Day 43

 WiFi is iffy for posting. 

We relocated again, to West Cork. 

Still on the “Wild Atlantic Way.”

The rain stuck with us the entire da, but we still enjoyed Killarney National Park. 

Lakes of Killarney are spectacular 

A really large cypress tree 

Day 19

 

A river runs through it.

Yesterday was a really nice day. 

This morning it was cold enough to snow here . . .

. . . and it did!

It didn’t stick. 

MB posted a short video on the koobecaf. 

"I think that I shall never see . . .

. . . billboard lovely as a

Trees

apologies to Joyce Kilmer

I am hindered

 I find it curious that my iPhone photos are visible but not directly accessible to my iPad. It’s frustrating that I’m required to copy and edit photos before I can share them on this blog. I already am frustrated by what’s been done to this platform. 

A grizzly showed up on the road and walked by about 15’ away.

Denali made an appearance.

We didn’t have to take a selfy.

Last evening

Credit: MB

 Eastern Wyoming sky

Wild things

 So, we took a little ride and found the first sunshine since leaving San Antonio last Monday. 

When in Florida I guess it’s obligatory to look for alligators. 

It started out tame. 

Armadillo 

First gator was little 

Another small gator

Same small gator 

A bigger one

There’s the really big one

Another armadillo 

Whatcha doin'?

seen at Badlands National Park

 Sometimes it's the little things you see.

Color

 

Old stuff

 

Where were we?

 Oh, yeah . . .

Colorado is noted for its Rocky Mountains.
We'd driven through them a little over a week before, but it had been dark most of that time because we'd started out at some unnatural hour.
We weren't in such a hurry this day so we drove west on I-70 with the idea we would head north and drive through Rocky Mountain National Park.

The weather was gorgeous.
It was about a two hour drive to the south entrance to the park.
The scenery is spectacular and the road traverses the Continental Divide.

Yep, it says 11,307 feet

We were halfway to the park at this point.

There's a visitor center just outside the entrance, so we stopped to see what the highlights of the park are.
Almost the first thing we heard from a ranger was there were issues with the highway at the highest part of the park, something about ice.
We decided to go ahead anyway.

About ten miles into the park we stopped again.

You can't get there from here!

We were informed that the road might open that afternoon, but they were still removing ice from the pavement near the next summit.
We were determined that we'd see the park so we reversed direction and drove back the way we'd driven, not quite back to Denver.

So we saw a lot more than we'd planned by taking back roads through the foothills to Estes Park and entering the national park from the east side.

The long way around.
When we reached the east entrance we found that the road had been opened about a half hour after we turned around.
We also found that we were not going to be able to get to the Alpine Visitor Center at the top of the park before it closed.
Besides the wind was really gusting that late in the day.
However, we did get some pretty spectacular views.

I'm gonna strongly suggest that you click on the images below to get the full effect

Even then you can't imagine how spectacular it is.

For our next stop we drove to Loveland, CO, where we stayed the night.

next, Wyoming

We move on a little further

Slightly less than 500 miles on the first day.
Day two found us heading to Moab, Utah for our first adventure of the trip.
We took the scenic route [well, it was scenic once we got past Salt Lake City].

We were in no hurry because MB's son [the one who lives nearest us] and his family were joining us for the rest of the journey eastward on day three.
Once we left I-80 it was mostly two lane mountain roads, reaching 9,000 feet in elevation.
Fortunately, it was still summer driving.
Weather was not a concern.
It was, however, more than 450 miles and projected to take a little more than 7 hours.

It really is scenic country with many small communities with quirky speed limits.
It helps to have a passenger who watches that stuff.

Just short of Moab the navigation app warned us of a traffic slowdown.
What it didn't tell us is that there was major construction on the north end of town where two lanes of traffic are joined by a highway coming in from the northeast and funneling down to one lane with construction barriers preventing left turns into motels where travelers have reservations for the evening.
Those same construct barriers also prevent travelers from traveling further into town once they've manage to find their way into the motel.
Oh well!

MB and I did finally get to the real downtown, where the tourists and the locals were out in force.
We found a really nice little Mexican restaurant that we would probably revisit if we can get back into town.

Day Three: one of the reasons we went to Moab in the first place.

It is an interesting park in that there is only one way in and out.
There is no loop.
It's 18 miles in, then back the same way you drive in.
The scenery is spectacular.
We joined up with family at the visitor center.

Most of the time the pictures speak for themselves.

This one needs a little help

click to enlarge . . .   really!

The other reason we drove to Moab was up the highway and a little bit west.

The major decision for Canyonlands is what part does one visit.
There are four ways to go, each independent of the other.
We chose that which is most panoramic, Islands in the Sky.
It pretty much overlooks the rest of the park.

Mesa Arch is only a short walk from the visitor center . . .

. . . and is right next to the canyon.

I think maybe we want to go back to see at least some of the other three parts of this park.

The confluence of the Colorado River (the one that flows west) and Green River is somewhere out there.

Then we all drove to Grand Junction, where we had an inkling of how some Colorado drivers are.