Off the grid in Idaho

After leaving Page we made a quick trip through the Salt Lake area and it’s miles and miles of town.  After a quick overnight stop in Willard State park we arrived in beautiful Idaho.  Our first stop was at the Big Eddy campground south of Cascade Lake (north of Boise).  The campground was really nice but right on the road so had a little road noise.  There were only 4 sites so it was very private and right on the river.  After spending two nights we headed on to McCall where we are currently staying at the Last Chance campground west of town.  This is a really nice area and even though the campground is fairly full is is very quite.  A special treat is the campground is loaded with huckleberries so we have been busy picking and stocking the freezer!

Views from the Big Eddy campground

South of McCall ID

Huckleberries in the Last Chance campground

Some pretty flowers around the campground

Glen Canyon Dam

Today we started our trek toward Idaho and Montana with the first stop being in Page AZ to tour the Glen Canyon Dam.  The tour was about an hour long including a short movie and was very interesting.  Didn’t realize that Glen Canyon Dam is only 16 ft shorter than Hoover and actually contains more concrete then Hoover.  They said there was enough concrete in the dam to build a 4 lane highway from Phoenix to Chicago.  It took 17 years to fill the lake and when full there is more shore line around the lake than along the whole west coast!

View of Lake Powell from the visitor’s center

The Glen Canyon Bridge as viewed from the top of the dam

Looking up at the bridge from the bottom of the dam.

Over the edge toward the river!

Over the edge on the lake side!

The generators in the dam

A few more Colorado photos

It was so beautiful in Colorado couldn’t resist adding a few more photos….

At the top of one of the three passes…GPS said we made it to 13,100 ft

Lots of old mines around

Along the “Last Dollar Road” from Ridgeway to Telluride

The beavers have been hard at work

Exploring some old buildings at Animas Forks

Just above Telluride

Jeep Heaven

For the past two days we have been in Jeep Heaven exploring the Alpine Loop trail going from Silverton to Lake City and back to Silverton.  The trail is about 65 miles of bone jarring trails going over three mountain passes and through some of the most beautiful area we have ever seen.  The trail was challenging but yet was not so challenging that you couldn’t enjoy the ride.  According to the GPS the max elevation we hit was 12,999.6 ft!  We have been Jeep owners for nearly 10 years now and we are still amazed at what these hardy little vehicles can do.  They are most certainly at home climbing up a rocky mountain road.

View out the “window” of on old mining house

Water falls everywhere

View from 13,000 ft.  It’s like being on the top of the world

Still chunks of ice floating in this lake

Still a lot of snow around

Tonight we are staying at the Ridgeway State park north of Ridgeway.  This is our first experience with Colorado state parks and our opinion is they are not a very good value.  The cost was $29 and the sites are very close together and not very nice.  What was surprising is that they have an additional charge for a shower!  Actually the KOA down the road would have been a better value!

Silverton Colorado

After about 500 miles of driving we arrived in Silverton Colorado late this afternoon.  We have our tent pitched at the Silverton Lakes Campground on the north end of town.  The sun is just setting and with it the temperature is dropping fast.  May be a cold night tonight.  In the morning the plan is to Jeep the Alpine Loop Back Country Byway over Engineer Pass and on to Lake City.  There are several old mining towns along the way to explore.  Hopefully we will also be able to do some geocaching along the way.

Our Campsite

Looking down the river

A Magpie

Ready to hit the road for some Jeep’N

Tomorrow bright and early we plan to leave the desert with the forecasted 113 degree high for the cool mountains of Colorado.  This trip will be a little different in that we will be taking the Jeep so we can do some exploring on the back roads in the Silverton area.  This is something we have talked about doing for several years so now is the time.  The only draw back is the Jeep can’t tow the trailer so this will be a tenting trip.  Been many many years since we have used a tent so it should be an experience.  At least the forecast is for dry weather in SW Colorado so hopefully that will hold true.

Made it Home

We made it home today after a brief stop for the night in Holbrook AZ.  After we left Dalhart TX the weather was nice and it was clear sailing all the way to AZ.  We stayed at the OK RV Park in Holbrook which is a nice overnight stop.  It is across the street from the KOA and offers a lower cost alternative ($25 with Good Sam). 

The stats for this trip are:

Days gone = 19

Miles driven = 4681 miles

We were very pleased with the trip and found and did a lot of interesting things.  The pace of travel was much faster then we like but we knew that going in as we had a limited window to work with.  We could see our selves repeating the same route again but at a much slower pace.