East of the Continental Divide

Yesterday, we crossed the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park; we're back to where all streams and rivers flow into the Atlantic Ocean.
Today, we said good-bye to all of those mountains and mesas, and drove out of the Rockies and into the Great Plains.

We took an unplanned detour into Cheyenne Wyoming and serendipitously came upon the old Union Pacific train station and a chili festival.


Cheyenne's got some great old architecture; the train station neighborhood appears to be on its way to more restoration:


From there eastward, it was nothing but plains and wide-open views. We discovered a previously unknown (to us) factoid along the way: Sidney, Nebraska (population 6200+)is the world-wide headquarters for Cabella's.
It also turns out that the old Oregon Trail paralleled what is now I-80 in parts of Nebraska - how fortuitous for those pioneers to have had a Cabella's along the way! :-)

Rocky Mountain National Park

RMNP boasts the highest point of any highway in the U.S......an altitude of 12,183 feet.

There's not much more we can say about the scenery; there is still plenty of snow at the summits of the 12,000+ footers.

RVing Advantages

There are many advantages to RV travel; here are two: (1) Never having to wait in line for restrooms (and the potential of charging for use of our facilities as a means of funding our trip)

(2) Having lunch at our favorite 11,000+ foot restaurant.

And Now for Something Completely Different

We left Moab this morning and took scenic Route 128 out to I-70, starting our way back eastward. Route 128 follows the Colorado River along the "back" side of Arches National Park.


Continuing into the state of Colorado we roughly followed the river all along I-70. The stretch of interstate in Glenwood Canyon is so narrow that the westbound lanes are built to overlap the eastbound lanes.



Our final destination was a town named Kremmling (population 1,500, elevation 7,000+), in the highlands west of Rocky Mountain National Park. This is definitely cattle country, the terrain being what we like to call "high chaparall". We're surrounded by rolling green hills and views of snow-covered peaks, and are spending the evening sheltered in our motor home from temperatures in the 50's and high winds.


The Colorado River's source is up near Rocky Mountain National Park, which is our destination tomorrow. Although we haven't made it a point of doing so, we realize now that an interesting and varied motor trip would be to follow the Colorado River from its source to where it drains into the Gulf of California: http://encarta.msn.com/map_701510605/colorado.html

Still More Rocks

We're in Moab, Utah for a second night. Moab is a center for a variety of outdoor activities - hiking, 4x4-ing, mountain biking, rafting, etc., and the center of town is loaded with businesses supporting those endevors.

More importantly for us, Moab is just a few miles from two national parks - Arches and Canyonlands - and we did both today.


Arches National Parks is another one of those wonders with landscapes completely unlike anything we have in the East.


"Delicate Arch" is famously recognized and has become the unofficial trademark for the state of Utah; the above picture was taken from a lookout point; if you double click on it to see the full screen version, you'll get an idea of the proportions by observing the tiny specs of people standing near it.




This formation is known as "The Three Gossips". While I don't particularly like the title, you can almost see three pioneer women in bonnets and long skirts.

Canyonlands National Park is perhaps a little less known than Arches. If the pictures are reminiscent of every western movie ever made, there's a reason for it - Canyonlands has been the set for a number of films. In addition, it served at times as the hiding place for the real Butch Cassidy and his gang: the inhospitable canyons provided a convenient haven from law enforcement.

More Rocks

We had decided that we'd taken enough pictures of rocks to last the rest of the trip - how many more interesting rock formations could there be in Utah after Zion and Bryce National Parks? Then we started on our way eastward out of Torrey Utah and drove through Capital Reef National Park. Capital Reef isn't one of the more well-known national parks, but it provides an interesting drive through what's called a "waterpocket fold" in the earth's surface (see www.nps.gov/care); it also includes a historic Mormon homestead from the 1800's.
The weather was on-and-off cloudy with intermittent showers; although not the best for picture taking, we managed to find plenty of subjects. However, our WiFi connection this evening is very poor, so I will have to dispense with loading any more pictures for now and will wait until after we visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks tomorrow.
By the way, our friend Jerry keeps reminding that by double-clicking on any of the posted pictures, you will be able to view the photo in full-screen mode (to return to the blog after doing so, hit the browser "Back" button).

More of Utah

John says I'm possessed, but it's not my fault that I've taken over 80 pictures today --- he's the one that bought me that digital camera in the first place, and he's the one driving to all of these absolutely incredible places!
Today, it was more of Utah: we visited Bryce Canyon National Park and then drove along Utah highway 12, which borders Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Dixie National Forest.

This is a natural formation, and not a picture of a castle ruin or old fortress:

And this rock surface even has a smiling face! :-)