Yellow Jacket Pass

I made the trip back to my sisters house with no more engine issues! Made me crazy that I ended up 4 days earlier than my planned arrival back to her house but At the time it seemed like the best plan...the drive back was awesome as I went right the way across Utah on I-70!  IT pained me to bypass Capitol Reef as I had planned it for my finale....but it ain't going no where :o)  On my past 2 visits out west I've visited  Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, and Zion.  I still have manyyy Utah dreams to fill...an entire year would NOT give one the time needed...this trip I added Dinosaur and Antelope Island to my "visited" list. The  opportunities are endless as with each and every state!

Roadside awesomeness!

So back in CO a few days later we took a ride up to Meeker. 

Hwy 13 takes one there out of Rifle so up we went. Along the way is the Rifle Arch.  There is a trail to view it up close we didn't  hike as we had a full day planned we got a good view roadside..

 My sis and I both have a hobby of photographing graves for the website Find A Grave.  I haven't been doing much since gas prices shot up but now they are back in affordable range so my sis had some grave photo requests for the Meeker cemetery.  

We found only one of the graves sometimes there is no headstone...even tho the interred was listed in plots..  So we bundled the cemetery trip with a picnic and with a plan for some off roading!  (senior citizen style) We picnicked at the County Park in Meeker right by the Rio Blanco River.  The fall color was brilliant!

This shot was taken just upriver from the park, the park has a small RV park with electric and a dumpsite! Its small  maybe 3 or 4 sites I read on the Bayfield Bunch's blog they camped there just the other day...what a small world it is! ....I liked this mural in town...

--->missin photo

So we headed north on 13 and took the Yellow Jacket Pass.  It's a well graded gravel road that connects Meeker to Craig, and its about 42 miles end to end...we drove about half of it to the Milk Creek Battlefield site...it was such a beautiful drive! Here's some of what we enjoyed!...

windshield view

Most all the Aspens leaves had already peaked and fallen off but the oaks & such were very nice surrounding the sandstone formations!

We saw at least one McMansion along the way...

Yellow Jacket Pass. Road leads to the Battle of Milk Creek Memorial. General Nathan Meeker upset the Utes by trying to force them to become farmers. In September 1879, Meeker called in the army and on September 29, 1879, Chief Douglas and a group of warriors killed Meeker and seven other members of the agency. 

A dark storm cloud rolled in so we turned around rather than go on even in a 4 wheel drive we had no plans to go sliding on slick mud...so we reversed our route here...you don't need a 4 wheel drive to do this pass but my sister's Jeep is the vehicle we took that day..

the western blue birds found us interesting and used the fence posts to give  us the stink eye..

on the way back I noticed this old cabin, I thought it was just as beautiful as the McMansion...

and this one reminds me of an old bunkhouse....

and another Arch we don't know the name of this one...it's roadside on Hwy 13..

you really can't beat Colorado for natural beauty!!

and just in case you wondered who did the driving...it was our chauffeur 

JIMMY!

Teehee!  

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.