Back Home in Calgary

I'm writing this back home in our house 10 days after the end of the trip. We made it safely back to Calgary on Friday July 13th (fortunately nothing bad happened that day!).  Much as we loved our six weeks on the road, it was great to come back to the comfort of home. The house and garden were in great shape thanks to our good friend Tannis who was living in our place and taking care of everything. It's so nice that Tannis will continue to stay here while she sells her home and purchases a new place. She's great company.

Here's a look back at the last leg of the trip. The route back from Crested Butte took us through one more National Park well worth a visit. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is Colorado's version of the Grand Canyon. We viewed it from its south rim, where you can peer down to the river 2000ft below. It is pretty spectacular.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison (photo taken from NPS website)

After that we just had to find a venue to watch the first of the two World Cup semifinals between France and Belgium (I'm talking football here). We found such a place in the nearby town of Montrose in the form of "The Horsefly Brewery", where their motto is "No Crap on Tap'! We enjoyed some fine "Peacemaker Double IPA" while watching France win 1-0 in a great game.

Then we continued northwest through Grand Junction and Fruita, across the border to Utah on the I70, the Highways 191 and 6 towards Salt lake City. We wanted to make camp before joining the busy I15 south of Salt lake City, and found a really picturesque "wild" dispersed camping spot just off Highway 6 near Spanish Fork River Park, on Diamond Fork Rd (029), and then left onto FR 039. Not a house in sight, and not a sound other than  the birds.

Only one car drove by the whole time we were here

We're pretty sure it was public land.....it was completely unfenced. It was one of my favourite camps of the whole trip! I think it was the sweet smell of dry grass in the warmer air, a contrast to the forests and cooler mountain air we had been experiencing for the last several weeks, not to mention the panoramic views and tranquility.


Next morning after a leisurely breakfast with a view, we headed north via Salt lake City, with the hopes of somehow finding another TV football venue to see Croatia play England at 11.30am local time. We weren't quite as confident about finding a pub with a tv at this time of day in this staunchly Mormon area. But in Ogden, what we did find was a Marriott Hotel, and we thought that surely it would have a lounge with a TV. We never did find a lounge, but we found an "unwatched" TV in the lobby with a few vacant chairs, so we turned on the TV and stayed and watched the whole game without being bothered. You might know that England lost that game in overtime. I must admit I was sad for England, but thrilled for Croatia.

Less than two more hours of driving got us to our next overnight stop in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. where we managed to meet up with the family again. This little town is not far off the Interstate 15 and a great spot for families with its aquatic centre, hot spring pools and its river which has been "adapted" to feature lots of little rapids to make a great tubing shuttle run.

                 Mike, Hana and the kids having a blast tubing in Lava Hot Springs

Although I don't have a photo of us, Frank and I also rented a tube - a much smaller two-person one. We joined in as well, but on our first run, a minor disaster struck and we flipped over...twice! Unfortunately on the first flip, we were badly churned around in the rapids and got quite scraped up and bruised against some lava rocks. Apparently the smaller floaty tubes are much less stable for two large adults than we realized. So after that first run, we decided to play it safe on the riverbank acting as the videographers instead! We had some pretty bruises and scabs to show off for a while! How ironic that we survived a car accident and several mountain bike rides with not a scratch, and we abuse our bodies tubing on a supposedly gentle river on the second last day of the trip!

Next day we made it across the Canadian border by 10 pm and camped in the little community of Milk River. Somehow, I always feel happy when we're back on Canadian soil after any trip, but particularly a road trip. Next morning we completed the drive in sunshine through the southern Alberta prairie to Calgary.


                                           Southern Alberta landscape on the way home


                                        Back home and starting the unpacking

Trip Total 8200 km

43 nights Total
1 night hotel (Denver)
12 dispersed campsites
30 official campsites

Here are a few other random photos from the trip....

This young male was spotted bathing near Crested Butte


                                              This one makes me smile!

Us in Mesa Verde



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