Day 4: Jensen to Denver

Once again, we car-camped, but this time with mommy!! Although this rest area was 'out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere', there was another car "camping" in the parking lot with us. It turned out to be a nice, older lady who was glad to see our car all night, and didn't mind at all when we set up pretty late. She said it helped he to sleep a little easier knowing that there was a 'nice family' next door...

A quick clean-up using the bathrooms and getting in a 'sink shower', and then and breakfast in the rest area's lobby which was warm and dry. Not a bad way to get started, although a couple chairs would have been nice...

And then it was off to the monument!!  Click here to see those pictures.

After the Dinosaur National Monument, it was a long, hard drive to get to Denver so we could put mommy on a plane to go back to work. Unfortunately, almost as soon as she joined us she go the call to come back, so our weekend got re-arranged so that we could hit Denver before we got to the Rocky Mountain National Park - mommy's loss!

These were some cranes we heard getting up this morning.  One the way out, they were searching the fields for food...

The landscape of this highland desert is beautiful! It was a shame we couldn't stop longer and explore more of the buttes for fossils - they are supposed to be all over out here.

Colorado!  Another brand-new state for the kids.  The fifth in our trip, and the third neither had been to before. This was a pretty cool sign. Since we were not yet on a major highway, we wondered if this was an 'official' sign, or if the locals put it up.

The mountain passes from Junction City to Denver were gorgeous!! Around every corner we saw the most spectacular views of rocks, mountain & forest.

As we got further along, the clouds started to roll in. The last thing we would need was bad weather, as Mary had a flight very early in the morning, and this area is know for quick changes to big storms...

Around Vale, snow started to show up. It behaved and stayed up on the hillsides, where it belonged, but it was making us nervous. To top it off, when we stopped for gas the clerk told us a storm was coming in and was expected to dump snow on them...

Soon, it was large amounts of snow. There had obviously been snow recently, and some flakes were starting to come down on us as well - but the road was all clear so far...

This tunnel was very cool - we went straight through the Rocky Mountains!  About half way through, there was a sign for the Continental Divide. The best part was that on this side of the mountain the storm hadn't reached yet! The rest of the drive down the mountain wasn't bad at all.

Late & dark, we found a hotel near the airport.  Tomorrow - drop mommy off, and then we head to the Rocky Mountain National Park!

Quick Stats:
total mileage so far - 1449
hours driving - 24
States - 5 (35 counties, 3 state capitals)
sites/parks/monuments - 7
Junior Ranger badges - 4 (& 1 Junior Paleontologist badge!)