place. The area is known for having herds of wild horses roaming everywhere, but we did not see them. We did get one neighbor RV couple, they travel full time and are also retired. They were really quite nice and considerate too. They didn't run their generator, since we were there. They planned to stay for more than one night.

Russ takes in the view with his camera.

This was our view from our door. The city of Green River

is out of view to the right of the frame.

Happy hour with a stellar view.

Our camping spot. We left the truck hitched up.

Today our road took us toward Jackson, Wyoming, but we turned off on US 26 before we got to the Tetons. We went over the Salt River Pass on our way to Idaho Falls, Idaho. We ate lunch at a nature reserve viewpoint in Star Valley, but the whole of the trip was through mostly agricultural areas that were nestled between peaks and looked inviting. We also saw the Palisades Dam and reservoir on the Snake River.

Sorry the sign has a great map that doesn't show well.

Salt River Pass view,

The lake behind these aspens is the Palisades Reservoir.

The Snake River near Idaho Falls, ID.

The sign at our RV Park

We are now ready to eat dinner and rest up for our adventure tomorrow. It's too bad we can't explore locally, since we've never spent time in Idaho Falls, only driven through on the interstate.