The Best Pool Ever. Ever!

102 degrees for lap swimming, 109 for soaking.
Hot Fresh Mineral Water at "Sand Dunes Recreation".
No Chlorine, high mineral content - including Lithium! It works! Or maybe it's the hot water, but either way I'm tranquil.

Happy Trails

Happy Trails To You, until we meet again.

another Sand Dunes National Monument. Colorado USA

campsite at Sand Dunes Nat'l Monument

Sand Dunes National Monument. Colorado USA

I camped by the tree, in case anyone needed a landmark to find me.

Sand Dunes National Monument. Colorado USA

View from a 104 degree mineral spring.

I'm not telling where.

I am relaxed and have healthy skin. My 7th mineral pool soak.

Colorado is beautiful.

Although this photo does not show the fish jumping, the elk, the antelope, bighorn sheep, golden sunlight, etc.,
it still pretty much has it all.

from the outhouse series

road to St. Elmo ghost town

Spent a few hours on this hard packed gravel road

Ice near the summit added to the fun of being over 10,000 feet (not above the tree line).
Imagine a few weeks prior, these Aspens would have been blinding yellow.

Indian Springs in Idaho Falls Colorado.

another nice warm mineral water soak.

Estes Park, Colorado

photogenic place,
but the souvenir "Estes Park, Colorado" thermal coffee mug goes for $13.95. plus tax.
Invasion of the seasonal merchants.

William Frederick Cody 1846 - 1917

Went to Buffalo Bill's Grave.


Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus

he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

- e.e. cummings

50 MPH winds

off Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park.
Hanging On, the wind already blew away the trees and foliage.

It's the Rockies

Above the tree line, approx 10,000 feet above sea level.

Welcome to Colorful Colorado!

It's a bit dark on the sign due to the extreme color in Colorado!
Can't you see it?
I tried photoshop-ing this but Colorado is just too much for me.
Yee-Haa

beginning to look like Colorado

when you see yellow leaves, blog it

Happy Autumn 2004

from Northeast Utah.

on Canyon Ridge Trail, Utah

After about 4 miles of this uphill drive I found a stable enough spot to trust the emergency brake and get out. Down into the canyon, back out again - that's 1 clutch per round trip.

Elephant Foot rock formation

My blister is now healed just by looking at this.

Campsite on Green River, Utah

A still and silent place.
Candles flames lit in camp burned straight up several inches, no breeze.
Just the sound of water on rocks, quaking aspens with their yellow leaves, and a dozen wild turkeys along the bank echoing off the canyon wall.
Woke to a frozen water bottle, I felt fine.

Green River beside tent

Enter the Canyon

Only for those with high ground clearance and 4WD Low. You'll notice how steep this is if your brakes burn out on the way down. It's a 15 mile back road from Utah to Colorado, down into a canyon, up onto an Aspen grove and pheasant hunting land.

Is your downtown like this?

Not everyone can live where the downtown has a chain link fence containing 3 of the best known "Great Lizards":
T-Rex, Bronto, & Steggie.
In concrete due to budget constraints.
Not a spray paint tag in sight. Clean!

Welcome to Vernal, Utah!

This is a female bronto. No question about it in Utah, if you know what I mean . . .


"Here in Vernal we're serious about uh, um,
we want to make sure you have a good adventure in this isolated part of the lower 48."
- they do a great job here: outfitters, guides, ice cream cones.
Vernal is the (only) town near Dinosaur National Monument.(Foreshadowing of future postings)

Saddle-up Dino Yee-Hah!

It's Free to sit in the saddle of a real Brontosaurus.
His (her?) eyes are real yellow light bulbs. I was unable to view this at night, I had places to be, yellow Aspen leaves to see.

T-Rex acting out his Godzilla envy.

Godzilla got all the attention.
I debated over posting this photo or a close up of just the head. The teeth are spikey.
This is not a camper, it's a desert home in North East Utah.
There were 2 kids playing in the yard, officially located on the other side of the big yard-art (above). The oldest kid was pulling a piece of wood tied to a string, marching and talking to himself with a staged serious expression. The younger kid was nekked and was throwing sand into the wind. Both looked as happy as can be.
God Bless 'em, a happy home is a happy home.

We're making time now!

I sent a few postcards saying I'm entering the "dinosaur phase" of the trip. I doubted that it made much sense, but the blog clarifies all.

Frontier Motel

by the Hiway
Two Good Places to Eat & Sleep: Home and Here!



This place is great! Saved me from my decision to drive a mountain road at night.
It was a simple sunset photo session that turned to a night drive and was quickly turning into death by Elk / head-on collision / steering off a mountain road into the void.

Highway 40 going East out of Salt Lake City.
Dark! Every vehicle was towing something - Ford F-350s with ATVs trailered, Dodge Rams towing campers, all impatient to get somewhere, not concerned about passing on a hill. Oncoming trucks passing on the 2 lane and heading straight into me. Add some spitting rain and this Frontier Motel saved my life, kinda sorta.

They had a cop car at the Frontier Cafe. The night clerk said that all they had was 1 smoking room and it was $48.00. She was nice, gave me the chance to see the room. She said it was up to me, that I could drive on to Vernal, UT, another 20 miles, but it'll be even later when I get there and I'd be safer here than on the road this time of night.
Credit card, license plate, and I'm in the room with my toothbrush.
Sleep for now, g'night!

frog-gator-saurous

Buffalo-saurus

The Natural History Museum, Univ. of Utah
has a dinosaur exhibit. I'd heard they have a T-Rex.
So I went. I walked because I was legally parked.
They did not have a T-Rex on display, just a model of his head.
They had some Assasaurus and these things (above) looking at me.

I got a blister walking around the orderly Salt Lake City neighborhoods. Funny, you walk 15 miles up a mountain and can still walk on glass. Then when you walk to a museum you get a blister. Had a good laugh at a small dog barking in my direction, but he was non-committal about barking at me. His owner was a Kurt Cobain look-alike, an unusual look in Salt Lake City.

Jackson, Wyoming night life consists of:

The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

and if you've ever been to Jackson Hole, WY then you understand.
Yee-Haw. Let me hear you say yehaw. You got a little cowboy in you, call it up.
Yee-haw, Ya'll.

post summit, er, how do you say it?

We bagged Cascade Canyon.
- That's Mtn Talk for we went for a long walk in the woods and came back.

Hey Look at the mountain we just climbed.
It's above the sole auto in parking lot.

Fog whirlwind at the summit

Keep the river on your right. You mean when you're going in or coming back out??

We're lost but nobody knows it.

It's OK to be lost in the wilderness when you're wearing a fine Italian gator as a headpiece, a Sierra Club Ski Patrol poncho, and a serious look of lost awareness.
Keep the river on your right. Saw several Moose and heard several "noises" pacing me in the woods. 15 miles.

top of Snow King

view from the "town gym" in Jackson, WY.
Note: Tetons on horizon.

Snow King

the gym in Jackson, Wyoming. 3000 foot vertical gain if you're hiking up. Or if coming down, the steepest ski run in the world, or so I was told by a local brewmeister.

We have seen Old Faithful.

We are cool, but not too cool for school. Old Faithful was worth it.
Have you ever seen Old Faithful?

Mystic Falls, ID

yet another beautiful waterfall.

the only hot mineral bath I have not yet soaked in, it was scary hot.

Buffalo in Yellowstone

Taste Great! & less filling than Beef.

Boiling River, Yellowstone.

Yes, it was boiling and I sure needed the soak.

just this one more car shot, OK?

the car is so cool looking. And an empty parking lot.
Come during October: late for summer, early for snow.

St. Anthonys, ID night life consists of:

Using Manners to Get Food when Hungry and a Stranger in a Strange Land. part one:



Here's the deal, the inside story on a big good time (bigbonton) in this town (population 3,325).
Begins with Hunger.
Go into the Star Cafe & Lounge front door. Ignore the empty Cafe & Lounge area. Proceded on the uneven flooring through wooden door, then navigate the maze of halls and unmarked doors, trying each one. They are all locked or open into shadows of danger.
Hear a big laugh. Follow, people are in this building & they seem OK, maybe. They laugh like that here.
Enter the "actual" Star Cafe & Lounge entrance after a 10 minute search through the empty Star Cafe & Lounge building.
Persist! There are no other choices, wha' you want Thai tonight? Deep dish pizza? Feel like Pho? Then go home.
Dude, you want to eat tonight? Well you're going to ask the barmaid nicely about a meal. Hat in hand, because everyone here knows "we quit serving early tonight". .
Persist, call up the manners Grandma told you about. Follow Miss Barmaids directions through another maze of halls and unmarked doors. Fear a trap. You are lost in a building and know you cannot find your way out. I left my flashlight in my daypack. Helpless & hungry, but in America so we'll be OK.
Enter the secret (licensed?) cantina through their backdoor. You were not invited to dinner. The room of 18 festive Spanish-speaking farming brethern goes silent.
Smile hard, remember the manners Grandma taught you. Some people are eating here. Others might be able to eat tonight also.
Smile and for Gawds sake don't step on anyones toes, you couldn't find your way out of here in the daylight, much less "after we quit serving early".
You may win big like we did! We charmed an off-duty cook into the best Mexican plate I have ever tasted - not just because it was a hard-won meal, but because this burrito had life and was a gift of love! "Hungry and you fed me". Now get a formerly festive brethern to lead you back to your place at the Star Cafe & Lounge, so he "can get on along with his party".
Next: Place $5 before Miss Barmaid. Now you can smile more easily. Say things like: "Keep 'em coming, M'am. I sure do like it here." (saying "keep the change, you are so good to me" also works when your smile and manners need a boost.

I'm not Lost. There is no name for where we are.

Snake River north of St. Murrays ID

St. Murray Sand Dunes, ID

Rough Rock, Fine Rock

St. Anthony, ID

Find the Blue Heron and win Eye-Candy

Beside our motel.

Middle of Nowhere . . .

. . . with "The Club" at work on the steering wheel.

by popular demand, I admit this was staged and I was in Craters of the Moon parking lot after 5 hours underground in the caves.
It's lava rock from here to that peak over there, 50 miles away.

Snake River Canyon in Idaho

This is where Evil Knevil jumped half-way across the Snake River, Idaho. How do you spell that guys name? Doesn't look right.