Category: September October 2024

Well the time came to head home. With close to 3000 km to home, we figured it would be a 6 day trip. We had spoken with camping neighbours from Indianapolis who told us we might want to take Hwy 36 across Kansas and Missouri instead of I70. They told us it was a good road and the advantage was we would go through smaller towns with small parks that would often have a few inexpensive overnight camping sites. it parallels the interstate so we decided to try it.

After a restless night, we headed out Thursday morning. It was very windy all night, rocking the trailer and not making for a good night’s sleep. We debated waiting until Friday to leave but there was rain forecast most of Friday and we decided it would be nice to get ahead of that. Our biggest challenge for the day, beyond the wind, was finding a campsite for the night. While I70 across Colorado over to Denver has some beautiful country to see, most of the camping is either National Forest which had already closed for the season, or private and very expensive (like $80 USD). I had called one more reasonably priced campground but they were full. I put the question to one of my Facebook groups and got a suggestion for a county park on the west side of Denver. I called Thursday morning and got the last spot; a bit further than we hoped, but at least it was a destination!

We took advantage of our campground at Bear Lake Campground to unhook and refuel and get a few supplies.

Friday morning we didn’t rush out early, waiting for traffic to calm down. About an hour after Denver, we got off the interstate and onto Hwy 36. Over the next few days we appreciated this route. It was good road, quiet and without too much traffic. The towns were very spread out and often the speed limit only dropped to about 70 or 75 km per hr. We stayed in a community park with hydro and water for $15/night! Over the next nights, we also had another very small private park and as well as a community park.

We also saw a bit more colour as we got closer to home. Areas around Missouri had become more brown and dried up, due to the lack of water.

Our last night was spent at a Boondockers Welcome home. Near the town of Angola. It brought us right to the Michigan border. Only 500 km left for Tuesday and weather forecasted to be great!

Our last day was another beautiful day for travelling- a bit of light cloud cover, but still lots of sun and a high near 25 degrees C. We saw a bit more colour too.

All together, we travelled 11,770 km over 2 months. Of this, 3,915 km were without the trailer. Fuel costs were just over $1600 USD and camping almost $2300 for 60 nights of camping. Now the unpacking and cleanup begins! Until our next time, thanks for coming along with us.

We moved Monday to a more rustic camping area out in the desert. No hookups of any kind, so, we’re counting on the sun to give us our power. This far, it’s cooperated nicely, but we always have the generator as a backup.

The campground is on BLM land – otherwise known as Bureau of Land Management. This is actually more organized than much of the camping on BLM land we’ve seen, with designated roads and campsites with fire rings at each site. Paul gathered some firewood on some back roads and we were able to have a nice fire. The end of the evening, just has we were ready to head to bed, the wind came up very strong. So strong, we actually ended up having to put some water on it to basically put it out.

Wednesday, we decided to take another drive to check out one of the possible routes up to I70. Hwy 128 was a scenic road we had been on when we drove the La Sal Loop. It was a road that went right up to I70, and although there weren’t any restrictions for us to tow the trailer on it, we figured we’d drive it and check it out.

We stopped at a historic bridge. The bridge was no longer in use. Built in 1916, the Dewey Bridge succumbed to a wildfire in 2008.

There is a plaque with info about it, but unfortunately it is no longer easy to read. The replica of the bridge on it was kind of neat.

We had some beautiful views of the Colorado River and saw more rafts and kayaks. .

Shortly before we got to the interstate, the landscape flattened and we decided to turn around since Paul wanted to drive another road before we went back to the trailer. We made the decision we would take the more travelled route of 191 when leave Moab.

We then travelled back towards Moab to the Potash Rd. This road follows the Colorado River on the opposite side from the Kane Spring Rd. which we drove on Saturday.

Along the road, we came to a wall of granite that went straight up beside the road. We saw a number of climbers with their ropes climbing up. It appeared it was an area where people were learning to climb, as it was obvious many were saw were receiving instruction and spending a long time looking for their next hand or foot holds.

Eventually we came to a potash processing plant and beyond that, the road narrowed and became gravel/dirt. If you follow this road, it eventually becomes the Shafer Rd. which has lots of switchbacks up and into the north end of Canyonlands National Park. Having seen this road from Canyonlands, Paul knew I had no desire to travel on, so we turned around and headed back to the campground.