Livingston, Montana

We arrived at the "Yellowstone's Edge" RV Park on the banks of the Yellowstone River north of Yellowstone National Park, just south of Livingston, Montana in the Paradise Valley today. It's a nice RV Park, though we like to call it "Highway's Edge" since it is as close to the highway as to the river, and the highway makes more noise. We ~could~ potentially, put kayaks or rafts in the water here and float to Livingston to visit Josh and Nikki, but we just drove the Jeep in, successfully dodging leaping deer and unsuccessfully dodging the prodigious hatches of stoneflies and other bugs - no wonder there are so many flyfishermen in the river! Leaping Trout, Batman! But I digress... the bugs were so thick on the highways at times that we had to refill our washer fluid, since we had to continually use the window washers to be able to see at times! At least they weren't mosquitoes or deerflies.

Josh, of course, gave us the Grand Tour of Livingston - he is so proud of his little town and loves to show it off in all its western classic glory. It IS a great place, with just enough culture to be really interesting, but not enough to make it snooty. It's a real place, a railroad town with the railroad still the centerpiece. But also with some great restaurants, cafes, shops, and theatre, downtown right alongside the Montana classics like The Stockman and Bob's Outdoor sporting goods. The light was especially good because of a fire in Yellowstone making the sky a little smoky, and giving everything a beautiful glow in the late afternoon light. Lest everyone think of moving there after seeing the pictures and hearing about the town, it does get cold there in the winter!

After we were settled in, we went on a drive in the Jeep - Josh took us up to the Bridger Mountains over Flathead Pass, and we explored almost every side dirt road that led up the mountains on either side of the road. Josh was funny, getting all excited every time we saw another road that looked promising! We found a few really nice little side roads that led up to meadows or views, and some "interesting" dead ends where we all got out to help Devin get the Jeep turned around safely. At one place, an open mountainside meadow with a view of the surrounding countryside, Josh tried to fly a kite, "tried" being the operative word there - ha. There were so many deer flies or meat bees Devin and I stayed in the Jeep to watch, laughing hysterically at ourselves sitting inside watching Josh and his pitiful little plastic kite fight the bugs between small gusts of light breeze - ha. The bugs weren't as bad at all on the other side of the pass, where we found a great road that led up to a fantastic view in the other direction and had a tailgate picnic lunch. Then we went across a little creek where we had to stop and wait for a deer who was getting a drink. Devin and Josh had a laugh coming back on that trail, as they went up the steep side of the trail that I wouldn't "let" them go down - ha. Lots of beautiful scenery and a little Jeep adventure and of course good company - it was a fun day!

Click here for more photos of Flathead Pass

The next day, Devin wasn't feeling well on the day of the parade for the annual Livingston roundup - Josh had told us how great the parade was, and how everyone in the town is either IN the parade or watching it. Sadly, we didn't make it this year, so we'll have to come back again someday.

We did, however, make it to see the Livingston Roundup Rodeo! Devin had never been to a rodeo before!! The rodeo has been a 4th of July tradition in Livingston for something like 75 years. Nothing like going to a big rodeo in a small Montana town to celebrate the 4th! It was one of those all American experiences that take you back to younger days and simpler times. We got tickets for July 3rd, or rather, Josh got us tickets, which was great. The clown was also really funny and sort of like the emcee for the rodeo. For a small town, Livingston puts on a pretty great rodeo, but even more than the calf roping, trick riding, barrel racing, bronc and bull riding, their fireworks display eclipses every other fireworks show either of us has EVER seen! The Pasadena Rose Bowl bills its display as the largest in Southern California, but the one in Livingston was MUCH bigger and better. It just kept going on and on and on... spectacular! We enjoyed it quite a bit! Since it was dusk and we were sitting behind a fence, our photos didn't turn out all that great, but you can still get the feel for the excitement - we were so close that we had to watch out for dirt clods getting thrown from hooves of bucking broncs and kicking bulls! Click play on the slideshow below to see more bronc bustin' action:

Yellowstone

We drove from Jackson Hole to Madison Campground in Yellowstone, where we got a last minute cancellation so we could stay in this central location in the park tonight. Then we explored the southern loop of Yellowstone's scenic "figure eight" roads. Highlights included the new Canyon Visitor Education Center, where we learned that the waterfall we passed on the way in marks the edge of the caldera, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Yellowstone Falls, the Hayden Valley - Where the Buffalo Roam, and apparently wolves - though we couldn't see any, Yellowstone Lake and the West Thumb Geyser Basin, all topped off by a dinner in the Old Faithful Inn and watching Old Faithful erupt by moonlight. Some photos in the slide show below:

More Jeep Adventures - of a different variety

Back in Ouray, Devin threw his keys on the dash at a restaurant, and when he retrieved them, there were less keys... it was then that we noticed the black hole that exists between the windshield and the dash in our Jeep! Looking with flashlights, we spotted the rest of the keys wedged between some wires behind the speedometer panel. We used a coat hanger and tried to fish them out, but only succeeded in pushing them down further to where we could neither see nor access them from any point above or below the dash.

We thought maybe some good bumpy four wheel drive adventures would jiggle them loose and they would fall onto the floor, but no such luck. Devin consulted the Jeep forum and got all sorts of commiseration and advice, ranging from "bummer" to tales of items they'd lost, and advice from take it apart, take off the dash, take down the windshield, and my personal favorite, "take it to the dealer and tell them there is a rattle and let them take it apart, and when they find the keys, say "what do you know?! Those are my wife's keys - she didn't mention she'd lost them!"" ha.

Well, after having tried most other things, such as taking off various panels, center console, stereo, etc, Devin finally decided to take the windshield down today. About 4pm we heard thunder, and Devin radioed asking if we had a tarp. Ha. The Jeep was completely taken apart - the windshield laying down on the hood, the hard top off and resting on the tailgate, the dash torn apart, front roll bars hanging akimbo. Devin thought that people driving through the campground would think we had stolen it and were stripping it for parts. A couple of people did stop - the usual, "how do you like your new Jeep?" questions ("fine, except for the key-eating dash hole!")

And guess what? Still no keys. We both tried a while and different techniques to at least see the missing keys, but no such luck. More poking about with the coat hanger, but not even a jingle. Wherever they are, they are well-wedged and I doubt we'll ever find them at this point. With both of us working, we got the Jeep put back together in about an hour. So now Devin has taken the windshield down and he'll never do it again! Why anyone would want to drive, even off-road with the doors and top off, without a windshield, is beyond me. Especially when taking the windshield down removes the front seat roll cage protection! That feature seems like a relic of the Jeep's days in the army, when you could mount a machine gun on the hood and shoot while driving through enemy territory. Not really needed so much any more. Though it all would have been worth it if we had retrieved the keys. Sigh.

Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole

We dallied about and left Lander quite late - waffling a bit on whether to stay or go. It would have been an easy choice to stay if we weren't running out of time before we have reservations near Livingston, and we had both Grand Teton and Yellowstone to see in the next 5 days. So we finally left around noon, and drove up through the Indian Reservation, which is quite beautiful, and along the Wind River. The Wind River is well-named! Devin was fighting the wind all day, which makes the motorhome act like a giant sail. We drove through Dubois, "Valley of the Warm Winds," which is cute in a tacky tourism sort of way, over the Continental Divide again - this time a 9,658 foot pass through mountains, and down into the Jackson Hole area.

The Jackson Hole valley is incredible - reminiscent of the Eastern Sierra, with a broad flat valley with the Snake River winding through it and the Tetons jutting up suddenly to the west. We saw 3 different herds of bison on the way in, and some pronghorn. We arrived at the Gros Ventre (pronounced "grow-vahnt") Campground, near Kelly and the Teton Science School (where I took a winter ecology course a few years ago - the place looks quite different covered in snow at 15 below zero!). The Campground is very pleasant and quiet - we chose a site in a "no generators" loop with a view of the Tetons over a ridge, surrounded by Cottonwoods and Willows and Sagebrush. It is very quiet - birds are singing, and we may see bears and moose while we are here! Tonight we are going into Jackson for dinner. I better get dressed...

We found a nice little Thai restaurant off of the main street, and it was quite delicious.

The next day, I (Maggie) stayed home in bed and rested all day as I had an eye infection that caused my eyelid to swell up. I thought it might just be a clogged duct, or allergies, so I took Benadryl and soaked it in hot compresses. Devin went out exploring, went back into Jackson, went grocery shopping, shipped off a faulty charge controller for our solar panels (we are boondocking on only half of them now, but it is enough). He drove up Gros Ventre road to the slide - a very large landslide that probably dammed the river when it occured. There is a guest ranch up there that looks awfully nice, and the river looks like a perfect fly fishing river.

The day after we arrived, I finally decided I needed to see a doctor about my eye - it wasn't getting better so was probably an infection. I went to the emergency room - another nice small resort town hospital experience with a cowboy doctor. Got antibiotics and eyedrops, and we had lunch at a great little tacqueria (Pica's). Afterwards, we drove up into the National Park, saw more bison, a couple more pronghorn, a black bear, a moose and an elk. The Black bear was a radio collared yearling that was browsing in the bushes off the main road, resulting in a bear jam. Bunches of tourists with cars blocking the road, out of their cars, practically chasing the bear to get photos and movies. I can't blame them for wanting to see a bear, but it just made me sad. The young bear was obviously already in trouble, wasn't running from people like a "good bear" and all those folks helping it to stay habituated were practically signing its death warrant.

Bears are wonderful creatures - objects of both our fascination and our fear, each of which emotions feeds the other. They are near mythical symbols of the wild, and yet we destroy that wildness in trying to get close to it. Paradoxically cuddly stuffed toys and slavering monsters, depending on the light and distance they are viewed from, bears probably feed our imaginings and longings of wilderness more than any other animal. Long may they roam the wild places of the world, unmolested. Maybe people will learn, someday, that they are merely wild animals, struggling to survive, following instinct and learning, fellow travelers on the planet - neither wild pets nor monsters - unless we make them so.

We drove down a "scenic drive" along Jenny Lake - ha. The main road is MUCH more scenic! You can see all of the Tetons and Jackson Hole from the main roads through the valley, but this "scenic" drive was down in a swale, surrounded by trees and you couldn't even see the mountains! It did go by an overlook of Jenny Lake that was nice, but that's the only scenic part. They should re-name it from "scenic drive" to "road to scenic viewpoint" or something. We thought it was rather funny.

We checked out Coulter Bay Campground off Jackson Lake - it is the other large campground in the Tetons that generally has camping available. The Gros Ventre campground is MUCH nicer! We made the right choice staying here. The sites in Coulter Bay are almost all pull-throughs right on the campground road, and very close to each other. It is in the pines, and each loop looked like a parking lot for RV's with both sides lined with motorhomes and trailers. They had a "no generators" section, but it wouldn't accomodate RV's longer than 27 feet, according to the sign, so we would have been stuck with the big monster RV's running their diesel generators all day - ick. We are camped in a "no generators" loop in the Gros Ventre campground that is open to anyone, as long as they don't run a generator. We really love having our solar panels and not ever needing to run our generator - they are noisy, stinky and obnoxious. Also, the campsites here are very spread out, and it is so large it never fills up, so the spots closest to us have never had anyone in them. As a result, it is very quiet here and we've been enjoying the wind in the Cottonwoods and the birds singing. Robins, Flickers, Bluebirds, Peewees, sparrows, finches and more. It's very peaceful.

The moose we saw was in an oxbow of the Snake River, pretty far from the road, but very picturesque. We'll see lots more in Canada and Alaska no doubt. And the single elk we saw was along the highway coming home, a doe grazing on a bluff overlooking the Snake River. So now we've seen quite the variety of wildlife here in Jackson Hole - tons of Bison, several Pronghorn, Trumpeter Swans and a Sandhill Crane and Canada Geese on the Elk Refuge, and the singles: bear, moose and elk.

While we were up at Coulter Bay, we stopped at the store to get a few things and Devin found the book he had read years ago while staying at a friend's cabin in Kelly's Camp in Glacier National Park. His friend gave him "Night of the Grizzlies" to read, about two separate Grizzly Bear maulings and killings that happened on the same night in Glacier in 1967. Some friend, huh? Ha. Devin said he was already nervous about bears, and then he couldn't put that book down, and it all happened right near where he was sleeping outside - I bet he didn't sleep at all! I figured I should read it, too, since he has talked about it and we are heading up into Grizzly country (there are Grizzlies here, too - some areas were closed due to bear danger). So we bought it, and like Devin, I wasn't able to put it down until I had read the whole thing. It read like a Jon Krakauer book - giving lots of background details, and painting the larger picture of the setting of the park itself, the bears, and the park service mission, as well as observations of folks with cabins in Kelly's Camp, with folks new to the park like the manager of Granite Chalet (who fed the bears nightly), and other campers. It is so easy to see how the NPS was complacent about the danger of bears - no one had ever been killed by a Grizzly in the park up to that time, and there were lots of people-bear interactions. It was at the end of the open dump era, but some places still had no other options and the bears ate their garbage nightly. It was a tragic tale, not just for the two young women, both park concession employees, who were killed, but for the bears themselves. In the end, I ended up crying for the loss of wildness that dead Grizzlies represent as much as for the tragic loss of lives, and the horrible guilt and second guessing that plagued the survivors and would-be rescuers. I am glad there are still Grizzlies in a few places in the lower 48 - a few places wild enough to still contain them.

My friend Shelton Johnson, a Yosemite Ranger, has used Faust as a metaphor for Grizzlies - replacing hell with wilderness and the devil with the bears - "Where I am, there is wilderness, and where there is wilderness, there I am." In an equally spiritual metaphor, Aldo Leopold, famous naturalist and author of A Sand County Almanac, stated, "There seems to be a tacit assumption that if grizzlies survive in Canada and Alaska, that is good enough. It is not good enough for me. Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there." Heaven or hell, wilderness is a necessity to our spirit. Wallace Stegner said,

"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of wild species into zoos or extinction; if we pollute the last clean air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will [we] be free from noise, the exhuasts, the stinks of human and automotive waste. And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the other animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it. We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. for it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope."

And back to Aldo Leopold, who said, "The richest values of the wilderness lie not in the days of Daniel Boone, nor even in the present, but rather in the future."

What will we do to keep the remaining bits wild? Is it possible? I hope so.

Lander and Shoshone National Forest

As we approached Lander, we first saw the "Sleeping Bear Ranch" RV Park, with a relocated ghost town, in the countryside about 8 miles south of Lander. It looked nice, but we decided we'd try the one in Lander first, and missed it on our first pass, so we ended up doing a little tour. Lander is a neat little town! I think the very large presence of the NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) headquarters has injected the town with some youthful culture. A restaurant called Cowfish was packed, and there were neat looking coffee shops and bookstores. We turned around and went into the Sleeping Bear RV Park.

We chose the Sleeping Bear because Devin is active on a forum for our new 2007 JK model Jeep (JK-forum.com), and the owner of this park, who goes by "Papa Bear" on the forum, is a Jeep nut, er, afficionado ;-p, and one of the moderators as well. When Devin posted that we were traveling through the west with our Jeep and asked for suggestions on where to go, he had invited us to stay at his RV Park and said he would take us out and show us some trails near Lander. We didn't really know what to expect, but we were immediately welcomed as long-lost friends and part of the Sleeping Bear Family. Dave (Papa Bear's real name) has a new 2007 JK Wrangler Rubicon, and has already done quite a few "mods" on it (Jeeper word for modifications). It has huge 35 inch wheels with bead locks (extra bolts that lock the bead of the tire down so that when you air it down for rock crawling, the tire won't flex so much it pops off the rim). He had it re-geared to go with the larger wheels. It had a lift kit which made it even higher, he had a swing-away spare tire holder on the aftermarket rear bumper, and he was waiting for his new front bumper. He had all four doors off, and I have to admit, it looked pretty sweet. Devin had Jeep Envy. Ours looks a little wimpy next to it. But Devin (and I) would have trouble getting into and out of one lifted so high, and we probably won't need all the extra features on that one. It's a Jeep that could do just about anything, though.

The RV Park is nice - up on a hill overlooking Lander with trees and an irrigation ditch of water running behind it. It is convenient for both town and back road explorations of the beautiful areas around Lander, which include the Wind River Range, many lakes and rivers, Red Canyon Wildlife Refuge, The Sinks, and more. The best part, though, were Dave and Chris, the owners, who are genuinely warm and friendly folks, and love sharing their considerable knowledge of the area with others.

Dave was excited to meet us in person, and immediately treated us like old buddies. He was going to take a couple, Scott and Marcy from Michigan, up to a trailhead for a backbacking trip the next day, and invited us to tag along, and we could do some exploring on the way back in our Jeeps.

We had a great day driving around up in the mountains, saw the backpackers off at the trailhead up in the Shoshone National Forest, and came back past numerous streams, lakes, meadows and great campsites, through Red Canyon, which is quite beautiful and is now an Elk refuge owned by the Nature Conservancy. Below is a slideshow of our day:

Dave apparently knows everyone in Wyoming! He's the kind of guy that's so friendly and nice, he'd probably literally give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He also obviously really cares about this place - he has an attitude of stewardship about these back road areas and will stop to pick up trash or let people know if they are not behaving properly (driving too fast, for example). As we drove along following him, he would stop and talk to several of the people we passed, and we got out and met the local off-road ranger, who was an old friend of his. It was surprising to us how heavily used this area was - there aren't that many towns nearby, yet the Shoshone National Forest/Bridger-Teton National Forest area of the Wind Rivers was being enjoyed by scores of campers, anglers, ATVers, hikers, backpackers, boaters and just sight-seers like us. It had more recreational use than the Sierra National Forest, where I used to live and work, and that is near several major cities and has many beautiful, accessible places to camp, hike, fish, and explore as well.

After a fun day out exploring, we came back to the RV Park and their evening barbecue and campfire, and hung around and swapped stories and enjoyed the beautiful sunset until quite late. Dave and Chris are creating a neat community of campers at their park, getting folks out of their RVs and around the campfire, which makes it more like camping used to be. We would definitely recommend a stay at their park if you are going through Lander!

See more photos of our Lander explorations - click here

Wyoming Ho!

We giddyup on to Wyoming

The clouds become such a palpable part of the landscape in Wyoming - mountains of cumulus piled up over the glorious rolling prairie. This land soothes my soul and makes my eyes seek the far horizons.

As we were driving through the prairie today, Devin said, "I like this lifestyle." He was thinking about how we could keep doing it - find ways to make money from the road and just keep living in our rolling home. It is wonderful. We both love it, and I hope we can figure something out to keep doing it indefinitely. I'll have to buy lots more Terra-Passes, but if we are doing this indefinitely, we won't travel quite so much - staying put as long as we like, and probably traveling shorter distances between stops. We do feel a slight sense of pressure knowing that we are only going to do this a year, more or less, as circumstances allow, and that we want to get to Alaska by August at the latest. So we are speeding through some areas that could stand more exploring, and if we had all the time in the world, we would come back and stay longer.

Where the deer and the antelope play...

We started seeing pronghorn before Wyoming, in fact, just outside of Craig, Colorado, was our first. I saw a pronghorn and a deer having a staredown across a pasture! I think they were saying, "what are you lookin' at?" "what are yewww lookin' at?" etc. They were both still as statues and completely alert and focused on each other. I got the feeling that at any minute, they would charge each other like rams in rut! that would have been almost as cool as a mountain lion fighting a bear. That is the quintessential kid question about wildlife - "if a mountain lion and a bear got into a fight, which one would win?" Now, every time we see an inaccessible cave on a cliff side, we say that's where they have the mountain lion-bear fights. It's like Fight Club for animals.

True West

Wyoming really feels like the true west. It's another case of a state having a distinct identity, like I talked about when crossing into Arizona. Colorado has its western side, too - west of the Rockies mostly feels very western. And by western, I mean cowboy. Real cowboys that smell like horses and have dusty boots and sweaty hats. And actually herd cattle.

We passed a marker for the Overland Trail today - it is easy to imagine wagon trains crossing this landscape. It really feels like the old west here, even though there are gas and oil wells dotting the landscape - I guess that's western, too.

As we cross the prairie in our modern Conestoga, I wonder if gusty winds were as hard on the Prairie Schooners as they are in a motorhome... The sky has lowered down to the horizon to the north - the direction we are driving, so there may be a bumpy ride ahead! Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and remain seated as we pass through some turbulence ahead...

Crossing the Great Divide

We crossed the Continental Divide four times today alone - not so much because we are wandering all over the place, but the divide does as well. That imaginary, yet very real division, that watershed roofline that tells a drop of water to go to the Pacific or Atlantic (via the Gulf of Mexico). It's not so obvious as you might think - not a great crest of a mountain range so often as it is the rounded top of a low rolling hill. But just as surely, water falling on one side will go to a different creek, different river, and utlimately a different ocean, than water falling on the other.

It makes me think of the divides, real and imaginary, that separate one kind of person from another. What watershed moments in our lives have directed us to where we are now, and to where we will ultimately end up. My wanderlust and love of the open road is easy to trace back directly to my parents, who also wandered North America in an RV, and before that they took me camping all over the west, and on long road trips on Route 66 "back east" to Missouri, where they both came from. And what watershed brought them to California from Missouri? That would be World War II, I suppose - many veterans found a new lease on life in the prosperity of the 1950's in southern California. Devin's wanderlust could perhaps be traced to his cousin Dave, who he looked up to as a child and has been a gypsy soul travelling the west in his truck camper with his dog for as long as Devin has known him. And what watershed divide directed the pioneers and settlers west in their wagon trains, and looking further back, what forces were at work on our country's first European settlers that they crossed an ocean to a new world? Of course, there are the easy explanations of history, but those same larger, historical forces were at work on entire populations, and most of them didn't go, so what was in the peculiar make-ups of our forbears that caused them to wander?

Divides, continental and personal, watershed events, make us who we are and direct our lives. But who can say when they are happening what effect they will have? They are more likely to be low rolling hills in the landscape of our lives than crested mountain ranges.

Split Rock

We stopped at Split Rock, and as if to answer my musing questions above, the interpretive signs listed all the reasons why the travellers on these westward trails passed this way. Trappers sought furs, prospectors wanted gold, Mormons sought their promised land, pony express riders, adventure, perhaps. But those are just reasons, and what I am more interested in goes beyond reason. Why, for instance, would a young man answer the call to become a Pony Express Rider when the ads said he would risk his life daily, and they preferred orphans? Is it because he valued his life so little? Or perhaps, and I think this more likely, that he valued Life so greatly? Life with a capitol L - Living Large - is what most adventurers, explorers and pioneers seek, I think. What could be larger for a religious person than their very own Promised Land? And for the Pioneers in the covered wagons, their very own quarter section to make into productive farmland, or for a miner, his very own grubstake. Their own. Finding a life that was theirs alone, and living it to the hilt. I guess that's what we seek as well.

Here's to you, fellow travelers!

Doobie Brothers and Beer

I've come this way before - over 30 years ago, my best friend, Lana, and I hitchiked across the country together. We got a ride up to Dubois, Wyoming, in a pickup truck, and it was one of the more memorable rides for me. I rode in the back, and they passed back a boombox with a Doobie Brothers tape playing "Old Black Water" and the rest of that album, and handed back some beer. Now I've never been a big drinker - I joke that my Indian name is "Maggie One Beer" - but man that beer was wonderful, as the plains and prairies flew away from the pickup and we floated along in that wonderful sky-prairie landscape, pronghorns leaping away in herds, like parting waters, as we passed.

Wyoming, to me, will always be a drunken ride on the prairie.

See more photos of southern Wyoming

Colorado One Night Stands: Steamboat Springs

After Leadville, we headed out to the north, over three passes, to Steamboat Springs. Along the way, we passed some major mining operations. Leadville was, of course, a mining town, as was Coaldale (guess what they mined there?) Today, there is still mining - a huge Molybdenum mine is near the summit of one of the passes. They seem to be taking the mountain down - it appears quite destructive compared to other mining operations in the area. And there are large toxic looking lakes as well as tailings.

When we got down to I-70, there was a Starbuck's! So we got coffee and lunch. We headed east on I-70 through several large ski towns that were very developed, then turned north again and were in the country. We saw lots of rivers today - the Blue River, Colorado River, and Yampa River are three large ones.

When we got up to 40, we headed back west over Rabbit Ears Pass and crossed the Continental Divide again and descended into the Yampa Valley where Steamboat Springs town and ski area are. We got the last spot at Steamboat Campground (or maybe just the last spot they deemed big enough for us). It was a pretty nice place - the ONLY place in Steamboat - full hookups, cable, WiFi, laundry, store, and the Yampa River runs right through campground!

We ate dinner at an Italian place in town with a porch. The food was okay, but we enjoyed sitting on the porch overlooking the river and train tracks. We watched a coal train that went by forever and thought about mining and energy - where did the coal come from and where was it going? I once read that 70% of the electricity in this country comes from oil and coal burning power plants! Coming from California, where the perception is that much of our energy comes from hydroelectric dams, this was surprising to me. But we also get power from the Navajo Coal power plant that is dirtying the air at the Grand Canyon, among other fossil fuel burning power plants around the state.

We are really glad we have solar panels on our RV, and when we move into a "stick house" again, we would love to go solar! We are also glad we bought Terra Passes (we bought 3) to offset our carbon emissions and have done what we can, such as adding the Banks Power Pack Exhaust System, watching our speed/acceleration, and keeping our tires inflated with our SmarTire Tire Pressure Monitoring System and our Air Lift Heavy-Duty Air Compressor to increase our gas mileage (even though we have those primarily for safety). Even in a rolling house towing our Jeep, we get better gas mileage than a Hummer (H1, anyway). Of course that's not saying much! I guess we are using up all the "credit" we earned from walking or, in Devin's case, gliding (on his Segway) to work for years. We hope to have a low impact lifestyle after this adventure, but we are glad we are doing this while we still can.

See more photos of Leadville to Steamboat