10 States in 7 days

[t0mills]

Just got rested up from the trip, and figured you guys might like to see some pics!


Started this trip on June 7th and got back the 14th. Went through:

Arkansas
Missouri
Kansas
Colorado
Utah
Nevada
Arizona
New Mexico
Texas
Oklahoma

It was a lot of driving, and a lot of fun. Got to see some places that the usual tourist would never see!


Here is what I was driving:

1995 Suburban K2500 - 7.4L V8 - 4.10 gears - OEM Locker - 35" tires.
Suspension is all stock, with 212,000 miles when I left. She never missed a beat!



Driving through Kansas, we saw a very large wind farm.

This picture pretty much sums up driving through Kansas:

Not too much to see. Would've been a great time to use Autopilot....well, ya know, if I had that.



Finally arriving in Colorado!

By the time we got to Colorado Springs and stocked up the cooler, it was dark, and we found a quick place to camp.

Leaving the campground the next morning:

Made our way over to the Garden of the Gods:

There is a little dirt road that goes up and provides some great views of Pikes Peak! Also would've been a great place to camp.

We made our way over to the Royal Gorge:

 

[t0mills]

We then proceeded to travel south, so that we could see the Great Sand Dunes. I didn't have my GPS on, so I think we missed the main entrance to the park, but, I saw a sign that mentioned the dunes being "This Way" :coffeedrink:

The little road ended up being the back entrance to Medano Pass:
http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=53

It was a great little trail, and an excellent way to see the mountains!

 

[t0mills]

Looking up at the trail, it gets a little rough:

One of 8 water crossings on the trail:

 

[t0mills]

Finally made it to the sand dunes!

Definitely a sight I didn't expect to see in the middle of Colorado! :sombrero:

 

[t0mills]

The next stop was in Durango. We hopped on 550 and headed north, through one of the best drives I've ever been on. It was perfect.

It was actually snowing a little bit in this pic:

Looking down on Silverton, CO:

 

[t0mills]

These pictures were taken at the trailhead for Engineer Pass, which I didn't run due to lack of information. The sign specifically said "Short Wheelbase Vehicles", so that pretty much ruled me out.. :sombrero:

A little side road on our way to Grand Junction. Great place to take a break.

 

[t0mills]

These next pictures are from the DS Road/Granite Creek/Sheep Creek trail combo.

Special thanks go out to IntrepidXJ for all of his help with this section!

I actually got lost on the more difficult part of this trail, due to a USB GPS failure. It was definitely an exciting trail! Camping on top of the last Mesa provided for an EXCELLENT view of the sky that I've never been able to see.
The stars and Milky Way were easily visible.

Continued below....

 

[IntrepidXJ]

The sign specifically said "Short Wheelbase Vehicles", so that pretty much ruled me out.. :sombrero:

If you could handle the Sheep Creek switchbacks.....Engineer Pass would have been easy

 

[t0mills]

 

[t0mills]

This picture was taken right before the steep descent from the Mesa.

I didn't get any pics of the really tight sections, because honestly, I was afraid to get out of the truck!! Most all of the switchbacks required me to make 5 point turns. The rest of the pictures were taken in areas that allowed my knuckles to regain color.

Stopping to take a pic, and allow some heat under the hood to escape:

 

[t0mills]

These were all taken toward the end of the trail, near Gateway, CO.

Saw that sign at the END of the trail... haha!

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Saw that sign at the END of the trail... haha!

yeah, the sign was still up on Sunday, too......they must have forgot to remove them since they repaired the road

 

[t0mills]

After stopping for a short break in Gateway, we proceeded to head toward Moab!


Part of the way was dirtroad, and provided a nice little place along the Delores River to grill some hotdogs.

Crossing the Utah state line, this time, by paved road.

Arches National Park:

 

[t0mills]

These pics were taken on a little 4wd road that runs from the Arches National Park, back to the highway.

There were a few sections on the road that may have required 4wd if it were raining. :smiley_drive:

Near the end, there were several great spots to set up the grill!

Just gotta watch out for these guys! :Wow1:

 

[t0mills]

Final pics are from Vegas.

Spent a night there at the MGM Signature hotel. Made reservations online the week before, and didn't quite realize how "upscale" it was. It was refreshing, but was Valet parking only. I don't think the burb has ever been valeted before... haha

Hoover Dam pictures. Looks like they are getting closer to finishing the bridge!

All in all, it was a GREAT trip, and we both had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, and we seemed to miss every rain shower that we could see.

The drive back was long, but I made it in *ONLY* 22hrs.


Total trip was around 3300 miles, and I consumed 315 gallons of fuel.


Thanks for looking!