Let the Adventures Begin

Day 1: Lakewood, CO to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area

And we are off on our adventures. Small rough start with leaving the dog food bowl on top of the car when we left. Luckily, we only lost about half Jasper's breakfast, which he's not a big eater on road trips sometimes. The other challenge was the weather overnight left I-70 a mess, so we sat in traffic for a bit and went really slow. It was nothing like a typical Friday night backup, though.

Once we were off I-70 and following hwy40, traffic was thinner in our direction. Roads were wet as we travelled north, but manageable and got better the further north we went. Kremmling, CO was windy and cold, but we were able to get a photo of the mini statue of liberty next to their visitors center and took a small hike at the reservoir just north of Kremmling.

Rabbit Ears pass was a mess of blowing wind and snow, which made things a little slow as we all tried to figure out our lanes. Still, it was short lived and Steamboat Springs was clear and dry. We accidentally found the roadside america stops in Craig, CO: train car, Marcia and chainsaw sculpture art, which turned out to be pretty cool and a great reprieve from the car. 

After Craig, we hightailed it towards Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, bypassing Dinosaur National Monument, as we have been there a couple times already. This does mean we missed a couple of roadside america stops, but I'm pretty sure I have photos of them already. We did see the 1940s dinosaur in Jensen, UT. 

Finally, we made it to Flaming Gorge with plenty of time to explore. Bluebird skies overhead made the gorge beautiful, and we were excited to find a nice campsite in a canyon next to a creek. Made a lovely dinner of hot cocoa and chicken ramen, wrote in my journal, and then headed into the tent to relax down to sleep for the night.