June 25, 2020 Breckenridge to Steamboat Springs, CO

We got ready and pulled out of Tiger Run around 10:00. As we were hooking up the Jeep in the parking lot, the Tiger Run Jeepers started to gather. They were going up to Mt. Baldy for their weekly Jeep drive.

Traffic going through Frisco was a little crazy due to the construction.

We hopped on I-70 to Highway 9 through Silverthorne.

Highway 9 paralleled the Blue River for many miles.

The road meandered through the valley surrounded by rolling hills. Everything looked lush and green.

We came upon a HUGE reservoir–Green Mountain Reservoir– as we wound our way through the hills.

We discovered this bridge for animals over the highway in the middle of nowhere.

There was a lot of tall fencing along the highway to keep out the elk and deer.

Here was another animal cross-over bridge.

It was a very scenic area.

We also passed the Wolford Mountain Reservoir. These reservoirs are fed by mountain run-off and are icy cold even in the summer. Wolford Mountain Reservoir contains 550 acres of water.

The road continued to wind its way through the hills of the high country. We approached the town of Kremmling. Bob remembered being here before but he couldn’t remember why.

Outside of town, there were these very cool bluffs with rock outcroppings.

These F. M. Light and Sons signs were everywhere for miles and miles advertising all sorts of things. They were placed every 1/2 mile it seemed. We’ll have to check out this store in Steamboat Springs when we go into town.

We started to climb towards Muddy Pass (elev. 9426 ft.)

From there, we got our first look at Rabbit Ears. I’m sure you can tell why it got this name.

We continued our climb. Up in the alpine meadows, there was still a little bit of snow.

Lots and lots of campers were going by in the other direction. We approached Rabbit Ears Pass summit.

Off in the distance, we could see snow-capped mountains from the top of the pass.

Again, we had to use our jake brake on the 7% grade down into Yampa Valley, named for the Yampa River.

The views from the top were spectacular.

We could see the highway that comes in from Vail off in the distance. Once we got down the mountain, Steamboat Springs ski hill was visible.

Driving through Steamboat Springs, we got a better view of the ski slopes.

Downtown was busy with shoppers and tourists on this beautiful day.

Some of the old places that were in Steamboat Springs in the 70’s when Bob lived here, were still around. They were quite unusual.

Leaving town, we followed Highway 9 along the Yampa River.

Our campground was in the Yampa River State Park for 5 nights. In May, before we left on this trip, we found another campground closer to Steamboat. We changed our reservation at Yampa to one night and booked 4 nights at Eagle Soaring RV Park. (I really wanted to camp at Yampa. We had reserved a campsite right on the river and I really thought it was a cool setting. The negative thing about camping there, was you had to bring in your own water. Bob thought being there for 5 nights might be pushing our limit with water.) On our drive today, we passed Eagle Soaring RV Park and gave more thought to cancelling the Yampa reservation so we could be 20 miles closer to Steamboat Springs. That way we wouldn’t have to move tomorrow and we could use the day for sightseeing. We called Eagle Soaring RV Park on the road to see if we could add another night to our reservation. They said it would be no problem, so we found a place to turn around, but we had to disconnect the Jeep. After doing that at a turnout area, we spun the bus and Jeep around and headed back a few miles to the campground. I followed Bob in the Jeep back to Eagle Soaring RV Park.

We arrived at the campground at 1:00.

We could choose our own site, so we picked site #5.

It had some nice shade trees for Auggie.

We settled in and relaxed in the AC. It was a partly cloudy day with 76 degree temps, but the sun seemed very hot at this elevation. I did some laundry since we had the afternoon to relax and didn’t have any plans to go anywhere after our 155 mile drive today. It looked like rain over the mountains.

Later in the afternoon, the rain did arrive. It came with thunder and lightning, but it didn’t rain for very long. We have a good view of the mountains here and will enjoy it for 5 nights. We have lots to see and do in Steamboat Springs!