Category: Just For Fun

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Utah Spring Vacation | Day 1

We had the most amazing adventure through Utah. It was so desolate, but so beautiful. I’m putting together a slideshow of all our pics, but here are more of the details day-by-day:

We left Pagosa on Saturday, April 12th. We’d hoped to leave on Friday, but ended up needing the extra day to finish packing and not feel so rushed. Pakak, Denver, and Aspen were the lucky dogs who got to tag along. While Dark Star & Duchess stayed behind—they didn’t seem to mind, and Duchess really hates to travel. Even though it took us about 6+ hours to reach/find our camp for the night—we were so excited about the trip, that it didn’t feel long at all. Driving an old VW bus with a top speed around 55 mi/hr usually forces us to slow down, take in the scenery, and choose the roads less traveled.

Route Day 1, You can see my map of the overall route on google maps.

This first day we traveled to Cortez on HWY 160, then went through McElmo Canyon to reach the border. Once in Utah, we took Res roads towards Hovenweep, turning back West to take HWY 191 to Blanding. After a quick top off on fuel, we found Elk Mountain Road, which starts near Edge of the Cedars State Park. This was a crazy, winding dirt road, but in good condition with some nice views/peeks at some of the canyons that skirt it. It started in high-desert juniper/cedars, traversed through some washes, then climbed into a mixed conifer forest much like what we’re used to at home. We saw a sign for Hammond Overlook, took the best looking forest road we’d seen in a while, and made camp.

We would have liked to camp closer to this vista, but we were afraid of having our half-blind/deaf old Golden so close to a cliff edge. So we camped in the pines.
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First Camp of the Season: Chama River

As I mentioned when I launched my new theme, I’d like to get better about using this as a real blog about me and not just talking about my business anymore. I’d also like to get better about posting regularly. So while there’s a lot of technical and business stuff I need to expand on (and am working on), here’s one of those posts that is a little more personal and fun…

The weather is warming up around here and that means more campouts! My husband and I met through Scouting, and the outdoors have always been a focus of our relationship. While we haven’t backpacked in a very long time, we still spend most of our Summer weekends either in a tent or in a Volkswagen.

This was the first trip with our new awning for the bus.

And we don’t even limit it to Summer…the last two years we’ve met up with other VW enthusiasts and camped in the snow/cold in February & March. This year we were able to take our first campout at the end of March. Our destination was the Chama River, Forest Road 151.

There’s a monastery at the end of the road that we have yet to visit. Even this trip, we skipped it as we had 3 of our 5 dogs with us and it was getting late as we looked for a camping spot. We didn’t stop at our usual camp ground because there was already somebody parked there, and we were looking for solitude…which we found on this little stretch of the river.

It was wonderful to get away for two nights. This is also what we’re calling our ‘shakedown’ trip. We’re getting ready for  a week-long jaunt into the canyon country of south/central/eastern Utah this month to celebrate our 15 year anniversary at the end of the year—it’s a year-long celebration with a couple of extended trips and music festivals planned throughout the season.

My first attempt at biscuits in the dutch oven was a tasty success!

We’ve decided that the secret to a long life is recharging your batteries in the outdoors—at least that’s what our 14 year-old Golden, Denver, thinks. Every time we think he’s on his last legs, we take him for a trip and are amazed at how he bounces back.

Snoozing Golden Retriever
Pakak loved the proximity to the river.

Our first afternoon, we happened to spot a coyote running down the main road so we made sure all the dogs slept with us, which was a little cramped and very dirty from Pakak’s muddy paws; but when you’ve lived with as many dogs for as long as we have, mud’s nothin’ new.

There was one night after dinner, when we all strolled the river bank. Denver even went for a little bit of a beach run! I think the ‘shakedown’ was a success, and we’re ready for our next adventure. Hope to have some photos and stories to share from our canyon trip soon…