Day 12 (336): Taking the Scenic Route (as recommended by the map)

This morning we woke up to frost. A nice thick frost over everything. Luckily the sun came up and started to melt everything.  The melting however was raining inside my tent. I guess the fly sheet isn't designed for frost; it's only a three season tent after all. Once we were sufficiently thawed, we were on our way to Steamboat Springs. 

The temperature: -2.0 C

My frosty wheel

We stopped in Steamboat to check out the camping stores. Dad was happy to be in the heart of Big Agnes country. After Steamboat we planned to ride through the Rocky Mountain NP. Again we were expecting some amazing mountain scenery, something like glacier NP, and found sad forestry roads. The road surface was very nice, and there were lots of nice curves but the speed limits and traffic prevented us from really enjoying the road. Finally at the summit we got some decent scenery but the park was a huge disappointment. The only wildlife we saw was two zebras. One was driven by Nick (Hi Nick). 

A zebra truck

Our friend the Continental Divide

The view from the top

Back out of the park we picked up HWY 7 south. It was a nice change. Some good twisties and barely any traffic. Some funny signs though “Motorcycles use extreme caution” and “In case of flood climb to higher ground”. We settled in Nederland for the night. While Dad was shopping for beer, I checked out the Mining Museum. They had a Bucyrus 50-D (I think that was the name) that was used to build the Panama Canal. They also had a little Bucyrus 10-D. It was so cute. We are now resting easy in the Kelly Dahl campground, there was a free campground but it was very primitive. 

The largest Steam Shovel in the US

 

A nice sunset to complete the day