MattScott
Approved Vendor
While the area surrounding Prescott, Arizona certainly has an abundance of 4WD trails, it all kind-of starts to look like the same dry, brown, rocky, tense landscape after a while. I needed an escapeand quite frankly, in Colorado—the grass is greener on the other side. Coincidentally, Independence Day was just around the corner, and a last minute trip was planned—celebrating freedom is such a good excuse to travel.
A few late nights were spent trying to get Chris' 1995 Range Rover Classic into tip-top running shape. In the end, thanks to Land Rover's incredibly ***-backwards engineering, we needed to take a different ride—a 2009 Hummer H3T; an under-powered vehicle with visibility similar to that of a submarine.
These days, I really don't care what vehicle takes me on an adventure, and in the end, the H3T did just fine.
July 3rd
The border to Colorado is only about 7-8 hours away from Prescott, but most of the drive is through the Navajo Nation, where you can't camp without jumping through some hoops or staying in a campground next to a retiree running their generator all night.
We made it to Utah's Valley of the Gods around midnight, one of the first places you can camp after "the Rez."
It didn't suck to wake up to this view, and suprisingly it wasn't too hot at night.
With an eventual goal of making Meeker, Colorado before dinner, we fueled up on some caffeine at in Bluff, Utah. If you haven't stopped here before and find yourself in need of a good cup of joe, I suggest it.
Chris' H3T hit 100,000 miles while driving through Moab.
Part of the impetus for this trip was the fact that a cousin of mine was unveiling a memorial bronze statue in Meeker, where he lives. As soon as we arrived, cold, cheap beer was waiting for us.. It must be family thing...
With a fire ban in place, the only fireworks the kids could have were sparklers.
I never mentioned how old the kids were.
This was the first time I'd seen rain in months, a great thing when there's wildfires ravaging the entire west.
Independence Day
Even though we had a trailer complete with all of the camping goodies you'd ever want and a comfy roof tent; it's become a bit of a tradition for my family to stay in Meeker's Green Cabins.
I woke up early to soak up the 'Merica and go fly-fishing. After a few jumbled casts, it was clear that I'd been living in a state with almost no moving water for too long.
So instead, I popped out a chair and relaxed with the gentle sounds of moving water in the background. It might sound crazy, but move to the desert and you'll start to apprechiate the little things such as: grass, moving water, and the lack of things that want to sting and poison you.
Eventually we made our way down to my cousins' house, beers were cracked at about 9:30am. 'Merica. Here's a picture of a tractor from a small-town parade.
A quick speech by my cousin and artist (John Kobald) led up to the unveil of the Rio Blanco County Veteran's Memorial.
The modern soldier is a departure from usual sculptures of WWI/II era soldiers.
I'll be honest, there were no grand adventures for the rest of the 4th of July. We floated down the White River with some family, and drank too much beer. 'Merica.
July 5th
We left Meeker the next morning with hopes and dreams of checking out some of the ski resorts (Chris has never been to Colorado) and finding a campsite up in the mountains close to Mosquito Pass, which we'd run the next morning before heading to Telluride.
Along the way, we stopped at the Walcott Yacht Club. If you've never been, it's in Wolcott, and you can't miss it. Order the fish tacos.
After stopping in at Lake Dillon, we found a campsite near the Wheeler Lake trail
It always bothers me when people litter. How many hundreds of people have camped here without picking up these decades-old Coors cans?
I went full-on glamper with this trip. Since we had a trailer and more room than my little mind knew what to do with, I decided we should certainly grab the Snow Peak Iron Grill Table System.
It made for pretty pictures of me doing stereotypical overlander things.
Snow Peak's GigaPower torch is one of those things you just have to have. For $40, it's well worth it, especially when you walk up to your buddy trying to start a campfire boy scout style and get the fire going in seconds. Though I didn't have the pleasure of doing that thanks to a fire ban.
I used the uber-expensive cook system to mess up some green beans.
Sometime around cooking some chicken, I found out that Chris is deathly afraid of bears.
Note to Chris: If you're afraid of something, never tell another guy that when you're camping—he will torment you.
July 6th
After tormenting Chris about bears all night, I don't think he was able to get much sleep.
We (Chris) cleaned up the campsite. Just a note to all internet trolls, that wasn't our campfire, it was just where people threw their garbage.
After a little cleanup, were set to head down the trail and start Mosquito Pass.
Damnit.
We'll have more tomorrow, stay tuned.
A few late nights were spent trying to get Chris' 1995 Range Rover Classic into tip-top running shape. In the end, thanks to Land Rover's incredibly ***-backwards engineering, we needed to take a different ride—a 2009 Hummer H3T; an under-powered vehicle with visibility similar to that of a submarine.
These days, I really don't care what vehicle takes me on an adventure, and in the end, the H3T did just fine.
July 3rd
The border to Colorado is only about 7-8 hours away from Prescott, but most of the drive is through the Navajo Nation, where you can't camp without jumping through some hoops or staying in a campground next to a retiree running their generator all night.
We made it to Utah's Valley of the Gods around midnight, one of the first places you can camp after "the Rez."
It didn't suck to wake up to this view, and suprisingly it wasn't too hot at night.
With an eventual goal of making Meeker, Colorado before dinner, we fueled up on some caffeine at in Bluff, Utah. If you haven't stopped here before and find yourself in need of a good cup of joe, I suggest it.
Chris' H3T hit 100,000 miles while driving through Moab.
Part of the impetus for this trip was the fact that a cousin of mine was unveiling a memorial bronze statue in Meeker, where he lives. As soon as we arrived, cold, cheap beer was waiting for us.. It must be family thing...
With a fire ban in place, the only fireworks the kids could have were sparklers.
I never mentioned how old the kids were.
This was the first time I'd seen rain in months, a great thing when there's wildfires ravaging the entire west.
Independence Day
Even though we had a trailer complete with all of the camping goodies you'd ever want and a comfy roof tent; it's become a bit of a tradition for my family to stay in Meeker's Green Cabins.
I woke up early to soak up the 'Merica and go fly-fishing. After a few jumbled casts, it was clear that I'd been living in a state with almost no moving water for too long.
So instead, I popped out a chair and relaxed with the gentle sounds of moving water in the background. It might sound crazy, but move to the desert and you'll start to apprechiate the little things such as: grass, moving water, and the lack of things that want to sting and poison you.
Eventually we made our way down to my cousins' house, beers were cracked at about 9:30am. 'Merica. Here's a picture of a tractor from a small-town parade.
A quick speech by my cousin and artist (John Kobald) led up to the unveil of the Rio Blanco County Veteran's Memorial.
The modern soldier is a departure from usual sculptures of WWI/II era soldiers.
I'll be honest, there were no grand adventures for the rest of the 4th of July. We floated down the White River with some family, and drank too much beer. 'Merica.
July 5th
We left Meeker the next morning with hopes and dreams of checking out some of the ski resorts (Chris has never been to Colorado) and finding a campsite up in the mountains close to Mosquito Pass, which we'd run the next morning before heading to Telluride.
Along the way, we stopped at the Walcott Yacht Club. If you've never been, it's in Wolcott, and you can't miss it. Order the fish tacos.
After stopping in at Lake Dillon, we found a campsite near the Wheeler Lake trail
It always bothers me when people litter. How many hundreds of people have camped here without picking up these decades-old Coors cans?
I went full-on glamper with this trip. Since we had a trailer and more room than my little mind knew what to do with, I decided we should certainly grab the Snow Peak Iron Grill Table System.
It made for pretty pictures of me doing stereotypical overlander things.
Snow Peak's GigaPower torch is one of those things you just have to have. For $40, it's well worth it, especially when you walk up to your buddy trying to start a campfire boy scout style and get the fire going in seconds. Though I didn't have the pleasure of doing that thanks to a fire ban.
I used the uber-expensive cook system to mess up some green beans.
Sometime around cooking some chicken, I found out that Chris is deathly afraid of bears.
Note to Chris: If you're afraid of something, never tell another guy that when you're camping—he will torment you.
July 6th
After tormenting Chris about bears all night, I don't think he was able to get much sleep.
We (Chris) cleaned up the campsite. Just a note to all internet trolls, that wasn't our campfire, it was just where people threw their garbage.
After a little cleanup, were set to head down the trail and start Mosquito Pass.
Damnit.
We'll have more tomorrow, stay tuned.
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