Great Basin National Park

 Hello from beautiful Great Basin,

We have been on the road the last three days.  After leaving Wind Cave in South Dakota, we continued west to Wyoming.  On our drive we saw at least two dozen Rough-legged Hawks along the highway in a 200 yard stretch on fence posts looking for mice, prairie dogs, snakes, etc. It was an amazing site.  

In Wyoming we had picked a campground that Ralph had stayed in with his friends while on his motorcycle trip in August.  Bad news, they were redoing the road and it was closed until October 8.  So we asked at the local store if there was another campground in the area and they directed us to a great one right on the lake.  

The next day, during almost the entire driving from Wyoming into Utah, we saw herds of pronghorn grazing in fields near the highway.  It was such a pretty drive as we were now in the mountains.  Stopped and spent the night in East Canyon State Park, about 30 miles outside Salt Lake City.  

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Great Basin NP, at the easternmost point of Nevada off the 50 freeway.  We really got lucky with a campsite.  We had driven to the end of the campground and had seen no open sites.  On our way back out, we looked more closely at a very large parking area for one site and realized it was two sites that shared a very large pull-through area and one of them was open.  It is one of the best sites in camp and we think others had overlooked it as we almost did, thinking it was just one site.  It is a private, roomy site with a creek 50 feet away.  We were thanking our lucky stars all evening that we got that site.

South Dakota gets the prize for the most flies, but we were still doing battle with them in Wyoming and Utah.  

Gas prices have gone up dramatically.  We were paying $3.59 in South Dakota and Wyoming.  At our last stop in Nevada we paid $5.44.  Our truck has been humming along so we are feeling optimistic about getting home with no further issues although Ralph's hands are getting tired of driving with his fingers crossed.  Looks like we will be home on Tuesday.  Our last stop is to see my cousin in Cameron Park, CA.

Off to go hiking!

Photos of our campground and campsite at Pathfinder Reservoir near the tiny town of Alcova, Wyoming.  Our site was right along the lake and it was finally shorts weather!

Top photo is of the lake near East Canyon State Park in Utah.  Another great campground.  I went down to the camp store (closed for the season) and this Great Horned Owl was sitting on a railing just staring at me, quite unconcerned.  

Two photos of our drive out of the mountains from our campground in Utah down into Salt Lake City.  It was a gorgeous drive with the leaves bursting with color.

This is a view from Great Basin into the valley below.  Our campground is at 7750 feet.  There is another campground at 10,000 feet and we are glad we didn't have to go up to that one looking for a campsite.

Our campsite in Great Basin.  We LOVE this campsite.  This is the stream 50 feet behind our site.

We eat well when we travel.  Best breakfast yet: eggs with grilled vegetables, bacon and corn muffins.