Colorado

Current Location: Colorado Springs KOA, Colorado Springs, Colorado

We headed out a little later this morning, closer to 9:00 AM, but we had a shorter travel day planned – about 320 miles. However, much of it was on I-70 up and over the Continental Divide. Vail Pass was our lunch stop, after climbing to 10,662 feet above sea level. The Eisenhower Tunnel was the other peak, at the Continental Divide, at around 11,000 feet. There was a lot of slower climbing in many places, typically around 42 – 48 mph.

Lunch at Vail Pass

When we got into the Denver area, we took the E-470 around the southwest side of town to I-25, then south to and through Colorado Springs to the KOA here just south of town on I-25. Our site is a deluxe site with patio, firepit, table and chairs. Just across from the front of our trailer is a row of trees next to a creek. There is a waterfall in the creek that sounds relaxing. We’re opening the bedroom slide windows tonight so it can lull us to sleep.

Our site

Once we arrived and set up, we headed just up the road to Camping World to buy a replacement adjustable water pressure regulator with the PSI gauge to replace the one Malcolm forgot in Utah. He has a note on the side of his water box to remember to check for it now. Camping World was sold out of the one we wanted, so we just picked up a couple other small items we’ve needed and headed on up the road to find some dinner and groceries.

We ate at a burger joint called Culver’s. The burger reminded Malcolm of Steak and Shake. They had excellent crinkle fries (Malcolm’s favorite) and Val had a pumpkin spice milkshake that was awesome. After dinner, we picked up a few items at Safeway and headed back to the trailer to put the groceries away. We walked over to the camp store and picked up some postcards. Once back at the trailer, Malcolm headed back to the camp store to pay for a bundle of firewood so we could sit around the fire in the fireplace provided with the site.

Sittin’ by the fire, writin’ post cards

Malcolm made reservations for us to ride the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway tomorrow at noon. We decided to do that rather than drive up and down in the dually.

Here are pictures from today:

Tunnels

Scenery

More scenery

Rest Area at “No Name”

River alongside road

Lunch at Vail Pass

Eisenhower and Johnson Tunnels

Tunnel widening. We bypassed our tunnel.

Today’s license plate sighting count – 35. I-70 has a lot more diverse traffic mix.

License plates

Current Location: Grand Junction KOA, Grand Junction, Colorado

This morning we packed up and headed out about 8:00 AM. The plan was to make it at least to Green River, Utah, or if possible, as far as Grand Junction, Colorado. Since we had a smooth travel day, we chose the latter, arriving here around 5:00 PM. Surprisingly, rush hour traffic through the various major Utah cities along the I-15 corridor was smooth all the way through. As indicated in the header, this is state #30 for us.

State #30

We took I-15 down to US 50, then across to I-70. We could have shaved off more miles by taking US 6 from Spanish Fork down to Green River, but weren’t too sure about all that 2-lane driving across fairly barren Utah. The scenery across I-70 occasionally became spectacular, then would turn into mundane, then would change again into interesting, then back to flat desert. Very interesting variety of terrain.

Traveling through Utah means only having services about every 100 miles or more, so one has to pay particular attention to the fuel gauge and the reminders at various exits. We took the safe road and filled up twice along the way, both times when the truck was at half a tank or better.

Here are some various scenery pictures from the trip.