We crossed into Utah!

We left Meadows campground and made the steep descent out of Rabbit Ear Pass and into the town of Steamboat Springs. We made a Walmart stop for groceries--our first of this trip. Then we drove through the sagebrush-covered hills of western Colorado fighting an 8-mile-per-hour head wind that brought our gas mileage down to 13.6 miles per gallon. It was a three-hour trip that saw signs like "no gas for 67 miles." Heck, it should have said, "no people for 67 miles." We drove right past the Dinosaur National Monument because we toured there in 2019. But we knew we were in dinosaur country when we stopped for lunch on the Stegosaurus Parkway in Dinosaur, Colorado. We ordered a half-pound Slopper at a little cafe at the corner of Brontosaurus Street and Ceratosaurus Avenue. 

Then we crossed the Utah border--our fourth state on this two-month adventure.

We were on our way to our full hook-up site near Jennings, Utah. There was only a post office and a visitor center in this tiny town. But more importantly, our campground had a laundromat. When we were traveling full-time in our motor home, we had our own washer and dryer on board. But now in our tiny trailer, we get to "experience" laundromats. We have scheduled stays in campgrounds with laundromats every week or so on this trip, to wash our dirty laundry.

After putting away all that laundry, we were on the road the next morning--driving deeper into Utah. After 123 miles, we arrived at Lodgepole--a National Forest Campground. The tall trees once again made our little trailer look even smaller. 

We have to give a shout-out to the campground manager, Crystal. She saw us coming, and even met us to offer information about loading up water. The drought has resulted in this campground turning off the bathrooms and water spigots during the week. But she let us know that both were available to us today. Whew! With our smaller tanks and lighter-weight trailer, we were trying to not travel with water on board. She also offered us our choice of several sites, instead of the one we reserved on-line. She went above and beyond what we had found at most campgrounds.

We had little shade at our camp site, but the weather was nicely cool at this high elevation. At 7,200 feet, we had highs in the 70s, and lows in the 40s. This was another good test of our solar system and our lithium battery as we settled in for a three-day stay near Salt Lake City with no hook-ups. On our first day, our batteries were 100% charged after a good sunny day. We were also 100% glad that things were still going well as we crossed into Utah.