Justification for 4X4

The landscape in Nebraska is hummocky and undulating – for you geographers out there this topography is typical of groundwater recharge areas. The soil is mostly sand and the ground is covered in scrubby, desert-like vegetation (we think this is sage-bush country). This region is home to the Ogallala aquifer. This aquifer is the largest supply of groundwater in North America – it provides water to the majority of the states in the mid-west but is currently being depleted faster than it can recharge.

We decided to camp at a State Park in these sandy hills on the bluffs of Lake McCoughy. Our campsite was spectacular; the state park term for it was ‘primitive’. To access the camp we drove, white-knuckled, along a washed-out sand road. The road was riveted with channels in parts and swamped with water in others; we were grateful for 4X4.  We were the only people camping on the bluff and we were treated with an evening of natural theater – swallow displays of aerial acrobatics, beautiful sunset and an after-dark lightning show.

Our two-burner Coleman stove has been an invaluable asset on our trip. Here is a photo of frying some taters ‘n’ beans. We are getting quite good at cooking with the stove in our drawer kitchen. We’ve been cooking dishes like we would in a proper kitchen (last night we had a coconut curry and fresh asparagus).

We left the sand hills and drove out of Nebraska into Colorado. The scenery was hilly prairie that provided distant views. We saw very few houses along the highway; the lands were completely occupied by cattle operations. Some areas were massive grazing fields and others were disgusting feed lots with thousands of cattle in concentration-camp-like conditions. Courtney got very worked up about the scene and handed out “the bird” to the unsuspecting CAFOs(Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).

We drove a good piece into Colorado before seeing the silhouettes of the Rocky Mountains. As we continued towards the mountains the landscape changed abruptly from hills to cliffs and from summer to winter. We drove through rain, then hail, then snow as we climbed into the mountains. We spent the night in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was snowy and much colder than we expected. We did walk around a little and it is a very lovely place. But we have moved on to warmed temps to the west side of the mountains. Over the past 2 days the temp has fluctuated from 18 to -2 to 21 as we traveled from the east to the west side of the Rockys.  Todays drive was spectacular; everything and more than we expected of Colorado. This State is BEAUTIFUL!

Photos of sun, snow, sun

As well as spectacular scenery, we have seen some pretty cool wildlife . In Lake McCoughy State Park we saw 2 mule deer, and throughout Colorado so far we have seen elk, prairie dogs, pika, white winged magpie, foxes plus two blue birds (one for sure in the jay family and one likely in the warbler or bunting family- might have been an indigo...)

 Tonight we are staying in Colorado River Island State Park. The scene is lovely. Tomorrow we are going to stay in the area and do some hiking. The weather here is perfect and there are a bunch of great sounding hikes nearby.

Peas and Love.