We awoke very early on Tuesday, May 17th, to travel to Idaho, on our way to Colorado. We drove on US 20 east through the Malheur River valley. The canyon drive was very pretty next to the river with rounded hills surrounding us. We had several long waits at road construction zones, transitioned from Pacific to Mountain Time on the east end of Harney County, OR, and crossed into Idaho just east of Ontario, OR. We passed by Boise and arrived at our next stop, Mountain Home RV Resort (https://www.g7rvresorts.com/rv-park/mountain-home/), in Mountain Home, Idaho. This is a very nice RV park with concrete pads, lots of shade trees, a pool and hot tub and a nice dog park. We suspect that many of the campers are one or two nighters like us, traveling on I-84 between the Rockies and the Pacific Ocean. We sort of wished we were there for more than one night.
We awoke on Wednesday, May 18th, to realize that Walt had forgotten to turn on the hot water heater. Martha wanted to take a shower and was not happy. However, we took a shower in the very nice campground bathroom, packed up and hit the road. We would be traveling exclusively on interstate highways for the next two drives, all the way to Rawlins, Wyoming. Martha decided that she wanted to take a turn at driving and did very well. We arrived at the Aspen Grove RV Park (https://www.aspengrovervpark.com/) in Tremonton, Utah. We had stayed at this park on our way south from Yellowstone National Park through Utah to Ouray, Colorado, last August. It is a very nice RV park with concrete pads and a very nice dog park. When we were there in August, the smoke from Oregon and California wildfires was so thick that you could not see the mountains to the east. On this visit the mountains were visible, snow capped and beautiful. We enjoyed a very pleasant evening with temperatures in the low 70’s.
We stayed at Aspen Grove a second night to recover from driving for three days in a row. On Thursday, May 19th, the weather changed dramatically. A winter storm was roaring east into the Rockies and it got very windy and colder (highs in the low 50’s). We spent the day inside away from the weather. Walt did walk to the hardware store to replace the socket sets that he couldn’t find.
We left Tremonton on Friday, May 20th, traveling south on I-84/I-15 to Ogden, Utah, to the Flying J for fuel. We’re starting to see cheaper gas ($5.00 to $6.00 in California, $4.50 to $5.10 in Oregon and now $4.30 in Utah). We also bought a breakfast sandwich and some wraps for lunch – YUM! I-15 continued south to Salt Lake City, so we took I-84, from Ogden to Echo, east up Weber Canyon through the Wasatch Mountains. Weber Canyon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber_Canyon) was the route of the Transcontinental Railroad (the Union Pacific), built from Omaha, Nebraska, to Promontory Point, Utah. The Union Pacific followed the Platte River through Nebraska, the North Platte through Wyoming, and then over South Pass (the same route as the Oregon Trail). The slopes were all relatively gentle until they reached Weber Canyon. At Echo, we turned onto I-80 and drove into Wyoming. I-80 passes through the Red Desert in Wyoming and the scenery was very pretty.
However, the drive was quite blustery with wind gusts and snow flurries (yes on the 20th of May). Gas mileage was terrible and Walt was very tired fighting the wind. We arrived in Rawlins, WY, and stocked up at the Wal-Mart. We also bought our LAST GAS for the motorhome until late September. That will help the budget. We had applied for a Sinclair Oil credit card last September and have found Sinclair stations to be well represented in the West. At Rawlins, the price was $4.09. You get 10 cents off by using the credit card. We then discovered that if you use the Sinclair Oil app, you 30 cents off. Paying $3.79 a gallon was very nice. We filled up both the motorhome and the Jeep, and spent the night at the Red Desert Rose RV Park (https://www.reddesertrose.com/). The park seems to be mostly for single night visits and for extended stay, such as construction crews that travel to may job sites. We had stayed at the Western Hills RV Park (https://westernhillscampground.com/) when we drove through Wyoming last July, on our way from the Black Hills to the Escapees Escapade in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Both campgrounds are similar, gravel parking spots and both very adequate for our needs. It was very cold (mid 20’s) and windy. The winter storm that had moved east dropped lots of snow on Colorado, especially southern Colorado (up to two feet). We were very worried about our drive up into the Colorado mountains tomorrow.
We awoke to very bright and sunny skies on Saturday, May 21st, for our drive to Steamboat Lake State Park. We drove back west on I-80, backtracking about 20 miles, to Wyoming highway 789 south. It was a very nice drive, again through the Red Desert portion of Wyoming. We passed through Baggs, Wyoming, and crossed the Colorado border. As we continued south, the land became a lusher with grass replacing sagebrush. To reach Steamboat Lake, in a motorhome, we had to make a south then east circle around the Medicine Bow mountain range. Google Maps recommended that we turn east at Baggs and go over the mountains (100 miles total trip), but RV Trip Wizard and RV To Go said go around the mountains (180 miles). We turned east at Craig, Colorado, onto US 40. If we would continue for about 1800 miles we would arrive, via the Baltimore National Pike, at Ellicott City, Maryland, where we lived from 1992 to 1997. We didn’t travel that far but, drove up the Yampa River Valley for 40 miles to Steamboat Springs, Colorado (https://www.steamboatchamber.com/). We stopped at Wal-Mart to get a prescription, some beer and seltzers (hey you’ve got to have priorities).
Leaving Steamboat Springs, we traveled north on Colorado highway 129 for 27 miles, gaining altitude from 6,700 feet to 8,100 feet, arriving at our summer home of Steamboat Lake State Park (https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/SteamboatLake). The winter storm had left very little snow and what did fall had mostly melted. We checked in at the Visitor Center and met our new boss, Administrative Assistant Cecelia Garza. Rangers Kirsten, Brent and Logan escorted us to the Larkspur Loop of the Sunrise Vista Campground. We backed into site 86 (see map below), hooked up electricity and sewer (water is not yet turned on) and busied ourselves setting up camp, including lots of things that we had not used since Tucson (tables, umbrella stand, dog trailer, hammock and clam shelter). Walt also set up the cellphone booster pole on the rear of the motorhome so our streaming is excellent.
We spent Sunday, May 22nd, relaxing and getting oriented to our surroundings. We start Camp Host orientation on Monday. We’re glad to be here and will continue to relate our adventures in the next blog chapter.
