Early Summer 2015 Vacation: A Pic a Day (more or less)

Last week, Maggie and I embarked on a localish road trip, a four-day outing to northern Colorado, the close corner of Utah, and southwestern Wyoming.  Below, a few of the highlights.

Here are Maggie and Walter, hanging out along Mad Creek, just north of Steamboat.  This pic is from Day 2.  On Day 1 we hiked a bit among snow drifts on the Rabbit Ears Peak trail near Dumont Lake, watched paddle-board rodeo at the Yampa River Festival in downtown Steamboat, and stayed with Maggie's former students Wil and Sarah at a ranch house near Clark, CO.

After the Mad Creek trail hike, we headed west towards Dinosaur National Monument, stopping for a little hike near Cross Mountain before descending ~2500' feet at DNM from the rim of the canyon to the confluence of the Yampa and Green Rivers at Echo Park.  Here's a pic at Echo Park Campground, backgrounded by epic Steamboat Rock:

On Day 3, after the 12-mile drive back up the gravel road from Echo Park, we drove around to the other side of DNM, to the Dinosaur Exhibit Hall, where we got to see partially excavated bones from over 400 different dinosaur skeletons.

Night 1: Clark, CO.  Night 2: Echo Park Campground.  Below, our view from the yurt where we camped on Night 3, north of Vernal, UT, in the Ashley NF.

We had reserved the yurt for 2 nights, but the road into the yurt was so hairy that we decided to ditch it on Night 4 and camp at the rim of Flaming Gorge instead.  On our way from yurt to gorge, we hiked along the Outlaw ATV trail (in Ashley) and hiked the Little Hole National Recreation Trail below the dam at Flaming Gorge.  And made a loop out on some gravel roads to explore a bit more of Flaming Gorge country, too.  Here's the view from our campsite at Flaming Gorge:

 On Day 5, we drove from Flaming Gorge up into the desert country north of Rock Springs.  After talking to Craig and Shannon about their trip to White Mountain Petroglyphs and Killpecker Sand Dunes, I had to check it out.  Here's a picture of the amazing, other-worldly handprints at White Mountain:

 And here's Walter, looking deserted on the sand dunes at the Killpecker Wilderness Study Area:

 Since we decided to push on home for Night 5, we detoured south to Saratoga for dinner and a trip over the Snowies.

All in all, not a bad trip, and a nice reminder of the amazing, diverse, and lonesome country.  Most of our trip (excepting the descent to Echo Park) was within 5 hours of our doorstep, but 90% of our stops were new experiences for both of us.

The lessons: Get out there.  Discover, enjoy, and appreciate. Don't long for somewhere else; be present where you are.