THIS IS THE WEEK THAT WAS, AS OF 18 JULY, 10

Best Regards from Sturgis, South Dakota

Howdy friends, thanks for visiting us here on the BLOG. Thank goodness for digital cameras, we couldn't share these with you or afford to take them otherwise. What a great week, most of it in Moab. Besides the everyday fun and beauty of the place, we took a 74 mile jet boat tour down the Colorado River through Canyonlands Nat. Park. The trip was a blast, and views breathtaking. We also took an off-road trip in the Blazer on the Schafer trail, about 50 miles from the River at the bottom up to the rim at Dead Horse Point. Pretty challenging trip. We couldn't take pictures at the scarey parts because I was trying to keep the Blaze on the trail. There were a half a dozen switchbacks going almost vertical and doing a 180 in 20-30 ft. Yikes!
And it was steep, at one point we climbed over 1000 ft in 2 miles over a rocky trail with scattered gravel. What a friggin blast.
We didn't decide which way to go when we left Moab until Friday. We decided to head for South Dakota. The first leg was to Golden CO. Good trip, but steep through the Rockies, especially East of Vail, 11,200 ft alt. then down to about 5200 ft in Golden. Felt like we were either going straight up, or straight down. We camped at an "Encore" park in Golden. Never again. Please ask us for details before you stay there. After about a half hour of "cut and fill" to get out of the damned spot. We hit the road, planning on spending the night in Wyoming. Too much going on with rodeos etc. We finished the day at Sturgis SD. The huge motorcycle rally starts in a few days, and this little town grows by 500,000 peoples min. We never plan it but always wind up here a week before the two wheeled zoo. Oh well, we'll be here a couple of weeks. Hope you are all having a great summer and look forward to seeing you and hearing from you soon

Speeding down the Colorado River

Our 74 mile jet boat trip was a thrill, as well as beautiful and informative.

Moab reflections

We took so many beautiful pictures from the boat showing the reflections of Canyonlands.

Blue Herron in nest

From the boat, we looked up on the steep cliff, and

there was a beuatiful Blue Herron sitting on it's nest.

Beached Jet Boat and Diane

At one point on our jet boat trip, the boat was beached so we could hike up the bank and look at some petrified logs and ancient sea creature fossils.

Rocky trails through Canyonlands

The Schafer Trail, which leads from the top of Canyonlands to the Colorado River, at the bottom is primarily over rock, so it's bumpy and slow.

Hey, where did the trail go?

There are places on the Schafer trail where you are not sure if you are on trail or not. We were lucky. If we ever lost the trail, we found it again up ahead. So much fun..........

MOAB ROCK MONSTERS

The trail just brought an unending assortment of views around every corner.

THE TRAIL

This is just a chunk of the 50 mile off-road experience.