Colorado, Utah, Idaho

The day after my last post I went for a hike with my friends near Crested Butte, CO. The wildflowers and mountain scenery were amazing. 

Columbine was everywhere!

Mike and Molly. 
Tina and Molly. (And the newest member of the Ogburn family, due mid-September!)

Flowers and mountains.

Another hiker's dog. 

That evening I got back in the car to keep moving west. I stopped briefly at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I got there just before the sun went down. 

View from the first lookout point on the south rim. 

Sunset over the canyon. 

After sunset and dinner in the park, it was back to the car for more driving. I slept that night in a campground near Canyonlands National Park. 

Mesa Arch

After my brief visit to the park, I hit the road again. I drove through the rest of Utah and most of Idaho with a few stops here and there for naps. I stopped at the Sierra Trading Post outlet just outside of Boise, ID yesterday. I was flipping through a book they had on Idaho rivers and saw that I was only about a 20 minute drive from a great playspot on the Payette River. My AC doesn’t work and it was 104 degrees in Boise, so I decided some time in the river was just what I needed. The playspot is an artificial rapid that was created to bypass a dam. It’s a couple nice class II+ drops with a great surfing hole at the bottom. I was the only kayaker there at the time, but there were several local folks with boogie boards. The hole is perfect for surfing with a boogie board. After a few runs in the boat I borrowed a boogie board and I didn’t get back in my boat for the rest of the afternoon. 

A local kid taking his first turn on the surfing wave. 

Another local boogie board surfer. 

After the river I started driving west, across the rest of Idaho, through a corner of Oregon and into Washington. Shortly after crossing into Washington, around 10pm last night, I pulled over at a rest area. I planned to rest for a few minutes. I fell asleep in the front seat of my car and woke up at 7am thismorning. I guess I was tired!