Wednesday – Thursday July 13-14, 2011

Tuesday night we witnessed an amazing thunder storm.  Rain came crashing down on the trailer with thunder and lightning that woke us.  Wednesday morning found the Mackintosh kids tumbling out of bed.  We shared breakfast and then they headed out to work and school and we headed out to go through the Rockies.  In an hour and a half we arrived in Denver and then pulled up into the mountains.   The sun was shining and the sky was blue and last night’s display was nowhere to be seen. 

The truck did its job, though slowly, and we pulled up through 11,000 ft passes at Copper Mountain and Vail.  We pulled off into a vista point and ate our lunch on the tailgate of the truck under the impressive spires of the Rockies.  We followed the Colorado River downhill (the evening storms were apparent here also as the river was very high and muddy) into Grand Junction and then on to Highline Lake State Park Campground (outside of Loma) for the night.  Once again we were blessed with a wonderful campground nestled into the Grand Junction valley.  Today’s drive was challenging and exhausting.   We have learned that the next time we do a trip like this we will not schedule such long days and we will stay two nights at each camp site.  There is just too much to see.

Thursday dawned bright and clear.  We were leaving the high mountains, green forests, and cool nights (we thought) for the desert again.  We stopped at several vista points and remarked at the amount of land out here that is inhabited.    The land in Kansas and Eastern Colorado was all farmed and fenced but out here there was not a soul to be seen (except on the highway).  Yvonne drove through the Wasatch Mountains.  She is really getting good at making this rig work.  We dropped into the Salt Lake basin in time for lunch and once again asked Rosemary where to eat.  She led us to a little restaurant in downtown Pleasant Grove, “Simply Splendid” where we had some simply splendid sandwiches outside in the front lawn. 

We climbed back into the truck and headed out of Salt Lake  past the Great Salt Lake, salt mines, the Bonneville speed way, and miles of salt flats. 

We were headed for Wells Nevada and an odd campsite that Stan had found at Angle Creek.  Now what would you think a campsite in the desert near Wells Nevada would look like.  We were a little afraid but….  We got off the freeway and turned into the Ruby Mountains and began to climb into snow studded high mountains that jutted straight out of the desert. 

We climbed to about 7,000 ft and found our camp ground in a little grove of quaking aspen.  Because of the angle of the site we had to unhook the truck so we could level the trailer.  So we hopped back into the truck and drove up to Angel Lake.  We were told that it was a beautiful glacier filled lake.  What an understatement!  It was such an unexpected gift considering that we chose the campground based on miles and not on environment.   The lake was at 8,400 ft tucked among towering 11,000 ft peaks covered in glaciers filled by a waterfall.  It was amazing. 

We watched a full moon rise over the high desert, had a cold night and a little bit of rain.  Tomorrow we leave for Tahoe.