Alaska – Canada 2014, Silver City to Jackson, WY

 

Our camp at Devils Canyon, UT

We’re traveling big this summer, a 5-month trip to Canada and Alaska. We’ve never been on the road this long so this is will be an adventure. Our travels will be leisurely as each day we plan on hiking or bicycling and visiting parks, monuments and museums along the way. We have a basic travel plan but it’s flexible. The only firm commitment we have is to be at Denali by the 1^st week in July. This will be an awesome trip.

Getting the chicks across the road.

We leave Silver City, NM on May 31^st and head north along the west side of the Rockies. Here are some of the highlights.

At our camp at Devils Canyon south of Moab, UT a Turkey hen and her 8 chicks walk by our Sprinter. The balls of down on little legs scurry around her so fast it was hard to count them. She makes sure all of them are safely across the road and into the protective brush.

Riding down main street bicycle sculpture.

We camped at Grand Junction KOA, a very nice campground, level sites, big shade trees, great showers and welcoming staff and owners. The downtown main street was filled with whimsical public art. A sculptor was truly inspired when they created this cast metal stature of a cute casual bicyclist.

View from the Rim Road.

Bicycling in Dinosaur National Monument.

The next day we bicycled the 36-mile Colorado National Monument Bicycle Loop. We started at the south entrance and 30 minutes and 4 miles later we reached the Rim Road at the top of the 2,300 ft. climb.  The Rim Road was an easy 20-mile ride to the Visitor Center at the north entrance. It follows as close to the mesa rim as a road can possibly get with dizzy aerial views over the cliffs to the valleys below. The decent off the mesa was a fast 10 minutes. What a ride.

Our next destination is Dinosaur National Monument to ride our bikes on the Canyon View Road on the Colorado side of the Monument. The road is a roller coaster of steep ups and downs. Crowds of spring wildflowers lined the roads to cheer us on.  We saw a Golden and a Bald Eagle during our ride.

Wild flower bloom at Dinosaur National Monument.



Lunch on a ledge.

After the ride we have lunch on a shady cliff ledge with a view not to be found at any restaurant on the interstate.



Our camp at Mann's Campground in Flaming Gorge.

That night we landed at Mann’s Campground in Flaming Gorge. This is a very nice spot with 6 sites, no hookups but other amenities like a stream, lots of birds, and an incredible view of the jagged fault ridges.








Sunset on the jagged fault at Mann's Campground.

Fossil Butte National Monument.

As we traveled on towards Jackson, WY, we stop at Fossil Butte National Monument. The fossil quarries here are world famous for their fish fossils. The Visitor Center brings this bountiful ancient lake to life again through its excellent displays. We hiked the Historic Quarry Trail to the first quarry. It’s an interesting history about the desert rats that had a passion for fossils.

The stairway at the fossil quarry.

Alpine Campground, WY.

We camp at Alpine Campground on Alpine Lake near Afton, WY, then take the highway up the Snake River to Jackson stopping for a look at the Big Kahuna Rabid, a big exclamation point in any raft trip down the Snake.

Our next stop will be Jackson, WY.

More to come.

Jackie

Big Kahuna Rapid on the Snake River.

Sorry for the quality of the photos. It seems to be a google problem as my photos are high quality and only look this bad in this program. - Jackie