Fun Truck Day

8/28, 9:45PMGot up early (34F) and left Lake Granby for the trip to Steamboat Springs, Dinosaur Nat. Mon., and camp at Steinaker St. Pk. a few miles out of Vernal, Utah. Nice ride through canyons, mountains and Rabbit Ears Pass on to Steamboat which has exploded since I was there 27 years ago. Even with ski runs that came right into town, it was pretty crusty back then. Now it’s way upscale with zillions of resorts and lots more ski areas. Went through the town and wasn’t particularly moved to buy anything (like I can afford Columbia shorts on sale for $58!) and just moved on down the road. Had lunch under a tree near the site of a couple old mines, stopped near Craig for gas and some necessities and then just drove west. I’ll post a series of photos here that show a hill on the horizon, then I took another horizon/hill pic at the top of that distant hill, then another and another. It was near the top of one of these hills that the truck suddenly lost power and refused to go any faster than 20Mph. A turnout materialized and I stopped and let it cool down, checking under the hood for anything I could find wrong without success. It was while getting a cold drink out of the T@B that I noticed that it was 104F. Hmmm. So I sat a while longer- nothing but road- not a house, wire, distant barn, cow- nothing. Just sagebrush, juniper trees, rocks and dirt. I hadn’t used the TomTom all day so I fiddled with it to pass the time and discovered I was only 3 miles (downhill, it seems…) from the next town. I made it fine. Stopped a while longer and went on to Dinosaur, CO. where I talked to a Nat. Mon. Volunteer who said: “Ah, it’s probably an air valve got too hot, it happens sometimes.” OK. So I stopped and took an awesome, HOT, hike to see some in-situ dinosaur bones, bizarre geology and petroglyphs!. They paint white arrows so you can see a few bones and then you’re on your own to find more. I found a row of vertebrae as big as my head halfway up a hillside but forgot to take a photo. GRrr! Here are some others from that hike. A belated inclusion photo-wise includes a waterfall in Rocky Mtn. Nat. Pk. from yesterdays hike. Ahhh! The truck ran fine and I made it to Steinaker St. Pk.without any problem. As soon as I camped I spied the obligatory clean shaven, white shirt and tie Mormon evangelists going from site to site. They didn’t come back. Maybe the T@B scared them off. Heck, I was gonna practice foaming at the mouth…