TR: Part II Onward to Glen Canyon, Black Canyon and CS

[anutami]

In case you missed Part 1 of our 2 week trip

Part I Clicky

We made it down the hair raising switch backs of the Burr trail


watch out for the resident Yeti at the bottom.


We headed south to check out Lake Powell


there is so much to check out you want to stop every mile or so, you could spend a week exploring just this area


we reached the viewpoint to Lake Powell and the Bullfrog marina


Wolfy II did great on the washboard roads it was Bretts Tooth that jiggled loose


some more amzaing scenery along the way: each layer represents how many years again?


we pulled into Stanton Creek Primitive campground.


and found a pretty sweet campsite, again we had the place to ourselves


It was about 70 degrees and the kids got right to work


perfect day


we hit the road on the 276 to the 95 and continued South/East totally out of the way towards our final destination in Colorado Springs






Decided to head down the Moki Dugway






set up camp at goosenecks state park


another geology lesson






and then a geography lesson


from four corners we headed into Durango and back to civilization and checked into a hotel to regroup and eat at some restaurants. I have been a hilton honors member for about 7 years and have never used my points. After 7 years of staying in Hilton hotels I had 85,000 points but it cost 35,000 points to stay at the hampton inn in Duragno!


to try and take the longest way possible we headed north on the 550 to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National park, since we brought all the snow gear we were hoping to encounter some of the white stuff


it was nice at first, but soon turned extreme and it started to snow harder and harder


no guard rails! lucky we had a lead blocker in front of us


Snow Storm Video Clicky

amazing town of Oury


and now we pause for this commercial break...
My new Torklift tie down system is the bomb, I love my fastguns, so easy to adjust when needed. I feel very safe with these things holding my camper on. I only wished I brought a rubber mallet to knock off all the ice! I must have added several hundered pounds of ice to my rig.




It pretty much snowed all the way to Black Canyon NP, the snow is a bit different on the feet than so cal beach sand. I still had my flip flops on and my DW went out barefoot for this pic. The kids were the smart ones and stayed in the truck


we scrambled to to get our winter gear and found the campground




we were the only ones in the campground and notice the sign "no fees in winter" 🙂






this is what all the other campsite looked like


it got down to 8 degrees and despite keeping the furnace at 70 degress and the wave 3 on high the entire time we still had the condensation freeze up




the thermal pane windows worked great, someone needs to invent thermal window frames, still trying to figure out how to handle the condenstaion issue with 4 people in an 8ft camper.



we lounged around in the snow for a few days burning about 2 gal of propane per day then headed east on the 50 to Colorado Springs for Thanksgiving




seeing this sign before Monarch Pass was a bit disturbing


all was well no avalanches


we made it into Colorado Springs depsite the major wind gusts for some family fun, horseback riding

Air Hocky, (don't let the name penny arcade fool you in Manitou Springs, Air Hocky cost $1)


and some hiking around the garden of the gods




It is crazy it took us over a week to get to CS but one day to drive home. We left CS at 6am and arrived home in SD about 11:30pm. What an epic trip! Can't wait for the next one 🙂

Nolan

[jefe_4x4]

Anu,
Thanks for the E-ticket ride. Both chapters. Also, thanks for the heads up on the Lance 865 F.S. I'm thinking the winter pkg. on your TC was the way to go.
Having bro John stay in our 'other bedroom suite', plugged into power and water during the Thanksgiving holiday was a close as we came to TC-ing. We had 8 family members sleeping in beds in the house for the four days, and Bro made the ninth. Odd man out...side.
jefe

[Nemo667]

Awesome report. Swimsuits to ski caps with fantastic pictures to boot. ...quite a trip for the kids and their parents. Bravo Nolan thank you for posting.

[whazoo]

Just got home tonight and had to give this another look on the computer instead of the iPhone. Missed part 1 but just looked at it too. I appreciate the planning and execution of the trip there Dad, a big round of applause is coming your way. This one has everything! Including tooth removal by bumpy road, that has to be a first. The marathon drive back to San Diego from Co. Springs?! Let's see, that's 2 Five Hours, a couple of Monsters and a Red Bull for me plus a nap somewhere in there. That's some driving I have to say. If there was one, and if I could do it, I'd nominate this one for first place trip report of the year. Wishing you more trips like this one to come.

[Bubtoofat]

AWESOME!!!! I love it!
Mike

[flaxi]

very excellent report. Thanks a lot ! I remember the impressive Black Canyon with white "powder", too ! 🙂
Great pics !

[joeshmoe]

We used to live down the street from Garden of the Gods. Spent a lot time there. Beautiful park. The whole area is gorgeous, but early to mid Fall is amazing.

Too bad you couldn't come during Halloween. Manitou really gets into it. Lots of spiritual mysticism and pagan beliefs surround the area. Nothing that we ever got involved with, but we knew of people who evidently "communed" with spirits. Creepy.

I regularly fished for and brought back Trout dinner from the Rampart Range Reservoir which is directly behind the G of the G's.

Nice report, dude. Do you have friends or family in the Springs?

[WVbassmistress]

Keep it coming!!!! Reading these TR is how I escape the reality of being at work!

[Fish_mojo]

Nice report. Did the Moki Dugway (love that name!!), Goosenecks camping and Mexican Hat last October. Great part of the country.

Thanks for sharing.

[profdant139]

Very entertaining! With so much snow on the ground, how did you get into your campsite??

[hl_remington]

Thank you for trip and photos.

[exhaustipated]

Wonderful trip report Nolan. Really enjoyed both Parts 1 and 2. The wife and I covered just about everything you and your family did this past April and May when we were gone for two months. We also enjoyed the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park just outside of Montrose, Colorado in mid May and got caught in a four foot snowstorm pummeling the front range of the Rockies. That was an experience we'll never forget as we were holed up in our camper for a couple of days waiting for the road to clear at Monarch Pass. Anyhow, you did an excellent job on your trip report with really nice photos. Thanks for sharing.

[work2fish]

Excellent report. I have lived in Colorado my whole life yet you still gave me some places I need to check out. Thanks for sharing your trip...

[hikerdmb]

Awesome Nolan. How was Gunnison? Part 1 of the trip was great too.

[whazoo]

A very incredible trip. You covered the gamut of time in geology, weather in climatology, made it back to sea level in a day and had fun doing it, fabulous! Funny too, just looked at your picture from Moki Dugway and we're camped five miles away tonight on our way home. We took our girls down Round Valley when they were young as well. We have much in common it seems. Except that you're young and I'm not, dammit. Thanks for the trip, I enjoyed it!!

[mooring_product]

Great trip..