Travel Diary: Tour Thru WY, ID, NV, UT & CO, Part 5 (Final)

On Saturday, September 4, we woke from a good night’s sleep at Currant Creek Campground in Utah and hit the road. We drove gravel roads for about an hour through the beautiful Uinta National Forest before hitting State Highway 40.

Currant Creek Road in Uinta National Forest.

We drove east for a couple more hours with our sights set on northern Colorado. Just before the state line, we saw signs for the quarry at Dinosaur National Monument near Jensen, Utah. We figured we should pay a visit. We had nothing in particular left on our itinerary, and, plus, who knows when our next adventure to this area would be.

We are super-glad we stopped. There are two locations of Dinosaur National Monument — one in Utah, and another, not far down the road, in Colorado. The location in Utah contains the famous dinosaur quarry. The Quarry Exhibit Hall contains what is basically a “wall of bones”. It’s a giant wall containing over 1500 bones. The rock has been chipped away to reveal them in their original position. The Hall is accessible by bus, or a short hike through the surrounding rocky terrain. We chose to take the hike as we needed to stretch our legs after a few hours of early morning driving.

The “wall of bones” at Dinosaur NM.

Another shot of the “wall of bones.”

We stopped for a photo with Doris the Apatosaurus on the way out!

We left after touring the grounds for about 90 minutes and continued east toward Colorado. We drove for a couple more hours and stopped in Craig, CO to restock on some things at Wal-Mart. As I was rolling up my window, the regulator broke, and the window fell into the door! Ah, the joys of driving a 30-something year-old vehicle…I grabbed some tools from our tool kit, and went into Wal-Mart to purchase some JB Weld to patch things up. After an annoying 30 minute delay, we were back in business.

We kept trekking east until we stopped in Steamboat Springs. What a cute little ski town! We really enjoyed our afternoon/evening there. We did some more shopping and had a beer/some grub at a local bar. We also made the controversial decision of splurging for a hotel room! We had enjoyed ourselves well into the evening, and the thought of hunting for another free spot to camp did not sound very appealing. Grabbing a hotel room usually happens once during our big trips. It kinda helps us reset, and it gives us the opportunity to have a proper shower, shave, etc. We stayed at the Nordic Inn. Our room was dated, but very clean. The staff there was amazing. They were some of the nicest people we’ve ever met on the road.

Two princesses in Steamboat Springs.

From Steamboat Springs we journeyed east on State Highway 14 toward Fort Collins, Colorado. What a beautiful drive! For much of the drive we were surrounded by mountains and trees, and we enjoyed a rushing creek alongside the road most of the way. Beautiful roads like this make the countless miles we drive seem to go by much faster.

Ft. Collins was one of our favorite stops of our big western adventure. We had no real expectations going in, but we were really charmed by this small college town. We both even said we could see ourselves living there. On our way through town, we happened upon the Old Town Square district. There were a number of small shops, restaurants, dispensaries and breweries much to our liking. We both had a liter of beer at Prost Brewing, a German-inspired brewery. We also stopped in Mary’s Mountain Cookies to get some sweet treats for the final days of our drive home. We also made a quick dispensary stop to help make our drive home a bit more enjoyable.

Quenching our thirst at Prost Brewing.

On our way out of Ft. Collins, we drove by Mr. Mechanic, which is where Van Cafe is located. We have spent a lot of money ordering from Van Cafe for various Vanagon accessories. We figured we’d see where our money was going while we were in town!

After Ft. Collins we paid a visit to Boulder, Colorado. Honestly, we spent a pretty boring couple hours there. Granted, we had done no research on the town, but usually we are able to find some fun on the fly. We’ll be sure to research things to do a bit more next time we come through.

Well, the time had come to set our sights on booking it home. We have made the drive from Louisville to Denver and vice-versa so many times, there’s not much new in between for us to see. We drove late into the night and ended up camping at Flagler Reservoir State Wildlife Area in eastern Colorado. Located not far off the interstate highway, it was a very convenient and free place to sleep.

Early A.M. at Flagler Reservoir—14 hours from home.

From there, we took Interstate 70 into Saint Louis, Missouri and connected to Interstate 64 until we hit home. It was back to work in the morning. Boo.

Thanks for reading along. See You Soon!

-Andrew