Day 78: Route Change

We arrived today in Steamboat Springs, actually about 5 miles west of Steamboat.

Rick walking through Craig. Photo Courtesy of DAVID PRESSGROVE.

Not much happened today or yesterday. We covered a total of 37 miles and the terrain has gone from looking at the mountains in the distance to looking at them as I walk among them. We have arrived in the Rockies. Tomorrow we will go through Steamboat and head for Rabbit Ears Pass and Muddy Creek Pass.

After we go over Muddy Creek, we have a route change. We are taking CO Hwy 14 North toward Coalmont then County Road 28 over to Hwy 125, then County Road 27 from Rand to Gould which puts us back on Hwy 14. This shortcut saves us about 17 miles and the route change from US 40 and US 34 keeps us out of Rocky Mountain National Park. We have been told by several people that the hike through the Park is treacherous and unsafe to walk, so we heeded their advice and changed our route. Overall, this saves us a lot of miles and the scenery isn’t all that much different.

We want to thank Ray Selbe (owner) and John (manager) of the Eagle Soaring RV Park just on the

Valda Cooling Her Heels in the Yampa River

west side of Steamboat Springs. They invited us to stay with them tonight after reading an article about us in the Steamboat Springs Today newspaper. Thanks to reporter Bridget Manley and photographer Dave for the really good article and pictures. The article also ran in the Craig Daily Press and we actually made the front page of that paper!

Valda went back to the park in Craig and took some more pictures of the wood sculptures without any people around. I’ll post some of them from time to time so you can see the talent these people have. The bottom picture is of the Yampa River. I walked over it today.