Boondocking near Cross Canyon, near the Hovenweep National Monument, Utah

 Monday, November 2

Drove out of the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area at 730AM and headed south on I-25 till I reached the exit for Walsenburg, CO.

From there it was US160 all the way across the bottom of the state and entering Utah at 5:30PM soon after the sun had set and twilight was gathering.  Luckily, I found myself a nice spot beforehand and managed to avoid the many deer I saw on the road there.

Tuesday, November 3 (Election Day and I'm in full avoidance mode of any news thereof!)

Rode Yagi and wandered about County Road 203 which spans Cross Canyon which my campsite overlooks.  Not much in terms of scenery though, but there was these trees:

I rode the 3 miles or so on Hovenweep Road and entered one of the six sites that comprise collections of ruins within the Hovenweep National Monument:

I didn't hike the full trail/loop but here's some of the stuff I did see along the way:

Sleeping Ute Mountain

Hovenweep Castle

The castle and a view of the small canyon the ruins bordered

Interesting stuff if you're into Native American history and ruins.  I rode back to camp and spent the first half of the afternoon taking a nap and just clearing up the campsite of dried up bushes that were festooned with prickly spiny buds/seeds.

Things warmed up a bit after the clouds moved off and I went for a short ride down a trail I'd spotted in the hills overlooking the campsite.

Can you spot Uma in the picture below?

After the above picture, I rode some more and then happened to spot the following not too long thereafter:

Yep, some camper had decided to park basically right next to my campsite!  I turned Yagi around and rode back to the campsite.

I walked over to the young couple that were at the van and politely asked them if they'd consider moving to a different spot which I had spotted earlier in the day.  It was the spot where I posed Yagi with the trees past peak with Fall Colors.

The young man agreed and they moved out, I followed to make sure they found the spot based on my directions and all was well after that.  I decided when I returned to camp to place some rocks and a rusted length of exhaust pipe I'd found before perpendicular to the entrance to the campsite.  Hopefully, it'll keep people out until I leave, probably tomorrow.

Tonight's sunset wasn't too shabby: