Russ and Rob's Travels: Denver to Tenton National Park

Before heading out of Denver we restocked at a super Walmart and went to Camping world to replace a set of two way radios that did not suit our needs. We chose a set of handhelds, one for each vehicle which has been a great way of communicating between ourselves along the way.

We headed out through Empire along state forests to Idaho Springs climbing Berthoud pass to an elevation of 11,353ft. We had lunch at the top of the pass amongst the snow. The roads were extremely busy as it was the beginning of a long weekend. We had a stop over at Hot Sulphur Springs, followed the Elk river to the beautiful snow resort town of Steamboat Springs where we stayed in an RV park overnight. This stay allowed us to catch up on the laundry, and gave the men folk time to install the converter we also purchased at camping world. We now are able to keep our appliances charged.

The following day we travelled in and out of three different states. The area around Craig was lush rural irrigation farmland. We then crossed the Green River and was soon back into Utah. Our lunch stop was just south of Vernal in Red Fleet State Park, right in the heart of Dinosaur Land where evidence of 200 million year old dinosaur tracks remain.

It was a climb once again to the beautiful snow covered peaks of Ashley National Park through to Flaming George Dam which is one of the major hydro schemes in the USA. It was then out of Utah and into Wyoming through Flaming Gorge National Forest for a short drive before pulling up to camp for the night. Went to sleep listening to the patter of rain on our roof and woke to a snow covered vehicle and zero temperature.

Our exit from the campsite the following morning was a little exciting as we were unaware that the track we had taken off road to camp was clay capped.

Our drive through Wyoming was just as we had imagine, across wide open flat plateau plains, ranch properties with horses and cattle and areas of scrub bush. The real old west character. It was then a delightful lunch stop on the banks of the Fockart River before stopping at a “Maverick” shop in Jackson Hole for our coned icecream desert. While in this beautiful town we got some information on Teton and Yellowstone National Parks which was where we were heading to next.

Along this route we spotted our first wild animals, a herd of bison and a few elk. The scenery had changed again to the bends and winds of the snowy mountains . Upon entering Teton National Park at the parks pass booth a lady come running up to Geoff because she had seen Australian Outback on the vehicle. She and her husband had previously lived in Alice Springs for 15 years. We went back to their camp site for a visit but were unable to camp with them as the area was allocated for tents only. We drove a little further on to Signal Camp ground where we enjoyed the comforts of the RV, another home cooked meal and a night of heavy snow falls.