RZR – Page 2 – TooBusyForWork

Back from server problems (I hope!)

For the last few weeks the site has been plagued by hosting problems. It would be up for 5 minutes then down for hours then up for 30 minutes down for 5 … You get the message. I contacted Bluehost, did the standard wait for an hour for text support, you all know the drill. Nothing they did seemed to work, but a couple of days later it started working for longer and longer. I finally trust it to stay up long enough to get a post up, even though there isn’t much to say.

Kevin added a 2” lift kit to the UTV, so we took a short trip to the local OHV park to check it out. It is a small area, but it has enough variety to make sure everything was working well. It gave us a total 1 1/2” increase in height. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is gave us 11.5” in the front and 9.5” in the back now. That is a significant change and will be very helpful in the Arizona rocks this winter.

We were the only people around so we had some nice animal sights. While we didn’t see this beaver, we certainly knew it was around!

There were some visible animals though. We saw at least 20 turkeys in two groups, one big and one small, plus a single deer who didn’t see much in us to worry her.

We also had one more group ride from the Volga, IA. There was an awful lot of rain beforehand, so this trip also was re-routed to mostly gravel roads. I felt sorry for the organizers. They had cleared more trails and gained additional landowner permissions for newer locations, and then they had to hit mostly the gravel roads! However even the gravel roads are lovely in Allamakee county.

One of the characteristics of group activities in Iowa before the corn is cut is the guys head into the corn instead of the provided toilets. It makes for shorter lines for the women!

It wasn’t peak color, but it was still nice.

We also took a trip to the largest OHV park in Iowa near Ft. Dodge. I was not a fan. I like to ride to see scenery, not for an adrenaline rush. The majority of the area is a bunch of trails emphasizing mudding and fast corners. Of course there were some lovely spots.

We also went to a local community playhouse to see “Noises Off,” a backstage/front stage comedy of actors in a play. I am sorry to say it was awful! The actors did what they could with the play, but the play itself was pretty bad. Too bad because it is a lovely theater, and we hope to go to other plays there. We also went to a presentation of “Annie” at Gallagher Bluedorn theater at University of Northern Iowa here in town. Nicely done, but I never can figure out why theater seats copy airplane seats in size! My knees bump up against the seat I front of me!

I also got a truly disgusting cold/sinus “thing.” That has lasted for two full weeks now. I dosed myself with a huge amount of meds in order to visit a pain doctor for a steroid injection in my back. It is already a little bit better, and I hope it improves significantly.

No real quilting, but I am prepping for a class on ruler quilting offered virtually by a quilt shop not too far away. The result will be a whole cloth quilt using a Westerlee arc ruler. It will be three hours each night on three more nights. Our first night was a bunch of background and how to set up for the quilting part. I had to do an awful lot of marking to get started, and I still have to get it trimmed and sandwiched by Tuesday! We will see. I have a backup plan of scraps to use for the practice. Maybe my next post will be a picture of the result.

Back home from Alabama

On Monday 18 September, we got the rig detailed inside and outside. They did a pretty good job, but the exterior detail didn’t include any waxing which disappointed me. I think we will go back to the guy we used before next time. We left on Tuesday morning and spent the night at the Perryville Elks Lodge. It was a big parking lot that wasn’t very level, but we managed to get the rig in the best place possible and leveled with blocks. They had a 20 amp socket for electricity, but we didn’t need it, so we dry camped. I had planned on having a drink in the lodge, but it stunk of cigarette smoke so I gave up on that idea. Wednesday night we stayed at the Mississippi River RV Park in Canton, MO. It is run by the city. It was a great spot immediately below Lock and Dam 20. We got to see a few barges coming through, but the river is so low there wasn’t much traffic.

We decided to put the rig at Big Woods Park again to get everything cleaned, emptied, and winterized. It was nice to be home again. The cats seemed to agree, and they were running around immediately. While we were home in the first week I had a doctor’s appointment, met with our financial advisor, went to church and later choir practice, and got my COVID shot. I didn’t do any sewing at all!

We went on a charity UTV ride on Saturday, 30 September. It was for the Waterville Fire and EMS, a volunteer group. It was HUGE! They had three different groups starting at different times along different routes for a total of almost 600 rigs. The vast majority were UTVs, but there were a few ATVs in the mix. It is mostly on private land open only to donation rides like this. There had been a LOT of rain in the last week – 6+” – and the trails were wet and the creeks full. We got that figured out when our first creek crossing got people stuck! In the picture below the one in the back was buried to his axles. The two in front of him on the left were pulling him out with tow straps, and the one with the red lights went around the stuck rig on the right like we did. The water did come inside the RZR, but it is designed for that, and we were fine.

This is about the separation of the rigs on the trail. As you can see, the trails were quite muddy. But the rain made for some lush vegetation.

There were pre-planned stops every hour or so. I liked the view at this spot a lot. It is absolutely a classic view of the northeastern Iowa a landscape.

The ride was billed as the “Fall Colors” tour, but we were at least a week away from significant color.

“And the woods were lovely, dark and deep”

It was a 5.5 hr trip going only 39 miles with long stops, but that is to be expected with a large group. We had to wait for at least one rig with tire problems. We went on this same ride last year when the RZR was brand new, so it was nice to how much more comfortable we are with it this year.

Another thing we got done was to replace out dying maple tree with a new honey locust tree. Frost Tree Farm is great to work with. He took out the maple for free, planted the locust, added mulch to it and the elm, plus even pruned my crabapple tree in the front! He is retiring soon though, so these trees better grow.

As always, the posts will be less frequent while I am at home, and we will be here until after Christmas. I will be doing some sewing though, and I will post that as I finish the quilt tops I have ready for quilting.

Various parts of Bighorns then Lake DeSmet

We got tired of no internet in Tie Flume Campground, so we headed to Lake DeSmet, a county park 8 miles north of Buffalo. There is one section that has electricity, but it is crowded and closed in, so we opted to dry camp in a lovely pull through site right next to the lake. This is the view from my front door.

We just decided to take the pickup and RZR to some more trails in the northern Boghorns. I will just post lots of pictures with a few comments. Hope nobody is tired of scenery yet, because this area is FULL of it! I am being very lazy about the texts.

Lots of big bluffs. See our trail in the middle?

I finally got a decent picture of a mule deer! We saw lots but they took off quickly.

And we saw cowboys! See the two dots to the right?

One trip along FSR 178 got us up to snow line.

We went well above this larger snow pile

Three layers of switch backs along US 14

Fish hatchery house

Toilets in a dispersed area along old US14! Uncommon site.

It also rained on us hard one day – over an inch! We generally just relaxed, read, and I sewed some. I finished the little rag doll I was working on except for her hair. The kit supplied yellow yarn for the hair, but I am going to find some brown since the granddaughter that gets it has brown hair. I sure won’t do that doll again! Such skinny little arms and legs to turn and stuff! I didn’t get a picture before I put it up in the cabinet – sorry.

We left DeSmet today to head to Gillette. We have a Diesel RV Club rally starting Sunday, and as an officer I have to be there early. It is a bit of an adjustment to get used to traffic and people parked a few feet away. We are getting some laundry done though, something sorely needed. It might be a while until I post again due to the rallies.

Crazy Woman Canyon and moving to Sheridan and civilization

We took one last trip in the RZR on Friday from our camp on Grouse Mountain. We went to a trailhead for Crazy Woman Canyon and drove Rt 33 until just past the Forest Service boundary. The ride is well worth the hype.

The main road is suitable for passenger cars, and there were a number of them along the way

I do apologize for the sun reflections. I didn’t know it was this bad until I processed the pictures. But the bluffs quickly came to overshadow us. We met another couple in a side by side as we were unloading. They had just arrived, so we went over the routes with them and asked if they were interested in joining us. It is much safer with more than one rig, and our driving styles were pretty similar.

When we got to the bottom of the canyon, the walls closed in tightly. Sadly none of those pictures came out at all, so you will just have to go yourself! We climbed up out of the canyon after a while, and the views got much broader.

We found a new flower along the way. I think this is bee balm, and it had just started blooming.

The rocks here are very ancient limestone, and they fracture regularly. It was interesting to see the result of a rockfall in open country. The rocks are big, with the rectangular one closest to the cliff perhaps 20’ tall.

Once we finished the main road we just took off randomly along the trails. They got significantly rougher, but we also left the people in passenger cars behind. We only had one unexpected dead end needing back tracking. That was when a trail crossed a water way that was an unknown depth and moving pretty fast. Discretion being the better part of valor, we turned around there.

There are a number of cabins the Forest Service now rents out. This is the Muddy Guard Cabin just off the trail head. I don’t know what it looks like inside, but the outside was in good shape.

We came back to the motorhome, cleaned up (a UTV ride gets you dirty!), then headed to Peter D’s Campground in Sheridan where we had reservations. It is a small place, family owned, and spotless. It is a bit older though, and our passenger side slide was maybe 4’ from our neighbor’s driver’s side slide! It was pretty inexpensive at $40/night, cash. We started the inevitable laundry, and on Saturday we drove out US 14, the northern route through the Bighorns.

This is a much more abrupt climb into the mountains with 8% grades and tight turns, but it is a spectacular drive. We have done it a number of times. Like Crazy Woman Canyon, the rock here is mostly ancient limestone, and it fractures with water over time. Here it overlies a thin layer of shale. When the shale gets wet, the heavier limestone slips and fantastic landslides result. This is one of the biggest – Fallen City. I hope you can get a feel of the scale – those blocks are HUGE!

We were hoping to see moose in the area, and I was so excited when I saw this!

But a closer examination showed a nice mule instead. Sigh.

We were lucky enough to see two marmots cuddling on a rock. Their faces were adorable, and they didn’t seem to worried about us.

Sunday I got my latest Hunter’s Star quilt top finished. As you can see, tops are called “flimsies” for a reason! It also needs a good pressing, but I won’t get to that until we get home, and I am ready to quilt it. It is 40×52, a nice size for a baby girl quilt. I will put it in my stash for the next one that comes along. I like having a couple of baby quilts ready.

Tomorrow we are riding the RZR to the Owen Creek Campground area. There are lots of trails around there, and we just might find a campsite there. On Saturday we did find a few non-reservation places we could fit, so we will check those out too. If we can find a place, we will claim it and take the motorhome tomorrow. If not, we will come back to Peter D’s and plan on boondocking somewhere beginning Tuesday.

Still in the Bighorns

We have had a great time here, but we plan on leaving tomorrow. Here are the highlights.

Monday we had our son, his wife, and their three kids out for dinner. They are camped in Circle Park campground a few miles down the road. I made green chili enchiladas in the Dutch oven, and I made a peach dump cobbler in the convection oven. Pretty tasty if I say so myself. There was a classic mountain “maybe gonna rain, maybe not” view with virga not making it to the ground. But my oh my the rainbows! Here are the best of the ones I got.

How often do you a perfect double rainbow?

On Tuesday we took a RZR trip. Our first goal was the Sheep Mountain Lookout. We trailed to a nearby trail head, unloaded the RZR, and headed up a moderate gravel road suitable for SUVs or pickups. Most of the traffic was various side by sides and ATVs though. It was the most traffic we had encountered on this trip by far.

Some of the interesting things along this road were the numerous small springs and seeps. They seemingly occurred every few hundred yards. Some were big enough to really show flowing water, but some just kind of trickled their water out.

The Road goes through an old burn scar for quite a bit of the way. I am guessing it was 20-40 years ago, assuming the trees here grow slowly in this climate.

Once we got to the top, it was incredible views, even with a bit of haze.

The cabin has bunk beds that I could see, and the toilet was just down the hill a bit to the right of this picture.

The old lookout is now a FS rental cabin

After wandering around some and breathing the 10,000+’ air, we headed back down the hill for lunch. Pretty nice spot!

We then took some alternate roads to our trailhead, meeting up with two other small RZRs that we had encountered at the lookout, and they kindly let us join their group. Good thing too! We eventually got to a rock ledge we didn’t feel comfortable doing on our own, but it was fine with someone else around. We are VERY conservative when on our own! Yes, we have an InReach for emergency communication, but my goal is never to have to use it. Here’s a video one of the rigs took.

Hey, it was bigger than it looked for our little rig! See the wheel grabbing air?

On the way back we decided to drive to the Powder River. I was expecting a bigger river, but I guess we are close to the headwaters. Along the way we saw one of the only large animals – a mule deer. One of the disadvantages of a UTV is the noise; makes it hard to see many animals.

Trust me, that really is a mule deer with growing antlers

Wednesday we stayed at the campsite much of the day, but we did have a fabulous lunch at the South Fork Outfitters restaurant – green chili hamburger for me and green chili cheeseburger for Kevin. It was fabulous!

We had a real mess with the rig on Tuesday too. The slide topper over our bedroom slide broke, and one end was banging loose. Kevin spent some time stabilizing it and firming how to get it off. We dropped by to see the kids at their campsite, and they planned on helping us get it down today. It got so windy today that Kevin and I finally figured out a way to get it off before the fabric ripped up. Now we have yet another thing to get fixed when we get to Alabama in September. Sigh. Motorhomes really are a money out, but we still love the lifestyle.

We had planned on taking a RZR ride today too, but pretty strong winds blew up along with a bit of rain. We decided to wait until tomorrow. Gives us time for a nice meal tonight!

I do love the Bighorns!

We arrived at the Grouse Mountain Dispersed Camping area in the Bighorn National Forest on Thursday, 20 July. The area is just a few miles from Buffalo, WY and just off US 16. This is the view outside our front door. As you can see, we don’t have close neighbors.

On Friday we decided to take a short UTV ride down the road we are camped on, FR 402. Nice ride! Most of the other campers were near the gate into a second grazing area, but there was one guy who really wanted his privacy.

As we reached the end of the road and the NF, we could see De Smet lake. You will have to expand the picture probably, but it is there. Decent dry camping available, and we have stayed there a couple of times.

Looking another direction we could see the town of Buffalo. You can probably see US 16 the most clearly, but the town is there, I promise.

Decent road surface returning to the motorhome

We expected more people to arrive on Friday night, but it is still spacious. You can get a feel for the crowded conditions LOL!

We took it easy on Saturday, driving down US 16 to the town of Tensleep. US 16 takes this big curve around the Cloud Peak Wilderness headed south before it turns back west. The scenery was lovely, and we looked at a few trailheads and side roads along the way. Not many pictures though! We got back to some excitement. A bunch of cowboys/girls were moving cattle just past the gate I mentioned earlier. The last time we were here, we saw a bunch of cattle being brought to summer pastures in big semi trucks. This was just moving the cattle from one pasture to another.

Also on Saturday I finished the last of the 12 Hunter’s Star blocks I need for my next quilt. Now all I have to do is sew the blocks together and put on a couple of borders. I hope to do that before the FMCA convention so I can show off the flimsy.

Sunday we took a RZR ride down towards the Hunter Creek area. There were some nice spots for views and a few very rough rocky roads. We didn’t have a real destination in mind, just a casual “let’s see what’s there” view. The views from Hunter Mesa were stunning any direction you looked.

Amd of course there were flowers. I have actually been quite restrained about posting flower pictures; I probably have taken 100 or more!

This was one of the easier sections of the rocky trail. On the really rough sections, I just held on tight!

Tomorrow we are having my son and his family out for dinner and hanging out. Peach cobbler in the convection oven in the morning, and green chili chicken enchiladas in the Dutch Oven for the main course. Yum! Of course I have to clean up the motorhome before they get here!

Vedauwoo and surroundings followed by Douglas and Casper

We ended up staying at Vedauwoo for 10 days, leaving on Monday, 17 July. Fabulous place. Here are some of the highlights.

There is water in some of the creeks. Plus we saw a moose! Largest mammal we saw. Hundreds of pronghorns though.

I can not express how beautiful the wildflowers were. I actually became numb to them because they were so abundant and beautiful. It had been a wet summer, and the flowers showed it.

One day we took a short trip to the Ames Monument. It marks the highest point on the Union Pacific Rail line. The line was eventually moved a few miles south, but the monument stands pretty much isolated on a hill of land.

The weekend got rather crazy at Vedauwoo. All the designated sites were filled, and there was a small amount of illegal camping. If anyone knows who this particular Iowa asshole is, please let me know. Notice the “No Camping” sign right in front of his pickup.

We didn’t stay at Vedauwoo the entire time. We took a trip into Fort Collins for a Trader Joe run, and we took a trip into Cheyenne when I found this lovely Bernina 930 for sale! Good price, and it is spotless. I have wanted one of these for a while, but I am cheap. I just kept looking for a good deal, and I eventually found one. The machine has a heel tap feature which takes a complete half stitch, either up or down, plus it always stops with a full stitch up. So far so good, as you can see on my sample.

We also ended up in Laramie a few times, once for groceries and once to dump at the Old Territorial Prison. Nice clean dump station with a recommended $10 fee. Kevin also got an oil and air filter change for the RZR. There are a bunch of shops in the area!

On Monday, 17 July, we left Vedauwoo for Douglas, WY. We needed to do laundry and generally clean up after 10 days boondocking before we went to the Bighorns for another 7-10 days. We are staying at the Fairgrounds. Standard parking lot fairgrounds spot, but only $30 FHU.

Anyone who knows me knows we like finding historic places, and while we were in Douglas, we visited Ft. Fetterman. Not much original really there, but the visitor center had been restored with a nice little museum. I really enjoyed the video they had. The views across the Northern Platte River were amazing. Ft. Fetterman was the last of the Indian forts along the North Platte, and it was situated on a high bluff. You can’t see the river from the bluff anymore because the North Platte was known for wandering. The views are still amazing though.

We visited Casper twice. Once was for dinner and to pick up medication refills; the second was to visit Ft. Caspar. The two spellings are not typos, or at least they aren’t for me. The town was named after the fort, but there was a misspelling in the original documents. Caspar Collins, son of the person Ft. Collins, CO was named for, was killed while stationed here. In those days it was “North Platte Station.” This fort was reconstructed by the WPA based on drawings Lt. Collins made. It has a really nice museum plus the reconstructed fort components.

One of the interesting things we discovered by visiting the history museums is the intersection of Wyoming, oil and gas development, and the audio book Kevin and I are listening to while driving the motorhome. The book is “Killers of the Flower Moon” about the horrific murders of numerous Osage Indians in Oklahoma in order to inherit their rich oil lease payments. The companies are the same, and the scandals mesh together quite well. Since both of us are Oklahoma born, we were sadly not surprised this portion of Oklahoma history wasn’t taught in schools. Neither was the Tulsa Race Riot, and even more people died there due to greed, envy, and racism.

Senior officer quarters were quite luxurious.

Even the enlisted quarters weren’t bad, though they slept two to a bed. Might have been warmer that way during those long Wyoming winters on that very exposed bluff!

The sutler was the fort store with food, clothing, and miscellaneous supplies that made life a bit more bearable for the soldiers.

One of the primary purposes of the fort was to protect an important bridge across the North Platte used by settlers and prospectors flooding west. The bridge was over 1000’ long, a real feat for frontier builders. It made them a fortune though! Prices were flexible – higher in high water, lower when there were other crossings possible.

One of the alternatives was a ferry established by Brigham Young when the Mormons were on their way to the Salt Lake valley. They had a reconstructed ferry with a sample wagon too.

We leave Douglas tomorrow for a boondock site outside of Buffalo along Highway 16. We have a few places in mind, but we will look at them before we decide where to settle. My oldest son and his family are going to be tent camping in the area, and I am looking forward to seeing all of them.

From Utah to Wyoming

We left Bear Lake on 6 July. We spent the night at Red Desert Rose Campground in Rawlins, WY. Nice enough place, a bit careworn, but they were trying to have grass between most of the sites, and the pull throughs were HUGE so no unhitching. We left fairly early on 7 July to head to a Boondockers Welcome site just into Colorado between Laramie and Wyoming. It didn’t work out. First, the road in was 8 miles of awful washboard (12 miles total from the highway), and secondly, we could not get level no matter what! We tried 3 different locations in his field with every block we owned, and nothing worked. We finally gave up, took the awful road back to the highway, and headed to the Vedauwoo area of the Medicine Bow National Forest only a few miles back west.

I was a bit skeptical we could find a spot on a Friday afternoon, but we scored a truly primo spot! We stayed here before on our way to Arizona in June, but this time we aren’t rushed for time. They have a system I think is the future of dispersed NF and BLM land – identified sites, very well separated and private, and free. We were lucky and got site 4. This is the view out our door.

The scale is hard to imagine. Look carefully at the bottom of the “nose” for a human for scale.

Another photo for scale. Those tiny white dots were climbers.

This cubist delight is just to the right of our site. It is huge too.

On Saturday we decided to take out the UTV. It rained on Friday night, and the area has had a lot of rain on other days. The meadows are amazingly green, and the roads were amazingly muddy.

We had planned a circular trip leaving and arriving from our campsite, based on the official Motor Vehicle Use Guide. However a couple of hours in, our published “open” road was marked by a “No motor vehicles” sign. It was obvious a lot of people had ignored the sign and continued, but we didn’t feel comfortable with that. We then just turned back and rode some other dead end trails, just to see the sights. Of course we saw more rocks! I do love rocks.

This was one sight that puzzled me. It was an open pasture, fairly but not completely flat with a number of low embedded rocks in the surface. There were a number of these pipes, some capped and some not, seemingly randomly arranged over maybe 1/2 an acre. Mining? Old foundation? I couldn’t see any other artifacts, just the pipes.

And of course we have seen flowers. The white ones were smaller than a dime and close to the ground. Indian Paintbrush is the state flower of Wyoming, and it bloomed in profusion along with the other standard flowers we have seen. The yellows were not as common. They are Alpi e Sunflowers, and like other sunflowers, rotate during the day to follow the sun.

Today we decided to take the truck along the Snowy Ridge Scenic Byway. It was a good decision. Beautiful country south east of Laramie. We hit snow line at about 9000’. We topped out just under 10,400’. Hard to breathe when there isn’t any air!

There were lots of interesting sights along the road, but this observation point was particularly interesting.

The views were incredible. This was generally southwest and the next picture was more south. I am pretty sure those snow covered peaks in the second photo are in Rocky Mountain National Park, one of my favorite places.

Note the “watermelon snow.” The pink color is from a bacteria that thrives on the snow and glaciers. And yes, the skies really were that blue!

Looking from the observation point to our parking spot

There were dozens of alpine lakes along the way. Some were ephemeral and dry up in dry years, but some are large. This is one of the large ones right next to the road. It was busy with anglers and hikers.

We ate a late lunch in Walden, CO at River Rock Cafe. Very good food, and great home made peach cobbler. We came back to the motorhome a bit tired, rested, and then enjoyed the late afternoon sitting outside and watching the climbers on the rocks behind our campsite.

Tomorrow, more UTV trails.

Yet more RZR riding in southern Utah

It was a nice day on the trails. We left before 9:00, and we got back a bit after 2:00 – 67 miles. We first drove south to Koosharem, then up a trail along the west side of Mormon Mountain. We crossed UT 24 and headed east along the Paiute Trail. We did take some interesting side loops here and there, but the day was glorious. I am having trouble with the Go Pro battery, so these were all on the iPhone. Be prepared for picture overload!

Not gray rock but a hillside of purple flowers

We saw 8 deer, the first big mammals we have noticed. The RZR is noisy, so we don’t sneak up on things very easily. Besides these three, we also saw a doe and two spotted fawns plus two other solitary deer.

A d lots and lots of flowers. The best were around 7500’.

The center of these reminds me of a shooting star

A lot of clearing cedar trees had been done to the hillsides. It isn’t done by cutting the trees, but by dragging these huge chains between two tracts/bulldozers. It looks pretty horrid right after, but the work will open up the lane for more native vegetation. The fact that it will increase cattle grazing space is also factored in.

There were some old favorites that showed up.

At 7000’, the landscape was mostly sage and cedars.

There were a few surprises like this amazing flower. This was the only one like it I noticed.

We had lunch at Rex Reservoir. Those trees across the lake? Their trunks are 2-3 feet deep in water!

When we got up to 7500’, the scenery changed significantly. Lots of scrub oaks started showing up, and the Mountain View’s improved. If you blow up the picture below and look carefully,there is still snow!

More of the white crepe-like flowers, this time in a clump around Rex Reservoir.

It was the first cloudy day we have had. Ignore the rutted road and look at the lovely sky.

I found only one of this beauty too. An odd cup-like shape.

More sky drama. It wouldn’t be of as much note but the skies have been pristine blue until late afternoon since we arrived.

It was a fabulous trip, but processing this many pictures is time consuming! Just a short drive tomorrow to check out a specific trail, then it will be time to drive into town to get gas.

Southern Utah for a while

We stayed in St. George, Utah just one night on Saturday 24 June. We always stay at the Temple View RV Park, but it is hard to get around their building with the toad. It just isn’t set up for big rigs. The sites are fine though, so we keep coming back. We needed to run the generator for AC pretty much the entire trip since it was still so hot. I was so glad to leave the heat and move to the mountains!

We are staying at the Water Clover RV Park in Burrville, UT, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The campground is owned by the Koosharem band of Paiutes, and it is on their reservation. Definitely a very basic place that has gravel sites and needs mowing, but it is only $150 for the week with full hookups! Can’t beat that deal. It also is right on a big OHV trail system and near Fish Lake, a big recreation spot. There is one other rig here, but I think they a seasonal since no one has been there since we arrived. Nice view over a small irrigation reservoir.

We took Monday to wander around the area and get information. I had to go to the ER on Sunday when my reaction to the gnat bites I got more than a week before got really concerning. I was afraid I had an infection, but it was just a terrible immune response. I got some super duty cortisone cream that is making me feel much better. We also went to the Richfield Visitor Center. What a nice pair of women staffing it! One was a UTVer herself, and both knew a lot about the trails and history of the area. We picked up some guide books and maps.

We then took off on a ride with the RZR. We are in a sagebrush meadow area at the start, but there were lots of flowers.

These orange ones are probably the most prevalent at the lower elevations (7000’)

Not many cactus, but this pink one was showy

Our trip was on the east side of UT 24. We headed up the mountains and crossed into the valley where Fish Lake is located.

Looking across the sagebrush to the west valley

Some of the trails we took were part of the Paiute Trail, a network of roads and trails widely advertised.

A lot of the trail was decent Forest Service roads

We finally got up to the aspens and lusher meadows. This was over the mountain southeast of our Campgroun.

As we continued higher, we got into the evergreens and skinny trees. They get that way due to the harsh winter conditions. Even this far south, the snow is intense.

We finally encountered a snowball we didn’t want to cross. We are much more cautious when riding by ourselves.

We had some dead ends trying to get back to our campsite, but it was an enjoyable day of about 60 miles.

Today we are getting chores done and relaxing. Our bodies feel that many miles in a RZR! Kevin checked a bunch of things on the RZR. He topped off the oil and radiator fluid and just generally checked things out. We have 49 more operational hours before it needs a major service, so this was just checking and cleaning things. I sewed some more. I cut out a bunch of 4” Drunkard’s Path pieces that I really needed to get to, so I did a bunch of those. Well, “bunch” is probably the wrong phrase. These are picky little devils, and they take a LOT of concentration. I did get about 20 done though. It is a good way to spend a lot of time and not get a lot done! They are awfully cute though.

We took a drive into Koosharem to have dinner. Nice little cafes that totally surprised me in such a tiny place! And there were pretty places along a trail head we checked out. It will be on our list of trips while we are here. And of course there were flowers!

Tomorrow we are taking a ride, so expect more pictures.