12 hours driving, picture heavy

I passed on a Saturday trip with the family, brother-in-law would have piled in with his kids and I have no desire to talk to him, ever. When the entire family contributed to the in-laws Moab vacation, he didn't. When the entire family contributed to having the landscaping done at the in-laws, he didn't. He did loan father-in-law $100 when they were short on cash one day and then had the nerve to say that it was his contribution. Instead of just saying I can't/won't he ignored everyone and pretended to that he had helped (yes, the $100 loan looked great against the $750 everyone else sent). Just say no, don't bullshit and don't ride what everyone else is doing when you feel like shit for not getting involved.

Anyhow, Sunday rolled around early and we heading out. 3 hours of pavement, 9 hours of trail driving can easily wear you out. Enjoy the pictures, I didn't have my good camera for some reason so they are only mediocre.

Heading up and in, 90 minutes after driving across 2 mountain ranges.

Nothing holding this up but great craftsmanship, even after it fell apart.

Pure awesome, I know.

The weather changed every 30 minutes, looking South.

Looking South again, higher up.

Higher up, looking East.

We went a lot higher but many of the signs were missing, looking North.

This little engine can pull, South Park Line tracks.

Robber Jay looking for handouts, don't feed the wildlife.

The next picture is what the sign explains.

You can see the palisades work in the middle left of the picture.

Standard high alpine tundra before another storm.

1500 foot cliff to the right, muddy trail in between wiper swipes.

I felt like taking a nap right there, it was very tranquil.

Original marker, the other sides have been worn away

"Beneath this stone our dear son lies. For him we now do mourn. A loving brother stood by him while far away from home". We figured it was talking about how some siblings are at each others sides at the end, no matter the distance of the physical beings. We thought about rebuilding the fence but decided to leave it be, it's a natural process.

Old age, very old age back in the late 1800's.

That last picture is how I want to be buried. Under a nice shade tree covered in rocks. It was amazingly peaceful looking, as if the person was really at rest. This was a town of 1500 people, when the town moved a few miles away (the towns moved from one hot mining spot to the next) this became the cemetery for those who had been in the original town. A town could have been 5000 people with 200 buildings and the only remains you will find are the meadows where the trees were all cut down.

Dropping down out of the mountains, looking south

Same spot, looking West and looking awesome.

Same again, looking North towards the mountains we roamed.

Back up top, a long roller coaster travel kind of day.

Looking west from the divide sign, tranquil as the daylight fades.

Same picture with some awesomeness added.

The day was great, we found several camp spots and explored an entire new area that we had only talked about visiting. We only had one problem with some ATV's in one tough trail section. We had to strap and winch this ATV, the owner decided to bail after bad driving had it teetering on a 2000 foot cliff edge.
The temperature varied from 68 degrees in the morning, to 48 degrees up top, to 105 degrees in the valley on the southern route home. Even following the Arkansas river it was still 95 degrees but the scenery and drive was pretty nice no matter the temperature.