End of Another Summer

For most folks the four seasons start and end based on a specific date. Since we started traveling there are only two seasons, summer and winter. Summer starts whenever we begin the trek to this year's summer "place" and ends when winter starts, that is when we pack up and leave the summer place heading the for the "winter place". Well, summer is over. We have packed up and moved on.

So, goodbye Montrose, Colorado, you are loosing your warmth. The urge to follow the sun has hit and we are movin' on to Arizona.

We lucked out and as we passed by Ridgeway we were treated to a hot air balloon. What a deal and it happened in the first 30 minutes of the trip.






As we drove along highway 145 (aka the San Juan Skyway), and climbed toward Lizard Head Pass, we began to see the signs of approaching winter. See the dusting of snow on the high mountains.



And the Aspen are just starting to change. Probably 7 to 14 days and the colors will be at their peak in most spots.









Wow, we sure were lucky to run into this common summer sight so late in the season. Yes, it is a road crew scurrying to lay some asphalt before it gets too cold. It is also nearly their last chance to hold up traffic.......

And looky here. We made it to Brenda, Arizona. All set up on our site and enjoying the 108 degrees (by my thermometer). The A/C in our trailer hasn't shut off for over 3 hours now.



Maybe we left the cooler climes a bit too early. But our departure from the Colorado mountains this summer was determined more by a planned trip back to Indiana than by the actual end of the nice weather in Colorado. So, even if it is hot here now, we'll only be here for a few days. Indiana, watch out, we'll be on our way soon. We'll get back to this "hot" spot by mid-November.

Marysvalle, Utah

Here we all stand, way above Marysvalle, Utah and its several hundreds of miles of mining and logging roads with many ATV only trails branching off.

We found many old mines and long ago retired equipment. We even came across a few active mines. Not sure what they mine today, but I'm betting precious metals still ranks high.

Ooopps,here we all standing around again. Probably trying to figure out just where we are and how to get to where we want to be. But it could have been a potty break...

Look, we weren't the only wild turkeys in the area. We came across deer and mountain goats as well. The mountain goats were so far away that my picutes are blurry, so I am not going to share them with you. Although I never saw any, there are elk also. Marysvalle, when not hosting ATVers, is a hunting mecca.

On one ride we came across what I expect was a summer cottage for the high meadows grazing area of a cattle ranch. It was a very scenic setting and probably at about 10,000 feet elevation (nice and cool in the summer).

And here you see us chasing each other down a mountain road. One might even suspect that this curving old logging road was fun, and it was.

Of course we are equal opportunity trail riders, so Jake rode along with us. He wasn't a very good driver, but he sure let us know when cows were in the way (arf, arf).

Marysvalle was really a great area in which to ride. There are trails going in every direction and you could ride to a half dozen little towns in the area. There are trails for all levels of skill, from dirt roads to steep and treacherous. We often road above 10,000 feet and our longest single day ride was 93 miles. There are special allowances for ATV's on the city streets and on most of the county roads, so we could ride our ATV's right out of our campground to almost anywhere within a hundred miles, and never had to take the truck.

It was a good week!