Moved to Rawlins, Wyoming

Yesterday we were on the road by 8:15am. knowing we had a very long day ahead of us.  We drugged up Buddy (boy, I hate doing that) and Pache took care of him, tucking him into the back hiding spot that Buddy likes to go to.  Pache stayed with him for about 4 hours.  Good boy.

Moab, Utah is near those LaSal Mountains in distance, headed there

Interesting place, stories it could tell

Abajos Mountains - in Utah, we could see these from Dolores

Dropping down into the Canyonlands and Moab

Church Rock 

Looked like a blob of stone

Wilson Arch

We wanted to put a lot of distance behind us, trying to get more north and then east.  Only problem was that there are no interstate highways from Dolores, Colorado to any of the larger cities in Wyoming such as Laramie, Rawlins, or Cheyenne.  Just have to wiggle back and forth on roads.

Moab, the ATV/UTV capital of the world

First went north west out of Dolores, the LaSal Mountains in the horizon was our marker for getting to Moab, Utah.  Passed through Moab and when we got to the Arches National Park entrance - was backed up, looked like hours of wait.  Wow.  Continued on till we came to Interstate 70 and headed east.  Got back into Colorado, headed to Rifle and then took backroads north along the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.  Into Craig, then continued north.  Crossed into Wyoming and then got to Interstate 80 and headed east to Rawlins.  Long long day.  By the time we pulled into Rawlins, we had gone 484 miles, the farthest we have ever done in one day.

Crossed the Colorado River in Moab 

Long, long lines of traffic to get into Arches NP

The red rock is stunning

And back into Colorado

Interstate 70 follows the Colorado River for many miles

Jumping on to Interstate 70

Many vineyards in Craig

Colorado River

We had stopped in Craig, Colorado to tank up and decided to disconnect the car.  I drove the car around the town for about 5 minutes, enough time for Dave to gas up the RV, came back and hooked up the car and ran it through it's pre-towing procedures, then off we went.  We are not supposed to have to car hooked to the RV for more than 8 hours.  So, when we stopped we had already gone 6 hours.  Bought us lots of time to continue on.

Climbed up and over 3 passes while in Rockies

Dodged rain storms all day, just spitted on the windows a couple of times.  We could see that rain had just fallen in many places, lots of standing water.  The RV did great, as well as our 2 furry kids.  Had to really watch for the pronghorn - they were just waking up and many of them along the road.  

Weird stones - looked like dinasour backbones 

We see you and all your buddies!

We climbed up and over 3 passes while traveling in Colorado.  And crossed the Continental Divide 2 times of which are near here to Rawlins, and crossed the Immigrant trail near Rawlins at Separation Peak.  In the east we can see the Laramie Mountains which are snow covered.  Very desolate but pretty scenery.  Today we are exhausted.  We will stay here until Friday morning and then head on Interstate 80 until we get somewhere near the middle of Nebraska.  About 400 miles closer.

Quick Hike at Lizard Head Wilderness Area

We drove back up into the Rockies yesterday, looking for the Lizard Head Pass Wilderness Area that we had stopped at a week ago, it was totally snow covered then and very cold.  This time much of the snow has melted and even though it was a bit muddy and soggy in places, we decided to do a small hike - not far - but to get out and enjoy the wonderful day.

Two hikers coming down

Spring is creeping up the mountain, the buds on the trees we saw a week ago are now small leaves and where there were no buds, now there is.  Only wildlife we saw was a marmot scurrying across the road, thankfully it did not become roadkill.  Saw - we think - moose or elk scat, deer scat, tracks of very large animals, again we think moose.  We understand that the whole area we are in has a population of bear, elk, moose, mountain lion, deer, and scores of other small animals.  It being the middle of the day, all of these guys were hiding from us.

Turned around to look down to where car is

That weird spiky thing on mountain - Lizard Head Peak

Snow melt everywhere you look, creates fast running water

Lizard Head Peak - weird looking 

Three waterfalls here

The tinkling of the water as it melts and runs down - restful

We were hiking at about 10,500 feet or higher, took our time, walked for about an hour up into the trail and then came back down.  We feel that in another week the wildflowers will be out in their glory.

We are not sure what this is - looks like burrows of moles?

Lizard Head Peak is not a fourteener, but it is still tall!

Last look at Sheep Mountain, driving back down to Dolores

Today we do our cleanup, get ready to head out tomorrow morning for Rawlins, Wyoming.  We won't stay as long, just enough to catch our breath after the 400 plus miles we will need to go to get there.

Mancos State Park

We wanted to do a little hiking yesterday, so we drove over to Mancos State Park, about 20 miles south east of us.  This park is very small but a quiet getaway for those craving the solitude.  In 1948 the Corp of Engineers built the Jackson Gulch Dam to assist those farmers and ranchers in the Mancos Valley with water conservation.  Not sure how deep the lake is but the dam is 180 feet tall.

Water quite high

Drove around the lake to the end of the dirt road, past primitive campsites of which a couple were in use, and parked the car.  Changed into hiking gear and off we went.  If we hiked all around the lake back to the car, it would have been a 5 mile hike.  However, we only did about 2 miles of hiking.  The altitude is continually kicking our butts.

Some of the trail was right against the water

This little bridge spanned the Mancos Creek

Fishing people tucked into little jetties of land

Mr and Mrs and baby Geeses

Pretty lake, some gorgeous homes tucked up onto the hillside surrounding the lake.  Saw Canadian geese with their babies, 2 elusive deer grazing just out of our camera lens, a boater out in the lake - bet it was chilly - the air temperature was about 68.  But the sun was blazing away on the water.  With the snow melt, the lake's level was up and some trees were under water.  Lupine was in full bloom everywhere we looked.

Very pretty purple lupine

Saw a boater out fishing

We felt that if we wanted to see stars at night - this would be the place.  Lovely park.