Riding from northwest Colorado through Utah and into Wyoming

 Today is the second day of our ride to Flathead Lake, Montana and we rode 326 miles from Craig, CO to Pinedale, WY.

We started off west on US 40 through rolling hills covered with sagebrush with almost no other vehicles on the road and nothing to see as far we looked around us.

Mike kept noting that we were riding through 'the big empty' - it's amazing how far you can see to the horizon and how little manmade objects there are.

We rode past signs for Dinosaur National Monument and remembered when we visited here 18 years ago. The Colorado welcome center just over the line into Utah was a great bathroom stop, and then we continued on US 40 past Blue Mountain that displays different levels of sandstone, rock and fossils first deposited 290 million years ago when a shallow sea covered this part of the western United States and has been eroded by wind and water ever since.

This is a prime hang gliding and paragliding spot with some people able to fly 100-150 miles on the thermals. We didn't see anyone today, but it's amazing to imagine. It's a perfect spot for a photo of Mike on the BMW:

Every town we rode through in this area plays up the dinosaur theme, and after we passed the huge pink dinosaur in Vernal, UT we turned north on US 191.

US 191 goes through the Flaming Gorge and the reservoir formed by the dam on the Green River. Signs along the highway point out the wide variety of geological deposits as the road twists and curves through stupendous rock formations.

Most of the time we've been riding at over 7000' elevation and today we dipped down below 6000' before ascending once again to over 8000'. Once again we couldn't see anything manmade except for fences and sometimes electric lines as we rode from Utah into Wyoming.

We're in Pinedale Wyoming and tomorrow continue north into Montana, looking forward to riding through more of the Rocky Mountain peaks.