We pulled out of Utah in great anticipation of cooler temperatures ahead. We waved goodbye to the reddish orange rock formations as we pointed our RV slightly north and east. I sadly noted that we were finally starting to make our way back east so it felt a little bittersweet.
We soon noticed that we were following the Colorado River as we drove. The river became like a familiar friend, appearing sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left. At times it was narrow and calm, at other times it was a raging river with whitewater rafters and kayakers. We felt like we were heading in the right direction whenever we saw the river reappear.
We pulled off at a town called Palisade which is also known as the Napa Valley of Colorado due to the plethora of wineries. Our kids would have staged a mutiny if we had pulled into a winery, so we skipped that part and stopped at a cute little fruit stand instead where we got some incredible blood plums, luscious Colorado peaches, some peach chipotle salsa and pear butter. We then pulled off on the side of the road, kicked on the generator and had lunch inside the RV with a great view of some interesting mesa-like formations. A few passersby gave us weird looks for sitting on the side of the road, generator roaring, but that's ok. We're used to it now.
Back on the road we said hello again to the Colorado River as it meandered its way beside us. By now I was driving and it was time to get off the main road and make our way into the Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately we did one of our "trust the GPS instead of the map" moves and ended up on a godforsaken road through no-man's land for about the next 100 miles. Long winding road with no breaks, no gas stations, no nothing. I was having flashbacks to the drive to the Grand Canyon when I thought we would surely be stranded in the forest somewhere. At some point the GPS failed as well so we had to rely on a tiny squiggly line on the map to make sure we were going the right way.
At long last we emerged from the wilderness and continued on to Grand Lake, Colorado where we created a parking spot for our RV (something we've gotten pretty good at) and enjoyed a great dinner at Sagebrush Grill, a down to earth place with local brews, steak dinner special and shelled peanuts on the table in a bucket that you could break open and then throw the shells right on the floor. By that point we were all exhausted and ready to be off the road, plus we didn't feel like cooking at the campsite once we got there.
By the time we got to our campground, The Winding River Resort, it was after eight o'clock and getting dark. Fortunately our campsite was right up front and a pull-in so no need for backing in and feverishly directing John into the spot, something we hadn't had to do since that very first night in Virginia. We pulled in, enjoyed the sunset and made a fire. We definitely felt like we were finally in the mountains with the chill in the air and the surrounding mountains, although unfortunately some type of beetle has decimated the trees in the area so a lot of them were bare.
A group was camping nearby and seemed to have taken over a whole cul-de-sac section of the park. At first we thought they were young but it turned out they were slightly older than us and most of them looked like they'd been partying in the place for days. They were blasting their music, an interesting mix of off-the-wall eighties and nineties tunes. One plus of having an RV is that when it's time to go to bed you can't really hear outside noises unless you have the windows open, so the partiers didn't bother us at all. They did seem to bother a woman walking by who loudly complained that she'd come here to listen to the "sounds of nature, not someone's loud music!"
Next: Our day in the Rocky Mountains
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