This is the original July 7th entry:
We left Grand Junction around 2:30 PM this afternoon. I made a rookie mistake and took the Business 70 entrance and not the I-70 entrance. We ended by driving through town and not catching I-70 until about 15 miles out of town. Nice countryside though.
We were really surprised at how much the highway has changed since we last came through here in 1991. What used to be a two lane highway that hugged the creek side is now an environmentally friendly four lane highway that goes through several tunnels and sometimes has opposite facing lanes above each other. They also ended numerous bike trails and rest stops.
We only saw one train in the canyon.
We turned off of I-70 and began the climb to Yampa. This was a windy two lane road through the prairie. There were several climbs up hills and descents into valleys that really allowed me to hone my RV driving skills.
Just after Craig we had to stop for a coal train!!!!! We actually waited about 15 minutes while it lumbered across the road. The two lead engines had just passed when we arrived at the crossing. After about 50 cars, two more mid-train helpers passed. After another 50 or so cars, the two rear helpers went by. Keep in mind that each car weighed 100 tons. That was one heavy train!!!! It was only going about 15 MPH.
After another 30 minutes of driving, we arrived in Yampa. Susie's dad was waiting for us at the gas station at the corner. We went into town and had a burger before heading to the campsite.
Yampa is a cool looking town. I am not sure of the size but would estimate it at between 500 and 800 people. There are no street lights (red, yellow, green) but the road we ate on had street lamps running down the middle of the road. The Road was dirt and about 40 feet wide. There were between six and eight street lamps spaced about 100 feet apart running right down the middle. Pretty cool looking.
Sadly, with the excitement of seeing Susie's dad, Mitch, we didn't get any pictures of this.
After dinner we followed Mitch up to the campsite. We went from the prairie to a little over 9500 feet and were smack dab in the middle of the aspens and the evergreens. It was a great campsite and not what I expected based on the drive up to Yampa.
Once we got settled in, Mitch took us up to the highest reservoir. Notice I didn't say drove us. Susie drove us! Mitch asked if either of us wanted to drive his new 2004 Ford F-350 diesel. I said Susie would love to. (Secret plan at work here....)
Susie had a ball driving the truck. We looked around and then came back to the campsite, made a campfire, and talked until around midnight.
Posted by swfields at July 10, 2004 04:45 PM | TrackBack