Road Trip from Denver to Salt Lake City

On Friday afternoon we picked up our mini "trailer" or as we would call it "caravan" and headed off on our much anticipated road trip through several States to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. As you can see, it is a very small trailer and the plan is for all four of us to sleep in it with one person on the floor so let's hope that family harmony prevails for the entire trip! To achieve this we have decided to cook outside or eat out and to use campground washing facilities.

 We left Denver at 5.15pm but luckily the days are quite long here in Summer so we were able to enjoy the ride into the Rockies. Our destination today was to be Fruita, some 8 miles from Grand Junction, so photos had to be taken from the speedily moving car as there was no time to stop.

Rockies from the car

The Rockies are winter playground paradise and we passed several towns that are very alive in Winter with skiing and other snow sports. The buildings were all brown tall structures nestled on the hillsides, often blending in with the surrounding rocks and tall pine trees.

Dillon, Colarado

Our only stop today was at Dillon where we enjoyed a different-for-us meal at Qdoba - a Subway type of Mexican fast food. I tried a Mexican Gumbo which consisted of rice, beans, tortilla soup with salsa of my choice - salsa verde spicy tomatoes with garlic and jalapenos - cheese-just-a-little please and sour cream and tortilla strips. Yummy as I was, by now, hungry. 

Jimi Hendrix - in the Qdoba car park

It was growing dark by this time so the rest of the day's miles passed with two passengers sleeping while the third - myself - enjoyed the closeness of family being together after such a long time and determined to remain awake to monitor the driver's drowsiness. We arrived at Fruita near Grand Junction after midnight and found our reserved campsite by the light of the very bright stars that sparkled in amazingly clear skies.

James M Robb campground, Fruita, Colarado

Waking up next morning and stepping out into park was breathtaking and surprising as the dark of the night before had hidden the beauty of the surrounding stunning hills. Rabbits and prairie dogs popped up and scuttled around us as we headed out for a wake up walk.

Lake at Camp ground, Fruita

We then headed back to Grand Junction for a mighty breakfast at Ihop after which I decided that it should be my only meal of the day. I couldn't resist those hotcakes with maple syrup after all these years of deprivation! Memories of past trips around California, Nevada and Arizona  came flooding back with every bite.

Southern Utah

Soon after we left Fruita again we were into Utah and a big change in the face of the land. Here we were on the ground that I had less than two weeks previously photgraphed from the air. Brown, rocky terrain with small scrubby vegetation that had its own beauty. We took a short break to enjoy the difference and to watch a couple of lizards moving with speed down a rocky slope. A couple of eagle type birds were circling nearby on a thermal their beautiful wing feathers easily visible.

Green River, Utah

Green River was an oasis in the desert but the river was brown. No matter - we enjoyed a welcome coffee and snack and took on more gas ie petrol. That wasn't too painful as it was about a quarter the price we pay at home, even in a remote place such as this.

Southern Utah

Utah - Helper - Price area

Near Springville, Utah

Our last stop for the day was at Springville where we bought some fresh sourdough bread, had a coffee and caught up with our emails then it was onwards to Salt Lake City which was our sleep stop. As we came down the hill I was surprised not to see anything much of the city - it was situated in a huge basin, snow capped mountains on two sides with the Salt Lake many miles away.

Decor at Pat's Southern Barbecue, Salt Lake City

Dinner that night was an introduction to Southern Barbecue cuisine at Pat's Southern Barbecue where we learned that to barbecue does not mean "grill" but to slow cook meats and serve with mash, blackeyed peas, coleslaw and corn bread which is very much like a scone.

Breakfast the next morning was another foodie experience at Denny's Diner where I resisted the urge to consume more hot cakes and maple syrup and instead ordered two poached eggs and a slice of sourdough toast. What an effort that was though as all around me people were tucking into individual mountains of hash browns, buttermilk pancakes, corn bread, easyover eggs, steak sandwiches . . . Actually eating healthy food has been somewhat difficult as sugar is added in great quantity to everything including breads and milk.

Breakfast over, we picked up the trailer and joined the multitude of under repair freeways and the streams of the world's craziest drivers to find U Haul to get a higher hitch for our wagon - trailer. Thanks to an ipad and satellite navigation this was easy to do but getting out of the U Haul yard was not, as the culvert was deceptively deep and wide and the brake cord was scraped. An inspection indicated that everything was still working so off we went up a "sliproad" ie on ramp heading north to Idaho.

Team work solves the problem

Suddenly, simultaneously the vehicle began to sway, tires to screech and we were engulfed in nasty, smelly smoke. The wires had fused - and we weren't going anywhere, yet. While the driver recovered from the shock the officially qualified engineer and the clever amateur pulled out a roll of electrical tape and soon had the wires separated and taped. Another inspection and careful test, resetting of the braking system and we were again on our way.

Grand Teton - we will be there tonight!