Day 2 Junction West RV Park Grand Junction, Colorado

We decided it was time to get a camera in the hopes that downloading pictures directly to the laptop would help with the blog writing process.  We were at Best Buy when they opened this morning.  Matt was amazing!  He was able to guide us with our purchase and in addition he helped us gather everything we needed and then showed us how to set up the camera and how we would go about downloading pictures at the end of the day.

We drove with our picnic lunch to Colorado National Monument.  We took the Rim Rock Drive through the park.  There is a learning curve to using any new technology, so unfortunately the pictures I took of the bighorn sheep right at the entrance were not really pictures at all…live to learn!!  We did enjoy magnificent views of the canyon.

Our lunch spot today.

Not far from the park there is a Jeep trail called Windmill Loop. 

At first the scenery was pretty rugged and scrubby…especially after the beautiful drive this morning. 

As we got closer to the Gunnison River, it was prettier.  There were some fairly difficult and steep sections along the ledge as we descended and again as we ascended.

The windmill for which the trail is named actually works.

We had been on the road for 6 hours when we got to the truly difficult portion of the trail. 

There are explicit warnings not to try the trail if it is wet.  It was 99 degrees, hot and sunny as we started out.  The thunder did not begin until we over the most treacherous obstacles.  The trail became slick.  There are many spots that are covered with bentonite soil.  This is a clay like substance that is very creamy and slippery as we quickly discovered when the rain began to fall.  We could feel the tires sliding on the greasy surface.   The rain looked awesome though.  It was coming from one patch of grey clouds.  The raindrops were shimmering in the sunlight…very cool!

At last, we made it to the parking lot.

Bison burgers on the grill with cucumber salad and sangria…of course!

The pictures we took today downloaded quickly!  Progress has been made!