Month: July 2026

Nancy is up early and ready to go hike some trails. Dogs are not allowed on the trails in this park, so I will stay with Moe while Nancy hikes. I make breakfast and enjoy a leisurely coffee while Moe relaxes in the shade. I finish cleaning the dishes and toss the ball for Moe. He really enjoys this activity. His vision is not what it was a few years ago; he is fourteen, long in the tooth. But if I toss the ball to bounce near him, he can hear where it is to fetch and bring it back for another toss.  Nancy is now back.

I get ready to ride up Cedar Pass to explore this side of the park.

I decide to ride an old gravel road, the Old North East Road.

Now back on the park road, I follow it to the exit of the park and walk the bike over the boarded walkway to the lookout.

I am now heading back to the campsite. I shower and relax for a few hours. It is 5:00 pm, we put Moe in the camper, we drive the lodge for a quick dinner. Then back to get Moe and drive to the Yellow Mounds for some golden hour and setting sun photos.

We get back to camp as the sun disappears.

I look at the forecast; it will rain tonight. I pack up the hammock; I will sleep in the tent. I am now in the tent listening to the rain fall above me. I love this sound.

As I was just waking up, I felt light drops of rain on my face, confirming the faint sound of rain against the hammock. It was over before I got wet.

The wind is strong, blowing the heat from under the frying pan. The bread under the grill failed to get brown. Today was eggs sunny-side-up with warm bread. I still got the calories for a ride. I’m getting ready to ride part of the Badlands Scenic Loop Highway. 

I’m on the Loop and stopping more than riding to look and photograph the beauty. The biting flies are brutal; they swarm, and as I ride, I’m swatting three-to-four at a time off each leg as I ride. They get on my feet and bite through my socks.

It is stifling. I need to eat, but so it is a packaged meal. Still craving ice cream, we drove to Interior to gas the car,  get ice, and ice cream.

We are loaded and ready to leave, Custer State Park. The first stop is a CVS and laundromat in Rapid City. But the first stop turned out to be the side of the road to photograph a lone buffalo resting by the side of the road.

Well, back on the road again through the Black Hills.

The rest of the trip to our campground for a few days, Badlands National Park has an interesting appeal. I like being in the vast open space that foreshadows the end of our day.

We arrive at Cedar Pass Campground nestled in a corner of what was once a sea bed. The sun is down, the moon is up, and the stars fill the sky.

I open my eyes at five in the morning, wondering if it is noon. Six o’clock comes, the sun is up, and Nancy comes out of the camper wanting to leave as soon as possible. We are on the road by 8:00 a.m.

The scenery begins to change. I notice more trees and greener grasses.

We are close to Custer State Park. It is barely noon, so we enter the park and start driving through to get to our campground.

Coolidge Campground is small with only twelve sites. We set up. Nancy goes to the park store and brings Nancy a pizza with buffalo meat. Great pizza, by the way. It is 7:45. We take Moe for his nightly walk along the bike trail. We see at least three deer along the way.

The sun is out of sight somewhere below the tree line. I pitch my tent and take a shower. I wake mid-night and see the beautiful sky.

We didn’t want to but we need to move on to Riverside Campground in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. This will be another step closer to the Badlands, South Dakota.

Out of the mountain and on to the plains. This change brings faster roads, big cities, and more people. Ugh! Back onto the heat  also. The move into Nebraska is more green. The landscape, although similar, has shuttle changes. I begin to like being here.

We stop in the town of Kimball for gas and lunch. An Indian restaurant, the name slips me but the food is excellent.

Back on the road to Scottsbluff, with another thirty miles before shutting off the engine and ending the day.

The Riverside Campground is a no frills RV park on the edge of the city. The tent site look nice, much better than what most RV parks provide. But, what campers park is crowded with no shade. The only positive offering is electric and water hook up and sewer connection.

It is late, waiting for the noise to cease. It is quiet, if you don’t count the trains and load muscle trucks. So the noise dims and the lights, bright enough to compete with daylight. These light are places at every campsite. I lay on my mattress as if building a tan at the beach.

The day begins.

Today is our last day to explore the park. We drive to the Old Falls River Road and carefully make our way to the top to the Alpine Visitor Center. This is a steep one-way gravel road with no guardrail.

At the top, I visit with four separate cyclists that rode their bikes here. Two years ago, I had plans to ride west and ride through this park heading south to meet Nancy in Salida. Life gets in the way, and plans adapt.

This has been an all-day adventure. We get back to our site tired. We unwind with full heads of enjoyment. Bedtime falls with the sun as I make my way to the hammock. I drift into sleep with the slow rocking movement from the breeze cooling my face.

We try to get an early start, our next campground, Moraine Park Campground, one hundred eight miles away.

The route is simple enough. We get back to Route 9 and follow the TransAm route to Silverthorne. But, somehow we got off route and went twenty miles in the wrong direction. F word punctuated! Back we go, heading to Hartsel to pick up Route 9.

After Silverthorne, we get on Interstate 70 to Idaho Springs, where we climb a very long one, it is 11,158 feet elevation. The tunnel cuts through the mountain below Loveland Pass, 11,990 feet elevation. There is a bike trail up and over the pass.  The descent off this mountain is long and steep.

At Idaho Springs, we gas up and begin the road that will get us to Moraine Park Campground in the Rock Mountain National Park.

We arrive tired with too many photos to edit. After dinner, I get through half the photos and crawl into the hammock for a good night’s sleep. But, first, more photos of the setting sun.

The camper next door ran a generator all day and night. We later found out that the man has lung cancer, and the generator powers his breathing device. With the motor running outside, I was able to get a restful, deep sleep. I woke fresh, and Moe walked under the tent flap to greet me.

Nancy expresses interest in hiking some trails after breakfast before the heat.

We are back from the hike and hiding in the shade. The wind is picking up. 

The first sounds of thunder begin at 5:00 p.m. We only get a few drops of rain before the wind relaxes into a cool breeze. The lake is at 9,000 feet elevation, so the clouds are close to the ground.

It is 7:42 p.m., a beer is opened, and I will be relaxing with a bottle in hand while waiting for sunset.

Eleven Mile campground is on a reservoir surrounded by mountains. The clouds and sunsets are surreal.

The wind is strong in the afternoon. Everything needs to be tied. The shade tent is anchored to the ground and braced with rope to solid objects. My tent is staked at every tie loop, and I also have a rope tied to the camper.

Just relaxing and enjoying the campground. This evening gives another spectacular sunset.

The wind slowed to just a breeze early in the evening. Sleeping in the tent is peaceful.

As much as we like Aspen Glade, we must move on. Both of us, and including Moe, are not looking forward to another long day in the car. Since we got to this campground, we have had zero cell service, so we cannot load Maps for directions. So, it’s back to what we did before all this technology took over. We opened an Atlas and plotted a route the old, tried-and-true way.

The route to Eleven Mile State Park is on the other side of the Rockies from my TransAmerica route that I biked in 2022. We are on Route 24, and for a brief section of miles, we join Route 9, the TransAm route.

We drive into the town of Hartsel, CO, and stop for supplies and lunch. I know this town; I have been here. Lunch is at Zuccaro’s Kitchen, a great pizza restaurant. They have a small fenced-in grassy area for outside seating, so Moe is able to sit with us. We get to meet other people and sit with them as we enjoy a delicious meal.

As we are about to leave, the waitress comes over to let us know a touring cyclist just came in. I go over to visit. Klaus is from Denmark, and he is going to stay here for the night. There is camping for cyclists behind the building. I have fond memories, that I shared with the staff, of being here in 2022. Those memories are now linked to 2026. The visit with Klaus sharing stories of places we have both stayed along the TransAm is a deep connection. I wish Klaus safe traveling. I walk with Nancy and Moe back to the camper. A part of me stayed with Klaus to ride the TransAm one more time.

We are about an hour from our next campground. We want to be done with the drive and be set up relaxing.

Here, we are settled in. There are no trees to hammock, so I set up the tent. The sunset is perfect tonight. I will sleep well.