Road Trip #3, Day 5 - The Road Home

July 6, 2011
Colorado, USA

Time to take ourselves home... We did not tarry in Vernal, UT this morning. Tim confirmed what he suspected yesterday - the continental breakfast at our motel was unappealing and the coffee - ick!, the weather was damp and threatening worse and we wanted to get out of town before barricades to block the streets for the Dinosaur parade were erected.

We ran out from under light rain as we rolled west on Hwy 40 toward Colorado. The Green River was flowing high. This is the first time we have traveled into Colorado along this route. The Dinosaur National Monument sits just over the border from Utah in Colorado. We did not plan to visit it this time through. We expected more out of the town named Dinosaur which does not have much to offer considering its proximity to the national park. The 90 miles or so between Dinosaur and Craig, CO had a few scenic stretches but nothing that would make us intentionally travel that stretch again.

By the time we rolled into Craig, we were thinking -- breakfast! We looked for interesting cafes but did not find much within a block or so of the highway so we settled on The Village Inn which is Colorado's version of an IHOP, the prices and the food are usually better and the pies are outstanding. We ordered big breakfasts and lots of coffee. It was free pie Wednesday so we topped off our breakfast with a slice of peach cream pie - yum!

Soon we were traveling the scenic highway into Steamboat Springs. The Yampa River was still out of its banks in some areas of the valley after record snows and the subsequent melt off. The Yampa Valley was green and lush, wildflowers blooming all along the way. As usual, part of this stretch of road was under construction so we spent a few minutes standing around waiting for our turn to travel the single lane open.

We stopped for gas in busy Steamboat Springs and then we stopped at one of the busiest McDonald's on the face of the earth for a cup of coffee. I usually cannot get out of there (both the city and the McDonalds) fast enough. Ha! As it is, we preferred to sit at one of the outside tables where we fed fussy magpies a few animal crackers.

Highway 40 travels over scenic Rabbit Ears Pass to Walden, CO. At an elevation of 9426 we had snow. Normally, we will find a bite to eat in Walden but today the clouds were gathering a little more steam so we stopped for only a few minutes before riding on.

Riding east on Scenic Hwy 14 toward the Never Summer Mountains

Highway 14 west from Walden is also designated as scenic. This is a road we ride often. It travels past the Nokhu Crags through the Never Summer Mountains, over Cameron Pass (elevation 10,276) and eventually descends into a canyon which follows the winding Cache La Poudre River. The Poudre (Pooder) is still raging after record snowfall and melt off. As we came out of the canyon and traveled the last ten miles or so to the house, it looked like the clouds might get there ahead of us. We managed to ride in dry. The clouds brought rain and wind, thunder and lightning about ten minutes later.

Slide show of the ride home (72 photos):

We traveled 1707 miles (we'll call them s'miles!) this road trip through some spectacularly beautiful canyons in western Colorado and southern Utah and along some great scenic and winding roads.