Daily Didactic
The day started with a bit of a disappointment as we drove from the odd Moab KOA to the entrance to Arches National Park, at what we thought was an adequately early 9:00am. It turns out the park had eight available spaces in it's single campground and they had gone at 7:45. The nearby Canyonlands National Park was also full. We sat back in the bus and reflected on options. We visited Arches and Moab on the last road trip. Neither of us were interested in spending another night in the curiously unexciting Moab. We could just go and be in Rocky Mountain National Park in seven hours...so we "just went".

The drive on I-70 from Moab to Highway 72 in Colorado develops into an uncharacteristically interesting interstate drive. The first part in Utah is long flat stretches of sage desert, but as I-70 climbs into the Rocky Mountains the scenery perks up and the road gets more interesting, running alongside the Colorado river through the ski towns of Vail and the like. There is some fun stacked divided highway outside of Vail and the very long Eisenhower and Johnson tunnels. At exit 243, Colorado highways 72 and then 7 lead from the interstate up through some gorgeous mountain real estate and eventually leave you at the park entrance in the touristed up town of Estes Park.

We were able to get one of the last three sites available in the park, this one at Moraine Campground. While we had intended to sleep in the bus, this walk in tent site was fabulous enough to get us to pitch a tent unnecessarily. We set up and then dropped back down into Estes Park for a meal made by someone else. We ended up in the enjoyable Grub Steak and had a great dinner before returning to our tent for the night.

Morning in Moab with the familiar KOA a-frame behind us		Brian tapping into the secret compartment that holds bus parts and tools
The spendy but tasty Eklectica cafe, that's an enormous coffee cup in the foreground		A long line to get into Arches National Park...
...where we learned there was no camping to be had		Onward through Mesa County, nice slogan
The 'outside looking in'		The 'over the roof'
In the town of Parachute we came across this very long story which tells us to goes elsewhere for the end		Great, perpetuating the myth that outlaws can't spell
While we like the attitude, it seems like someone is not doing their job		Colorado River Rapids on which there were many rafters, of which we captured none
A waterfall falling into Vail		This hour long traffic backup didn't help with a long day of driving
Someone missed the memo about walking on the new asphalt		Snow over the entrance to the Eisenhower and Johnson tunnels
The road into Central City and Blackhawk		G was having trouble keeping up today
Beautiful country nearing Rocky Mountain National Park		More of the same
These are definitely deer or elk near the visitors entrance

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