Water, Weathering and Wildlife (Wednesday, August 24th, 2016)

When we pulled out of Dutch John, we headed back toward the dam, and then back up the other side of the reservoir. 

There is an old burn area that goes clear around the town or Dutch John. Here you can see a small part of it up on the hill.

Our first stop was Cedar Springs Marina, one of the many marinas on this reservoir.

Then onward to the Red Canyon Lodge and Visitor's Center.  But on our way, we decided to take a little detour to see a historic site called Swett Ranch.  It is an old ranch established by the Swett family in 1909 they lived there for the next 60 years until 1969.

It's always fun to see a piece of american history first hand. Unfortunately, the housed was not open for tours when we were there.  That's one of the few disadvantages of going during off season.  

When we left the Swett Ranch, we continued on to the Red Canyon Lodge and Visitors Center.

The Red Canyon Lodge has a nice store and restaurant area, and the outside grounds are quite beautiful.

The visitor's center had great views of the canyons and reservoir below.

As we were looking around outside the visitor's center, a red tailed hawk came by for a quick visit. 

We enjoyed watching a few boats come up the canyons, but it was interesting to think that there is nowhere that they can pull their boat up on to a sandy beach.  It is all very rugged terrain in this part of the reservoir.

We then stopped along the way at the Dowd Mountain Overlook. It had beautiful views, but best of all it had a map that showed our progress today from Dutch John to our current location.  We haven't made it very far.

Our next destination would be the Sheep Creek Geologic Loop.   For anyone who is interested in geology, this is a goldmine!  It has every type of geologic formation you can think of, well almost!

After leaving the geologic loop, we stopped in the little town of Manila for lunch at a cafe called Brownings.  It was a cute cafe with a pretty nice menu.  Steve and I both ordered their bean burrito, which we thought was pretty good.  

By now the land was starting to flatten out, and the high rugged cliffs of southern Utah had faded to rolling hills.

As we turned to go down the road to Lucerne Marina, we had several of the locals waiting for us.  We often see these pronghorns out in the fields of Wyoming, but they are so far away that you can never get a good picture of them.  

We wanted to see what kinds of facilities the Lucerne Marina had, so we went in for a closer look.  In a grassy area near the camp ground, we saw several families of pronghorns.  The babies are just too cute!

After enjoying the pronghorn for a few minutes, we drove down to the marina.  There are few houseboats tied up that appear to sell essentials, and up on the shore is a trailer restaurant that is open on weekends.  

There are also lots of camping spots at this marina for anyone interested in camping.

And on our way out...more pronghorn!

We dropped into Green River, Wyoming, where the land is dry and hilly, and then continued on I-80 East until we reached our turnoff to head south into Craig, Colorado.  There was a lot of construction on I-80, trying to get the roads fixed before winter sets in.

Wyoming has a lot of rolling hills and oil wells in this area, and one fox that we saw while we were sitting in yet more road construction.

It's kind of strange, but as we crossed back over the Colorado border, the landscape quickly became greener, with farms and houses.  

As we drove between Craig and Steamboat Spring, Colorado, we were treated to even more wildlife.

Just as we were getting close to Steamboat Springs, and the sun was beginning to get low in the sky, there was a grove of old cottonwood trees to our right.  I decided to once again look for that bald eagle I so badly wanted a picture of.  And to my surprise, there it was! Steve is so patient, he turned the car around and went back to where I saw it.  It was still sitting there!

My trip was now complete!  So spectacular to see our national bird in it's native habitat.  As our trip came to a close, we drove through the town of Steamboat Springs, with the ski runs on the hills in the background.  And then climbed Rabbit Ears Pass while we watched a beautiful Colorado sunset.

Here are the rabbit ears that this pass is named for.

We stopped in Kremmling for dinner at a cute place called Jilly's. Soon after we ordered, the local police came in for dinner as well, so we knew we had picked the right place.



Great burgers!

My quick little over night birthday surprise ended up being an incredible four day (and night) adventure that I will never forget. Thank you to my wonderful husband for thinking of it, planning it, and making my birthday very special!  It's the little things in life that make me happy!