Up to date

So, I told you we're here in the Denver area, at Chatfield State Park.  We had to move sites right after Labor Day and we're now settled in site #74 with a partial view of the Reservoir and open mountain vistas to the west.

the view from #74

Sunday evening we had dinner with Jesse and Erin at a sweet local restaurant very near their new house.    We walked down the street and ate outside.    It was so nice to see them both, its been too long.

Yesterday afternoon,  Labor Day, they invited us to their home for a cook out and we got a chance to just relax, visit and enjoy.

We took a couple of our wine tasting purchases to enjoy before and during the meal.

They've found a great little house where they each have their own creative spaces.

After I show you our side trip to the Fantasy Canyon we'll officially be caught up and current.

On our last day in Vernal we didn't want to take a long car odyssey, we wanted to see something relatively close by because we had some housekeeping details to take care of before we broke camp and moved on.

Fantasy Canyon sounded like just the ticket for a morning's entertainment.  We drove about 20 miles south on route 45, across the Green River and turned onto Glen Bench, a flat gravel road.

Once on the gravel road we twisted and turned and crossed through a labyrinth of dead end side roads and washes servicing the surrounding gas and oil fields.   The only other vehicles we saw were the white work pick ups trucks and tankers occasionally passing by in a cloud of dust.

one gas well looks pretty much like another

It was an 18 mile drive through no where.   If it weren't for the small wooden BLM signs placed here and there we would have been hopelessly lost.....all gas wells look remarkably the same after a few miles.

We finally reached a leveled, rock edged parking area.   We were completely alone.

There was a small placard and a warped picnic table the same color as the surrounding dirt.

The scenery we had been driving through was monotonous, unremarkable, tan and gray, flat and bumpy, dusty, rutted and barren.    What we found when we got out of the jeep was anything but.....

We wandered about the small canyon, up and over the formations.

 Some towered over our heads, and some lounged at our feet.

One area made Dave feel like he was wandering through Henry Moore's prototype studio.....

Some of the formations made us laugh and think of childhood fairy tale
characters.

Fantasy Canyon was a side trip well worth taking.

In case your eyes were tired of seeing only gray pictures, here is a bit of tonight's color over the mountains.