We enjoyed our trip to Glacier and Banff so much that we thought we'd do another 2-week camping trip, this time to National Parks we hadn't been to in Eastern Utah, and a stop at Custer state park on the way back home. We decided on early Oct so Utah wouldn't be so hot, but before we needed to store the camper in later Oct. While we tried to thread the needle with timing, it was still hot in Utah (daytime temps of 85) and we were a bit too late in the season for Custer, which was in the process of shutting down for the season.
Once again, reserving camping sites had to be done well in advance. We reserved the Blue Bell campground in Custer and the Moab Rim campground both on April 3, over 6 mos in advance. It also helped that we were booking for lower-peak days.
We drove a total of 3,646 miles in 13 days, including a lot of elevation changes. Our SUV struggled with towing on the inclines in the Rockies, overheating several times which caused us to pull over and let the car cool (20-30 min). This earned our SUV the new nickname of Little Blackie (from the stalwart horse in the movie True Grit). Driving through Colorado in the dark was particularly challenging (for us Midwest plains folk), with a peak elevation of 11,158 at the Eisenhower pass west of Denver before entering a long tunnel. I almost needed to breath into a paper bag on towing through that. The steep emergency ramps for failed brakes also freak me out. We simultaneously discovered our camper brake/light connection wasn't working as it ought to, which could have compounded the difficulties. We hired a mobile RV technician to come and fix us up in Moab which helped a bit on the return drive (although we still had a couple of overheating incidents on long inclines). A reminder that travel entails adventures along the way.
We traveled in 6 states (MN, SD, NE, WY, CO, UT), saw three national parks and six national monuments, as well as two Utah state parks. One of the aspects we've really enjoyed about driving is the ability to watch how the landscape changes in different regions, sometimes quite dramatically. The high desert in Utah was intense- very strong sun with the elevation, hot, arid and dusty. We hiked for hours on rock face- another new experience for us. While striking, we came to acknowledge how much we missed seeing trees. We took a 2-night break from camping in Steamboat Springs and stayed in a hotel, surrounded by plenty of beautiful trees changing colors.
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| Driving Route- ran out of pins for Custer and beyond. Someone write to Google |
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| Best they could do in Nebraska- fossilized weasel dens. Don't rush out for this one |
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| Nebraska- Good thing we're old enough to know how this works |
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| Carhenge, Alliance NE |
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| Chimney Rock |
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| We're glad we're not pushing a handcart of our belongings on the Oregon Trail |
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| Never miss a chance, Fort Collins |
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After a challenging drive through the Rockies we bunked down at 11:30 PM in a parking lot, Silverthorne CO, Elevation 9,000 ft
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| The drive through the mountains to Vail was incredible with fall colors, now that we could see in daylight |
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| Made it to Moab! |
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| Double Arch |
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| Landscape Arch |
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| Partition Arch |
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This was a fun and challenging hike- scrabbling up a ridge between two rifts
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| Mobile RV mechanic helps us out |
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| Islands in the Sky district of Canyonlands |
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| Hiking along the rims in Canyonlands-spectacular |
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| The guy next door at the RV park in Moab told us we needed to stop here, on the way to Capitol Reef |
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| Goblin Valley |
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| Goblin Valley |
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| It's a little cooler here in the mornings- we've got our fleece on |
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| We drove through some amazing rock valleys |
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| Hiking through the Narrows |
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| Picking apples- Fruita valley in Capitol Reef |
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| Heading back to CO |
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| The number of bones in this protected quarry was astonishing |
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| Steamboat Springs CO |
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| Bike rental, Yampa river |
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| A surprising find: 73 piece Steamboat Springs Symphonie production of music alongside Jurassic Park |
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Fort Laramie, WY
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| Last time filling the water tank- Custer state park |
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| Much cooler here- the fire feels nice |
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| Requisite viewing of the bison |
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| He insisted we had to see it again, before the long drive home |
