Dónde Está Ruby? (mid-Oct)
Hi friends! I have been working on my Espanol thanks to Duolingo, so putting some practice into this post :p (see title - accent bars & all…impressed? Thought so…)
If you follow us on social, you probably saw we had a pretty major re-route due to the California fires. Luckily, we do not book things in advance and have a pretty flexible mindset on this adventure, so we were able to come up with a new plan with only a couple days of disappointment :)
Our plan to take Rubes down CA got diverted due to the wildfires over a month ago already (CRAZY!) We were on our way to Tahoe when we hit some shady things, national forest closures, city blackouts, etc. with smoke levels only getting worse (like advising you against being outside bad). No thank you. This happened when we were in northern CA around Lassen NP, so we ended up heading to Reno and dodging straight west through Nevada and into UT. Nevada was never really in our plans, and we didn’t feel like it really added much (if you are planning a roadtrip….), but we made it across the state within a weekend!
#busLife Timeline
When looking at the schedule, we really only plan to be on the road for about another month!!! Which sounds crazy, but we are going to try to be back for the Holidays, Thanksgiving included because LOVE. We are nearing 100 days on the road and well over halfway through our planning time wandering. BUT we are getting really excited to spend time with the fam over the holidays, enjoy that MN winter (or not), and get back to fixing up our house to get it in a sellable condition (S/O to Galen & Julie for tearing it apart while we have been gone)! If we come back earlier than planned, we won’t have a kitchen, so we’ll probably live in the bus anyways - might as well stay south where we can avoid shoveling :)
So where have we been in the past bit??
Since Sept 8th, we have been on a modified route (see orig route here), hitting up lots of things we had planned, but had planned to hit up post-California. Read on for some of our highlights and lowlights of Nevada, Utah, and Colorado!
Nevada: as mentioned, we pretty much high-tailed it across Nevada within a weekend, so we didn’t detour off of the central highway very much. Ruby also had some struggles here as it was pretty hot and all desert driving. This was pre-Ruby fix :)
Highlights:
Sand Mountain - this was our first sand dune & it was a lot of fun!
Wheeler Peak hike in Great Basin NP - our first 13er of the trip & our celebration of what was supposed to be our original wedding day. #howspecial
Lowlights:
All desert & nothing-ness, also really hot
Utah: we spent about 3 weeks in UT as there is actually a lot more to see there than we really thought. We saw a lot of red rocks in different and unique formations :) Southern UT is a really big high desert and as much as we enjoyed it, we were really, really excited to see mountains and pine trees again when we hit Colorado!
Highlights:
Cedar City purely because we had our overheating issue addressed here (unless you are looking for a good diesel mechanic, don’t really recommend this city)
Moab area - just so much to see here! Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, awesome river spots and river activities, etc. & the best part is, it’s all SO close! So we could bop in Arches for a single hike one evening and then go back a couple days later without really adding much mileage!
Bryce Canyon - we had a sweet dispersed camping spot near Bryce and on the bike trail into the park (Toms Best - even cell service), so we posted up here! It was a great spot for SPACE, work days, and adventuring! Always a highlight when you get all the amenities in one place FO’ Free!
Lowlights:
Zion NP - SO much was closed in Zion when we visited, so it was a bit disappointing. Angels Landing due to COVID, the Narrows due to a rare & harmful bacteria, and multiple other trails due to rockfall taking out the trail!
Moab service - for some reason, anything around Moab had pretty terrible Verizon service, so camping around here was sort of tough. We also had really touchy service where if we moved 10-20 ft, it would completely go in and out of having any reception.
Colorado: we were beyond excited to see mountains and green things after weeks in the red rocks and tumble weeds. It was a breathe of home as soon as we got to Dove Creek. <3 We have stayed south of I-70 the entire time as chains or 4WD are required starting October on the highway - both of which we don’t have. In the mountains, it is also getting really chilly at night, so we picked up a heater prior to getting into the San Juans. One morning we woke up to 18F weather!!
Highlights:
FRIENDS - we had about a week of best-friend time in Colorado which we thoroughly enjoyed and needed.
Durango side of the San Juans - we found some of the BEST free camping we have found yet on the trip in the San Juan mountains. If you are looking for recs and happen to be in the area, Lime Creek Dispersed camping is amazing. We also loved Rd 316 BLM dispersed area north of Durango. We had incredible mountain views & incredible service, so we were able to hang at each for a couple days.
Blue Lakes trail - this trailhead is near Mount Snaeffels (a CO 14er) between Placerville & Ridgeway. It’s gorg & was well worth the 10 mile hike!
Million Dollar highway - also amazing & Ruby did fantastic. This road was a true test of our overheating fix and she passed with flying colors! You are tucked in the mountains the entire time going through valleys and up summits. Truly incredible drive!
Telluride gondola - & it’s FREE!
Great Sand Dunes NP - our second sand dunes of the trip, but we rented a sand sled & it was a TON of fun (and came with a few bruises!)
Lowlights:
Costs of Telluride - such an expensive city; do everything you can to stock up prior to getting to this area! Chicken breasts were $11.99 / lb. S/O to my girl Lauren for grabbing our Walmart pick-up order on her way to visit :D
Telluride area service - I also do not advise attempting to work in this area if you need a hotspot. We had a really hard time finding service out of the city & that is also because the city is in a valley & you get buried in the mountains real fast. Jake luckily took most of the week off, so we didn’t struggle with it too much!
Mesa Verde - the tours into the houses were closed due to COVID. You can look, but you can’t touch!
And where are we going??
We have mapped and re-mapped this more times than we can count now and I’m still not sure this is our final plan, but it is our plan as of today :D
We wanted to leave CA open as an option, so we decided to go into CO first (which we are glad we did with the weather changing), but it leaves us with Arizona as our last “destination”. Arizona is still quite far from home and we don’t have 4WD or chains on Ruby, so it limits us in our available paths home or shall I say, safe & available paths home. :) So we aren’t sure what route back we will be taking after our AZ adventures, but it will likely be a week long journey or so putting on a LOT of miles. You win some, you lose some. With the cold weather moving in, we don’t have much of an option but to stay south, so this is just where we are ending with - could be worse :)
Thanks for following along and keeping us in your thoughts! We are really enjoying the fall temps we have been hitting, making the road feel a little more like home - minus the snow, but ya’ll can keep that! ;)
Peace, love, and stay MN cozy,
yo’ girl Jen (surfer girl Jen, specifically)
