Utah Trip, September 2011

Page 7 (click here to go to page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6, page 7)

From some other guests in the hottub in SLC, we got a tip about Lamoille canyon, a campground outside of Elko, Nevada.  Mountains rise up in the middle of nowhere, and here's our campsite (and views from it) at 7,800 feet (this first picture was stitched together from two photos):

That night we sat in front of the fire, listening to the water in a nearby stream, and watching satellites among the stars.

The next morning I went for a quick 10-mile bike ride, from our campsite up to an elevation of 8,800 feet and back.  I had to go a lot slower than usual due to the low oxygen content.  You can view the GPS data from the ride here.

Here are photos from the ride (several taken with the self-release):

After I returned, Lena and I packed a lunch, and we hiked up another canyon (GPS record here).

Here's a huge beaver dam we saw on the way:

I was going to swim in the beaver pond, but it was just too muddy.  Instead I bathed in this painfully cold weenie shrinker:

After the hike, it was rest time in our reclining chairs.

And we drove into town for a pair of marvelous $7.77 prime ribs at a casino (no, we didn't eat the corn).

When we returned from town, a huge fifth-wheel was parked next to us with a loud external generator running.  A cigarette-smoking woman was sitting outside watching a reality show on a large flat-screen TV that extended out from the camper.  So, there was no sitting by the fire listening to the stream and watching the stars.  We walked around the campground, and most sites were occupied by campers running their generators.  That's when I decided that car camping is no longer feasible.  The contrast between hearing the birds and the wind versus sitting next to a running gasoline engine is too great.  This would be our last camping trip, and the next morning we took off for a mad dash home.

We drove over 500 miles the next day to a motel in Redding, CA, and then next morning,

zipped home, with a nice stop for brunch in Weaverville.

So ends out latest trip -- 2,600 miles and 736 photographs.  Thanks for reading the blog all the way through!

- Al and Lena