Boondocking in Rabbit Valley - Day 3

Last evening, I watched as vehicle after vehicle rolled by, some towing toys on trailers, some towing big RVs.  They were all headed for the big RV parking lot to the east of my campsite.  Apparently, this BLM area is quite popular with the OHV, mountain bike and dirt bike people from nearby Grand Junction and Fruita.

So glad I got here earlier this week, not sure there's an accessible campsite left open!

I went out riding in the morning along with some hiking, the temperature was in the high 50s low 60s but with clear skies and sun, it felt much warmer than that since there was no wind to speak off!  Very nice conditions.

There were several OHV vehicles already rolling about along with dirt bikes so I headed towards the I-70 exit and crossed over the super slab.  I bypassed the already getting full parking lot provided for Trails Through Time hiking loop and continued east along a dirt road that headed east away from there.

Two to three miles later, along easily uralable terrain (but not for Uma, the URRV) I came upon a selection of rock formations to pose Scarlett by:

 I would end up hiking all the way to the top of the hill

depicted in the picture, not too bad a climb.  Not much of a view though.

Retracing my route, I saw the distant peaks of the La Sal mountains (I believe) and posed Scarlett accordingly.  These mountains are near Moab, where I will be by next weekend.

 Same location, different viewpoints

 A little further southwest from the above shot.

This is the sight that greeted me upon reaching the entrance to the BLM area.  This area had barely contained one car or RV the previous two days.  Now it was almost bumper to bumper with weekend traffic and dirt riders.

Dodging around tykes on small dirt bikes and OHV's crammed with older people, I made my way slowly to my campsite.  As I type this, there is a regular passage of vehicles and dirt bikes past my camp site; like I said, this place is popular on the weekends!

As sunset approached in the evening, I tried once more to capture the colorful rock formation nearby:

You know how I used to recommend the use of sunsetwx.com for predicting a good sunset....they're not very good anymore.  They called for a red category sunset tonight, we got at most a light yellow.  I may have opined too soon, looks like this is the correct section/page of sunsetwx.com to use:  Just make sure you select the right hour for your location!  I'd been working on the assumption that sunsetwx.com was geo-locating me and rendering the right graphic for my timezone, this is not the case.

Tomorrow: Utah

Boondocking in Rabbit Valley - Day 2

Friday the 13th.

No major incidents of bad luck, just one minor bending of the engine guard on Scarlett which I was able to unbend easily enough.  It did its job, sacrificing itself, to protect the engine's left cylinder!  I pretty much dug it into the side of a narrow trail....luckily it was soft dirt!

Other than that, the day went OK.  Work was work, not much one can do for that.  Soon enough though, in addition to a short ride during lunch, I explored the area around me.

Sunrise was "meh"

Nice set of trails easily doable by Scarlett, heck some of the trails I saw trucks pulling travel trailers down them.  I don't think I'd take Uma, the URRV, down some of the trails they did but then it was not my rig.

Even explored some of the narrower trails used for dirt bikes and mountain bikes.  A bit narrow in parts, which is why I bent the engine guard.

Below pics were taken near the "Trail through Time" hiking loop.  I chose not to hike it as it was crowded, even with the windy and cool conditions.  Instead I rode a dirt road nearby, making my way past small canyons and rock formations.

Then, while exploring more trails in the afternoon, I came upon the McDonald Creek Cultural Resources Area.  Near road conditions and nice rock formations looking like past river flows (where the trail is now) flowed eons ago.

At the above pic, a convoy of ten or so cars...some I wouldn't have driven down this trail, passed me by.  Must be a party down there tonight or this weekend!

Here's the reason I'd tried the narrower dirt bike trails.  Trying to get close to this lovely rock formation.  Alas, this is as close as I got.

Back at the campsite, I fixed the engine guard, tightened a loose fill nut on the transmission, checked all the other bolts and nuts in preparation for next week.

Then it was time to catch the sunset.  I didn't feel like riding the 4 miles to the same spot as last night's sunset; instead electing to capture the light reflected in the clouds.

I think I'll be staying one more night; this place is quite popular with the OHV crowd and I imagine if I displaced tomorrow, I'd have a hard time finding a nice spot at some other BLM site.  The folks in the area love their OHV and dirt bikes!

Just wished some of them knew to slow down when passing by someone, to cut down on the clouds of dust!  Bastiches.....

Boondocking in Rabbit Valley, near the Colorado-Utah Border and I-70

Its that time of the year when Uralisti from all over gather near Moab, Utah for a gathering of like minded individuals and their quirky rigs.

The gathering however, is not for another week; I headed out of the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area early to spend some time boondocking and working remotely on BLM land.

The first night would be spent on BLM land near the Rabbit Valley exit, mile marker 2 on I-70, part of the McInnis Canyon Conservation Area.  I was located really close to the Colorado-Utah border and so motored there after work to catch the sunset.

As I looked for a good spot, I crossed over into Utah to the first exit, Westwater, but saw nothing there to my liking in terms of sunset scenes.  I turned back towards Colorado and at the border sign, made a stop.

 Hey, what's that sort of hidden behind the Welcome sign for Colorado?>

 An Obelisk?

I can't count the number of times I've crossed this particular portion of the border between the two states, and never noticed the obelisk:

A closeup of the original ceremony.

10,000 people attended; guess that's what happens on a slow news day.

Pictures of the obelisk done, it was time for pictures of the sunset as it began with some rich yellows, followed by some pinks and then some brighter and more fiery colors.

 

It was, a pretty nice sunset.  I like this spot, a good omen start for a couple of weeks of planned boondocking while working.  

Work Sojourn at the Chatfield State Park

The time had come to upgrade the drives on a NAS: Network Attached Storage device we use in the Denver Data Center for data backups.

Corporate finally came through and the drives had arrived.  The manufacturer told me (way over optimistically it turns out) that it should be about 6-8 hours between me putting in a newer and bigger capacity drive and when the device would be ready for the next one.

To avoid doing a 44 mile round trip each time I swapped a drive (12 drives to do in total), I elected to camp at nearby Chatfield State Park with Uma the URRV and only have an 8 mile round trip in between drive swaps.

So much for that plan, it took almost 80 hours between me inserting the first drive and it being ready for the next one.  Sigh.  It's going to take forever.

So, between working on there things out of the URRV (the park has wifi) though I had to boost it using the Ubiquity booster; I managed to get some pics of several sunsets and a couple of sunrises.

Even got some (don't be shocked) some minor hiking in.  The weather was that nice and warm.  The park itself has a lot of construction going on as they do infrastructure improvement so several areas were closed.  The rest was kind of flat and not very scenic except for a couple of spots.

Sunday, April 1, April Fools Day but no prank attempt by yours truly.

Pics taken at the Henronry Picnic Area

 Chatfield Reservoir

Sunrise on Monday, April 2.

Sunset on Monday April 2

 Pelican?

 More pics of the reservoir

April 3 Sunrise

View from the RV site in Loop D

April 4 Sunrise

April 4 Sunset, near the B and C Camp Loops

So, 4 days of camping, 1 drive swapped....the rest will involve 44 mile round trips I guess.