After leaving Cheyenne, we headed southwest towards Chambers Lake Campground in the Roosevelt National Forest in Colorado, our next destination for two (2) nights. We opted for the backroads, and were greeted with spectacular scenery, but also a washboard road at one point.

We stopped at the Laramie River to watch a trout fisherman for a bit.

Chambers Lake did not disappoint. The views were breathtaking!

Rachel even tried her hand at paddle boarding, and did well —she stayed dry! The couple with the board had an older dog, nicknamed “Bean,” that liked to retrieve sticks in the lake. We also met a father & son fishing duo, and the 6yr old claimed he was “King of the Rock!”

It was Labor Day weekend, so we were lucky to get a site (#24) online, even if it wasn’t one with a good view of the lake. We walked about 3 miles around the lake peninsula, and wrote down five (5) lake view sites (#34, #36, #40, #42, & #44) that we would like to be able to stay in next time.

I saw a chipmunk eating a dragonfly, and an osprey flying with a freshly-caught trout.

We met Mary & Kathy from Colorado, and spent time visiting with them and their dog and cat in their travel trailer. Overall, Chambers Lake is definitely on our list to return to someday.

The drive to Salt Lake City started with a scenic view overlook on Colorado Hwy 14.

We traveled on Hwy 40 and 190, again taking the slow scenic route. Our biggest slowdown was at Guardsman Pass and Big Cottonwood Canyon Roads. The dark, freshly paved, unpainted narrow blacktop road climbed from 7000’ to 9784’ at marked speed limits of 15 and 20 mph. It took us over an hour to go 34 miles! I was excited to find a Blue Beacon truck/RV wash open on the road near our KOA. There was NO waiting and they scrubbed off the pesky bugs on the front so we pulled into the KOA all bright and shiny around 1a.m.!

The next day, Sep 4, we both dyed our hair to hide the grey roots before getting dressed up and taking an Uber to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in downtown Salt Lake City. From there we walked to the Vivent Smart Home Arena to see Elton John in his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. He was amazing.