Day 9 - White River National Forest, CO to Dinosaur National Monument, UT - The trip really goes sideways

What a amazing way to start the day.  I had woken up in the middle of the night and had seen the stars and the shadows of the mountain peaks in the distance.  That was breathtaking, but then when Amy woke up, opened the door and said “You need to see this”, the view of the snow-capped, purple mountain across the lake really made the impromptu stop in the National Forest SO worth it.  Just an amazing way to start the day.

It turned out that the boys like the camp spot, but for very different reasons.  Robinson discovered that the area was crawling with chipmunk/prairie dog creatures.  While they tried to play “whack-a-mole” with him, he eventually became patient enough to get some great pictures of them as they came out of their dens.

Sebastian went down by the lake and started a rock collection of his favorite rocks. 

The water there was super clear and rocky - just magnificent to sit and stare at - possibly forever.  However, because of our impromptu stop, we had a long day of driving ahead of us so we packed up the camper and hit the road.

Along the way, we went over a number of mountain passes, but one of them afforded the boys the opportunity to get out in their shorts and T-shirts and go play in the snow.  This is always a treat - summer time snow.  So both boys headed off to enjoy making snowballs and throwing them.  Sebastian’s aim had come a long way and he nearly hit me with a long distance toss.  Thankfully it exploded innocently at my feet - that one could have stung and I’d have had to get him back!

As we continued west, the greenness of the mountains started to give way to more flat, desert looking terrain and after a long day, we arrived at Dinosaur, Colorado.

Dinosaur National Monument spans two states, Colorado and Utah.  Since we were coming from the east, we stopped at the Colorado visitors center to get some suggstions for what to do with our nearly two days of time in the Monument.  The Park Ranger was extremely friendly and gave us a great plan for how to enjoy our visit.  We grabbed some postcards to send up, a map and headed on to our campsite on the Utah side.

While we were tempted to go to the main exhibit hall on the way to camp, we had all already had a long day in the car so there was a stronger desire to get to camp and get set up.  We found our site (right next to the Baylor geology field class)  and were getting set up when the dreaded “Do you smell that?” question reared its head again.  Sure enough, upon opening the hood, there again was the smell of oil and enough smoke to cause concern.  

Not wanting to start up the van again, we spend the rest of the evening wandering camp, having dinner, and deciding what to do the next day.  After developing my flow chart (I just can’t stop the nerd in me), we decided that based on what other (now former) Odyssey owners had experienced, we were likely to continue to have issues with the valve gasket.  So we came to the conclusion that we were going to try to get to Salt Lake City (one way or another, but safely) and sell the whale.  For me, it was an emotional experience since this was the car I bought when I found out I was going to be a father and there were a great number of memories attached to it.  But, it’s still just an item and there are memories to be made on this trip so the plan was the right one.  

So, to prepare for what we knew would be a LONG (and VERY expensive) day tomorrow, we prepared to have the van completely unloaded in the morning and head to Salt Lake City.

Total miles travelled - 2,385

# States (Provinces) - 10