Rita Nat'l Grassland, Taylor Lake Reservoir, and Escaping Texas (NOW WITH PICTURES)

It's been a while since we left Texas, and good riddance! Texas and us didn't get along so well. It took us more than three days to escape, which we should have been able to do in one day. Forty minutes down the road from the llama farm we suffered both blown tires on the trailer along with a dry-rotted spare JUST after the closest tire place had closed. We decided to wait til morning to replace them and avoid the $85 after-hours service fee. The next morning as we were getting ready to slowly move across the parking lot of the truck stop to the tire place, Juno and Piper decided they were not having a good morning which resulted in a half-dollar sized chunk being removed from Juno's neck. I dropped off Dan and the trailer at the tire place, took Juno to the vet half a mile down the road, and we ended up with our wallet $125 lighter.

We finally escaped Texas, saw a tumbleweed in New Mexico for a brief moment, and finally made it to Colorado!

We stayed at Golden Eagle campground in Colorado Springs, took the goat and dogs to the top of Pikes Peak and on a walk through Garden of the Gods, and did a lot of laundry. After two days there we headed to Taylor Lake Reservoir in Gunnison National Forest. It was a nineteen mile drive over a mountain >11,000 feet on a pot-hole riddled packed dirt road, racing the sunset and rain. At the top of Cottonwood Pass we snapped a picture on the Continental Divide. It was too dark to spot any of the free campsites, so we stayed at a forest service campground for $14 with no water or electricity. It was a beautiful spot, but the next day we moved to our residence for the past week which was another mile or so down the rough road. It was pretty hairy pulling the camper in, but we made it and had a wonderful creek-side camp spot for the week.

We just packed up in the freezing rain and aren't sure where will be next.

I'll update this post later with pictures, but the camera is MIA at the moment. Ciao!


Update: I'm gonna throw all the pictures right here since the computer is fighting me right now. Also, shortly after my Kindle took a dive into the water bowl, my iPod took a two-day ride in a puddle in the bottom of the camper. There were maybe a hundred pictures on there that I sorely hope I can recover. At this rate I will be technology-free within weeks. If I disappear you will know that the laptop fell into a mountain lake.

Birch trees beginning to change colors at Pike's Peak

Our first glimpse of interesting looking rock piles in Colorado.

Above the treeline!

They wouldn't all three stay up there at the same time.

Rosie and I climb to the lookout.

Hairpin curves at Pike's Peak, and views for miles around.

Backtrack in time to Levelland, TX. It smelled like burnt rubber, like most of Texas.

 Fantastic inspiring sunset at Rita National Grassland, TX.

The morning drive through Rita National Grassland. Open prairie.

 Our view at River's End Campground on Taylor Lake Reservoir.

 If you look closely you'll see Dan bludgeoning the unsuspecting goat for the camera.

Views from the dispersed campsite at the reservoir.

Most of the traffic here is from ATVs.

Stunning sunsets

Back in Texas we passed a lot of wind farms. Good for people, bad for birds.