By: Ryan
Since leaving home, we have had a few distinctly different living situations. In Rock Hall, where we eased into teardrop sleeping, we had all the conveniences of home and the support of family. As we left those comforts behind, our first couple of stops were with old friends allowing us to get used to living on the move without being completely “on the road”. Since leaving Ohio, we have been slowly figuring out how to make it from camp to camp while still managing to see some of the amazing country we are traveling through. The first five or six days of driving were marked by travel times that wound up being two to three hours longer than they should have been. We were delayed by daily Wal Mart trips and lunch stops. Recently, we have gotten a bit more efficient as we learn to plan for meals on the go and get better at dealing with our supplies.
Since leaving home, we have had a few distinctly different living situations. In Rock Hall, where we eased into teardrop sleeping, we had all the conveniences of home and the support of family. As we left those comforts behind, our first couple of stops were with old friends allowing us to get used to living on the move without being completely “on the road”. Since leaving Ohio, we have been slowly figuring out how to make it from camp to camp while still managing to see some of the amazing country we are traveling through. The first five or six days of driving were marked by travel times that wound up being two to three hours longer than they should have been. We were delayed by daily Wal Mart trips and lunch stops. Recently, we have gotten a bit more efficient as we learn to plan for meals on the go and get better at dealing with our supplies.
Our last blog post covered our stay in Badlands National Park. Since then, we stayed one night at Curt Gowdy state park in Wyoming, one in a KOA in Manila, Utah, just outside of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, and Last night at an RV resort in Heber City , Utah. At Curt Gowdy, we found a nice little campground on the edge of a beautiful reservoir with random jumbles of red boulders rising up among the pines. It had been a long day of driving and we were all tired, so dinner would be minimal. While the girls played by the water, Kat and I shuffled gear, fetched water, and heated canned soup for the girls and Ramen noodles for us. Despite Gowdy’s beauty and hiking trails, we decided on an early start the next morning as our stores were fairly depleted and we were toting a particularly nasty bag of laundry.
As we drove the width of southern Wyoming, we got our first real taste of the geologic variety and upheaval that would mark the scenery for many days to come. Knowing we were approaching the continental divide, we primed the girls on the awe inspiring spectacle they would soon behold; the Rocky Mountains. Every distant peak spurred the question, “Are those the Rockies?”, and was met with some wizened and glib response like, “You’ll know when you see it. You won’t even have to ask.” As the dotted line marking the great divide moved closer, we began to realize why they built I80 where they did and why so many rail lines run parallel to it. We were driving through the Great Divide Basin. There were impressive peaks to the north and south of us, but here we were basically driving across a big rumpled pan. We explained this to the girls and promised to show them the real Rockies in Colorado on the return trip. Now I know what it feels like to be driving a cheesy tour bus and hear murmurs of, “This tour guide is full of it…” coming from the seats behind. Oh, well.
As we came out of the big pan, we saw every type of sky imaginable. From sunny bright to thick torrents that blotted out all that lay beyond, all were represented as we scanned the surrounding hills. We drove on, watching the weather closely, pointing out bizarre juxtapositions, “whoa-ing and oooh-ing” as each cluster of distant lightning strikes streaked the sky. Large rain drops washed some of the dust from truck and trailer, as we neared the day’s destination. Arriving at the Manila KOA in stop and start rain, we did some laundry, or solitaire, or napped a bit, til the sun and wind chased away the storms, making way for a glorious rainbow and sunset. After a late dinner of loaded baked potatoes, the girls were more than ready for bed.
A short conference with the girls the following morning decided that we would stop in at the Flaming Gorge visitors’ center instead of hiking around the area, and add about 1 ½ hours to the day’s drive in order to see Dinosaur National Monument. The landscape around Flaming Gorge is truly amazing. The deep red for which the gorge is named, is just the start. As you weave your way through the Uinta Mountains, roadside signs frequently offer informative geologic tidbits such as “limestone, ancient sand dunes” or “bizarre shark fossils found here”. Cumulatively, the markers help you to imagine this mountainous landscape as an ancient sea bed and coastal ecosystem. As we drove we discussed the evidence of the long passage of time that surrounded us as well as the difficulty of wrapping your mind around the geologic timescale.
This turned out to be a nice segway into the day’s main event. After eating lunch in the parking lot of Dinosaur National Monument and taking a short shuttle ride, we found ourselves standing in front of thousands of dinosaur bones meticulously scraped out from the ancient mud of a 149 million year old river bed. What you find here, impressive as it is, is what is left of the site after paleontologists have removed the bones of 400 animals from it. We talked bones and fossils, Zoe snapped some dino bone selfies, we hit the obligatory gift shop and were on the road again.
About four hours later we arrived at Jordanelle state park in Heber city, Utah with dinner supplies and a new bundle of fire wood. The “walk up” camp sites we took to mean “non reserveable” or “first come, first served”, really meant “hike in tent sites”. The full campground meant we would be spending the night in the Wal Mart parking lot or in the RV resort up the road. We opted for the RV place, which had a pool, hot tub, and very nice showers. While very nice, it felt sort of like an odd mix of an old folks home and suburbia on wheels. Aside from the atmosphere, we were clearly a source of amusement to our neighbors, all of whom were very friendly. Despite the fact that everything turned out alright, I was being a bit, shall we say, grumpy, as I looked over the perimeter fence at the surrounding mountains at sunset.
This little episode illustrates one thing that I think has changed quite a bit since my friend Laura and I drove cross country 17 years ago. Back then, we got up in the morning, looked at the atlas, found a little green tree with a little green tent next to it, jumped in the car and headed for it. There was no Reserve America or Recreation.gov, we never called to reserve a site. We just rolled up whenever we got there, dropped $7 to $17 in the self-registration box and found ourselves an empty spot, and there always was one to be found. I purposely did not make up an itinerary this time because I didn’t want the stress of having to be on time. I thought I would be best to stay flexible so as not to push the kids too hard. What I didn’t count on was the fact that many state parks now require reservations, sometimes days in advance, and that many parks seem to be simply full. Also, the rates for a night of camping have gone up dramatically. This has led to a lot of hand wringing over where we will stay in the coming nights. I’m not sure if this is really an overall shift in the way parks function or if we are just travelling a more popular and populous route than Laura and I did the last time around, but it is taking some getting used to. It seems the days of the average guy being able to travel and camp wherever his curiosity led him are over, and maybe this as much as spending the night inside the gate, accounted for my grumpy demeanor.
While I can be a bit of a curmudgeon from time to time, Kat is pretty good at pulling me out of it. On balance, even our most frustrating days have had plenty of fun or exciting or interesting or new things to fill them. All the positives have been enough to keep us all engaged and enjoying the journey.
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| On the edge of Medicine Bow National Forest at Curt Gowdy Sate Park |
As we drove the width of southern Wyoming, we got our first real taste of the geologic variety and upheaval that would mark the scenery for many days to come. Knowing we were approaching the continental divide, we primed the girls on the awe inspiring spectacle they would soon behold; the Rocky Mountains. Every distant peak spurred the question, “Are those the Rockies?”, and was met with some wizened and glib response like, “You’ll know when you see it. You won’t even have to ask.” As the dotted line marking the great divide moved closer, we began to realize why they built I80 where they did and why so many rail lines run parallel to it. We were driving through the Great Divide Basin. There were impressive peaks to the north and south of us, but here we were basically driving across a big rumpled pan. We explained this to the girls and promised to show them the real Rockies in Colorado on the return trip. Now I know what it feels like to be driving a cheesy tour bus and hear murmurs of, “This tour guide is full of it…” coming from the seats behind. Oh, well.
As we came out of the big pan, we saw every type of sky imaginable. From sunny bright to thick torrents that blotted out all that lay beyond, all were represented as we scanned the surrounding hills. We drove on, watching the weather closely, pointing out bizarre juxtapositions, “whoa-ing and oooh-ing” as each cluster of distant lightning strikes streaked the sky. Large rain drops washed some of the dust from truck and trailer, as we neared the day’s destination. Arriving at the Manila KOA in stop and start rain, we did some laundry, or solitaire, or napped a bit, til the sun and wind chased away the storms, making way for a glorious rainbow and sunset. After a late dinner of loaded baked potatoes, the girls were more than ready for bed.
 |
| Flaming Gorge |
This turned out to be a nice segway into the day’s main event. After eating lunch in the parking lot of Dinosaur National Monument and taking a short shuttle ride, we found ourselves standing in front of thousands of dinosaur bones meticulously scraped out from the ancient mud of a 149 million year old river bed. What you find here, impressive as it is, is what is left of the site after paleontologists have removed the bones of 400 animals from it. We talked bones and fossils, Zoe snapped some dino bone selfies, we hit the obligatory gift shop and were on the road again.
 |
| Running from an Allosaurus |
About four hours later we arrived at Jordanelle state park in Heber city, Utah with dinner supplies and a new bundle of fire wood. The “walk up” camp sites we took to mean “non reserveable” or “first come, first served”, really meant “hike in tent sites”. The full campground meant we would be spending the night in the Wal Mart parking lot or in the RV resort up the road. We opted for the RV place, which had a pool, hot tub, and very nice showers. While very nice, it felt sort of like an odd mix of an old folks home and suburbia on wheels. Aside from the atmosphere, we were clearly a source of amusement to our neighbors, all of whom were very friendly. Despite the fact that everything turned out alright, I was being a bit, shall we say, grumpy, as I looked over the perimeter fence at the surrounding mountains at sunset.
 |
| parked among the behemoths |
While I can be a bit of a curmudgeon from time to time, Kat is pretty good at pulling me out of it. On balance, even our most frustrating days have had plenty of fun or exciting or interesting or new things to fill them. All the positives have been enough to keep us all engaged and enjoying the journey.
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