Colorado
June 28, 2019
What was originally billed as an overloading adventure is quickly becoming a tour of our national parks and recreation areas. Not that any of us are complaining, these special places have been preserved for a reason. Each of them is amazing in their own unique way.
After our planned tour of the Rockies via the Alpine Loop was abondoned due to pass conditions, we decided we would go and visit Mesa Verde and see the ancient cliff dwellings. Since this was an unplanned excursion we didn’t have reservations for a camp site within the NP or reservations to tour one of the many dwellings in the park, but luck was on our side and we were able to both secure a great camp site and get on a 5:30 tour of Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America
It wouldn’t be a visit to a National Park without a little thunder and lightening and the skies threatened to open up on us as we were wrapping up our tour. Luckily the storm quickly passed by and amounted to nothing more than a few sprinkles and some flashes of desert lightening.
On Saturday it was time to close the gap on our destination for the week, Moab, in Southern Utah, so we packed up and headed towards Grand Junction, our layover. The drive through and over the Rockies was amazing! We crested our highest point, topping out at 10,000+ feet above sealevel, with peaks still towering above us on all sides. It was hard not to pull off onto the numerous dirt roads leading further into the mountain to explore, but we were sticking to a plan that has taken us this far.
Today we are packing up and heading west into Utah where we will be exploring Arches National Park. Tomorrow the plan is the explore Moab and some of the surround terrain, before heading into Canyon Lands to drive all 110 miles of the White Rim Road.
I am not sure what sort of service we will have for the next 4 days but will post as time and connectivity allows.
Cheers from the road.
Brandywine Overland 