I have been following your thread of living my dream. Unfortunately I'm old enough to have aches and pains but not to the point of retiring, but someday. Until then I will live vicariously through your photos and experiences. Thanks for posting up the pics of the beautiful places you have visited and may you always have a tailwind and wider roads.

 

Was looking at that location on Google maps and WOW! You could spend years there wandering around.

Just awesome stuff!
Griz

 

Thank you guys,

A little maintenance item, I've been having an issue with the Bigfoot system (1st generation) not retracting the rear legs. It would auto level but when it came time to retract just the rears nothing would happen. For anyone that has the Bigfoot system this will buy you some time till you can get the new parts, all you have to do is push and hold the emergency retract button but doing this it will retract all legs meaning the rears will raise into the cylinder along with lowering the front of the 5th wheel (be sure nothing is under the front of 5th wheel). When you let up on the button it will stop raising the legs. Depending on far down the rear legs are you might have to raise the front legs to finish retracting the rears.
There where no codes flashing at all on the control panel and full battery power. After talking with tech support it was determined the limit switches went bad.

Super easy fix... 7/8 wrench for the limit switch, 3/8 socket for the ground nut, 5/16 socket for screw holding the front shield on, electrical tape for wrapping the 2 ends of the protecting tube. Total time 30 minutes +/-.




easy peezee.

 

Went for afternoon drive towards the Grand Mesa but turned around a 3rd of the way there seeing the almost all the leaves have fallen and just boring looking along the way so we decided to go in the opposite direction to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It made for a nice afternoon drive with some decent pics.








On the way back towards the 5th wheel with the changing colors on the Mountains this field had 150 or so cranes.


Just before the sun went down behind the mesa with the moon at the nose and the sunset at rear of the 5th wheel some cool colors, pinks and purples didn't show that were near the moon with orange, yellow and blue of the setting sun.

 

I was fishing in the Blue Mesa Reservoir area a couple months ago. I didn't make it to the Black Canyon area but now I wish I had. There are some good hikes down to the reservoirs west of Blue Mesa.

I'm available for adoption if you're looking to adopt someone. I'm a bit long in the tooth but take direction well.

 

Are you seeing any critters in these areas?

 

Thanks for the continuing story........

 

We drove some of the West Elk loop yesterday from Delta to Hotchkiss (rt 92) towards rt 50 Blue Mesa Dam then back towards Black Canyon where we had dinner at the bottom of East Portal rd.












When you go to Black Canyon NP just as you go through the entrance gate East Portal rd is on your right take it, I missed it the day before so hit it on the drive back. It has warnings for 16% steep grade and hair pin curves and I think 26' total length vehicle/ trailer. Put the truck in 1st gear and enjoy the ride. I'd show pics but they're on the other camera and it was wiser to drive this road and not shoot pics with the tablet.
Before descending.


Picnic area at the bottom.






Colorado is one of my favorite places to visit with the diversity in terrain, scenic drives there is just something for everyone.

 

Deer, antelope. Took the dog for a walk on the Mesa the other day and watched a hawk eating a rabbit. I was hoping for black bear around the Black Canyon np area there is supposed to be a lot there but didn't see any. That's why we like the evening drives with sitting and watching the long views.

 

 

Those are all many more fantastic shots.It's so cool to see some places where I've recently been,so far away,yet still so close.You got that right about Colorado.She's one of America's most scenic.

 

Scraprat,
This is a spectacular thread. Thanks for sharing pictures and stories of your adventures. Out of curiosity, when you came from Montrose to the Black Canyon area, was US Highway 50 still under construction just west of the dam? They were doing lots of construction between the Blue Mesa Dam and the small town of Cimmaron when I was through there earlier this summer and I am curious if they are still working on it. I am heading through there next week to go camping and hunting.

Thanks,
DJ

 

That's a good question. When I was there in September there were sections west of Blue Mesa that were under construction, including a section that was dirt. That wasn't a lot of fun but at least I didn't have my trailer behind the truck at the time. 50 east of Gunnison still had construction signs up and the speed was limited but it looked like all the construction had been wrapped up.

The latest construction updates for that area can be found here: https://www.codot.gov/projects/activ...e-construction. It doesn't look like that area is still under construction.

 

I went west on 50 from 92 (Blue Dam) and there was an area that was 1 lane for a couple miles. I can't remember exactly where but It wasn't too far from the turn, no big delay at all.

 

Thanks for the response Scraprat. The construction wasn't a big deal when I was through there with the trailer back in July, but I was kind of hoping that they would have finished it up by now. Enjoy your time in Colorado.