Way behind on the blog; last auto-tour/lunch trip before bail-out.

 Well, around mid-Sept we were getting ready to think about winterizing Rocky and heading back east before any cold/wet weather could move in to bug us. You may remember that last year it rained on our day of departure making the last minute pulling in of the slide-out, locking all the storage chests/bins, putting up of flower pots and firepits, and all the other assorted chores a pain. 

But before all that happened we decided to take a lunch outing up the canyon (west) to see if there was any snow up at Cameron Pass. We'd been getting mid-30's at our elevation (7200') at night and thought there might be a chance. We had a great time at first until we came upon the dreaded road work. Out west, (and up north), they try to fit all the road work in before the snow flies, and Hwy 14 was no exception. Milling up the old road surface and repaving - whew! After about a 15 minute lay-up, the "follow me" guy showed up and we were past. While we waited, I jumped out and grabbed a couple of pics of the river, which really looked great.

There was a small stand of birch being lit-up by the slanting sunlight so I took a couple of shots of them too.

(taken from the car right before the
convoy got underway.)

When you head west out of the canyon you are heading up into the North Park area, where cattle ranching and agriculture reign supreme. We saw a cool-looking group of cowboys on horseback meeting up in the pasture before getting to it. I was too slow on the uptake to get any shots. Also slews of both firewood stockpiles and stuffed hay barns and roly-poly bales out in the fields. The "business" of fall was upon us. Quintessential North Park, where they were not in favor of the reintroduction of wolves!

The whole pasture was pretty densely-packed with cattle,
this is just a small sniglet out the window.

I have so many great hay bale shots I don't know
which ones to pick. I guess if you have to
winter-over a herd you'd best be prepared. 
Love those long, wide open views!!

We saw the beginning's of some fall color as we headed towards Walden, CO.  We (the Boss) decided he wasn't going back the way we came so we headed up and around through Wyoming to come in the back way.

Here's a great shot of what I'd say was some "premo" land for some  industrious farming/ranching folks, right on the river and beautiful scenery. Bet it's pretty in the wintertime, long way to the grocery store though, 45mins-1hr?

So pretty, I think this was near about at the stateline WY/CO.

Miles of dirt roads, wide vistas, hay bales and old, deserted properties. This was by our lunch spot, which was, BTW, beside a river and in the shade. A lonely-looking spot in a really pretty location. (What was the back-story?, inquiring minds want to know).

The last long leg of the journey was coming in through the thick forests that encompass Deadman Road west of Red Feather Lakes. It's a long, dirt road through the woods. We saw deer in the road, lots of deadfall and eventually, quite a few people enjoying dispersed camping opportunities. 

Not the best shot, we stopped way early and this is zoomed in.

Here's the route as shown on the car's nav system. See all the squiggles, yeah, a long road!

A fairly exhausting day followed up by hot showers, drinks and dinner. A good adventure for sure. Just a week or 10 days later a fire broke out along the eastern edge of the Deadman Road forested area, north of Red Feather Lakes by Crystal Lakes, human started 😢. They got it under control quite quickly ad I think it was contained at about 138 acres.

That's it for now, but look for more "catch-up" posts detailing our trip back east and to current times.

Thanks for stopping by! 🥰