Into the Wild – Tahoe National Forrest, California, October 11, 2024

We spent the last few days in Colorado at The Colorado National Monument which is a cross between the Grand Canyon and the Twelve Apostoles.  I had never heard of it before, and it is truly stunning.  We were able to find a campsite in the park, however, it was on the top of the monument which means Ron had to do the white knuckle drive up the steep and winding road to get there.  It was part of the reason we stayed there 3 days is we dreaded the drive down! 

Anyway, we decided to hike there, which went fine on day 1, but day 2 ended up being more exciting than planned.  About 2 miles into our hike up the hill, we saw a mountain lion stalking us from about 50 feet away.  Since crossing the Mississippi River, we are usually prepared with not only bear spray but also a machete.  Unfortunately, on this hike we opted to only bring water which left us very vulnerable.  We quickly turned around and started the very fast descent down the trail with the mountain lion following us.  Ron picked up a stick and a rock in case we couldn’t shake him while I was leading the way down the trail.  We cut almost 9 minutes off out time coming down compared with making our way up.  It is amazing how quick a little adrenaline mixed with some panic can make you move.  Luckily, we made it down to the visitor center before having any interaction with the mountain lion.  Whew!  This one was too close to call.  The only photo we got was of Ron’s “tools.”

The next day we opted to drive the rest of the monument and stop at some of the lookouts.  This place is beautiful and not nearly as crowded as the Grand Canyon.  I am very glad we stopped here, and we had a chance to see the rest of the park.

Finally, we ended up hearing from our insurance company and received the settlement paperwork for the boat.  So, Monday morning we took the scary drive down the mountain to our friendly UPS store in Grand Junction to get it notarized and sent off.  Now all we have to do is wait for payment.  The boat is no longer ours and has already been put up for auction.  The chapter is closed. 

We checked the weather and since the western US was having a heatwave it gave us a small window to head north.  One of our favorite things out here during our motorcycle trip was “Avenue of the Giants” in northern California.  This short heatwave was going to give us the chance to go and see it again if we got moving.  The gorgeous drive through Utah and the Rocky Mountains revealed some other surprising sites.  The quaint ski towns like Vail, Eagle Canyon, and Black Dragon Mountain.  It was a very pretty drive and something we did not see on the motorcycle last time since we took the southern route directly to Arizona.  Unfortunately, we didn’t stop at Moab, Canyonlands, and Arches national parks since we could not find a campsite.  We had hoped to come back to these when the weather cools down and keeps us farther south. 

We forged ahead through Salt Lake City and then straight West through the west side of Utah.  Interestingly, over 70% of Utah is owned by the federal government and much of it is for national parks.  As we drove through the west side it looks like snow since the ground is covered with salt.  We stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats which is the largest deposit of salt in the US and is 90% table salt.

We pushed through Nevada in a mere two days because unless you are a miner, rancher, or a gambler, there is literally nothing there.  The roads are miles of deserted desert.  The mountain backdrop is the only thing of interest.  As of today, we made it to California and are sitting in the Tahoe National Forrest.  We will make it to the Avenue of the Giants very soon!