1143 September 24, 2024 Colorado River State Park, Fruita

Happy Birthday, Mom!!! We hope you had the very best day!

The air was fresh and the sun was shining.  I walked today without thinking and I had gone almost 1 ½ before checking my distance.  I walked though a portion of downtown Vernal and then turned back.

Last of the roses.

We were ready to move again.  We drove from Utah into “Colorful Colorado.”  We took Route 139 or the Stegosaurus Freeway.  This is the gateway to the Colorado section of Dinosaur National Monument.  We will have to save that for another day.

We entered BLM and, the Canyon Pintado or the painted canyon.  The road was rough and heaving but the scenery was quite pretty.

We stopped at the East 4 Mile Rest Area for our breakfast.

There was a trail that led to petroglyphs.  There was also a sign warning of black widows, scorpions, and rattlesnakes.  I walked the trail for awhile but when it became overgrown, I went back to the parking lot.  I did spot these petroglyphs of cornstalks.  The Native People planted corn here.

As we drove on, we could see all kinds of 4WD trails…no time today!

There were lots of yellow signs and orange posts indicating that there was a natural gas pipeline that ran underground and in some place on supports over creeks and ditches.  They seemed out of place and definitely detracted from the landscape but I realize how important they are.    There were lots of cows interspersed among the gas fields, comingling.  The cows show up in the oddest places.  I don’t know a lot about cows but they seem kind of oblivious!

We traveled up and over Douglas Pass.  We are so grateful for our diesel pusher that gets us up these hills and also for the diesel exhaust brake that gets us safely down!

We took a break at the summit.

Rocky Mountain Maple Tree.

Every day I promise myself that I am not going to take so many pictures and then Tim takes me to another beautiful place!  I feel compelled to write the words.  Someday, these pictures and this story will be all that is left of our amazing adventures!

We arrived in Fruita in the early afternoon.  We both took naps and then we hopped on our bikes and rode on the Colorado River Trail. 

This is a fairly new and really nice park.  We have a 93 foot pull-through site right along Bookcliff  Lake.

This evening, we were tired. We decided to drive into downtown Fruita and try Karma Kitchen, an Indian and Nepali restaurant.

We started with vegetable pokada and then we both ordered the garlic naan and the butter chicken. I got mild and Tim got medium spice. The chicken was tender and the sauce was delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

After eating, we walked the town circle and up and down main street. There is so much art.

Another fine day!