Days 3 and 4 Colorado and Utah

Wow.  Only 4 days on the road and I'm already 2 days behind.  Left Sterling behind and headed for Leadville Colorado.  Just wanted a little side-trip to get off the interstate for a while.  Was disappointed in Leadville as it was pretty much turned into a T-shirt and trinket trap.

Got a campsite (the last one available on a mid-Labor day weekend) and did a little walk around Turquoise Lake.

 Got caught in a light rain shower but were dressed for it.

Short side note  -  It seems the politicians in their infinite wisdom (or lack there-of) passed a law allowing BLM and the Forest Service to lease public lands to private concessionaires to run existing and new campgrounds.  They are permitted to charge camping fees (which I'm OK with since they do maintain the sites) but also to charge daily access fees just to enter the areas they have leased.

Now, if I was paying the Forest Service, I'd do it without complaint, but these concessionaires are charging me just to enter land I, (as a member of the public), ALREADY OWN even if I don't use their facilities.

I have decided therefore that I will use my land, but will not pay any self administered access fees unless directly confronted.  (I also did a little homework and found that concessionaires have no statutory ability to enforce the fees, so I will simply discard any "tickets" I get.)

So anyway we arose next morning to a crispy 39 F, followed by a string of mishaps (karma) including spilling all the oil off the top of a new jar of "natural" peanut butter, having the toaster devour my toast, setting off the fire alarm, and losing all power, (before I got my coffee made) and all in a matter of less than a minute.

The good news being that the location we chose for breakfast was superb.

So we pushed on through more great Colorado mountain scenery and broke out into the SE Utah desert, (which I, among not too many others, consider equally beautiful).

Last, (but far from least), we joined about 10,000 other people stuck in a 17 mile, walking pace, Labor Day eve, traffic jam crossing the mountain road going from Price to Salt Lake City.

Settled in for the night in Springville UT for a shower before heading into Nevada tomorrow.

Goodnight from Springville.

Brad and Val