Continuing on our way east...

On Thursday, after extending our stay at Strawberry Bay Campground a few extra days (and considering extending even more!), we pulled up stakes and continued on our journey east...

First -- another picture in the area near Strawberry Reservoir. It is so green and pretty -- and there are a number of areas around the reservoir where boondocking is free in the National Forest land.

As we were driving through Roosevelt, Utah, we saw this American flag and soldier silhouette, up on a bluff next to US40. It turns out that, although the flag was raised in 2023, the silhouette was just installed in May of this year, just before Memorial Day (https://www.basinnow.com/soldier-silhouette-installed-by-large-flag-above-cemetery-in-roosevelt-city/).

As we continued east, it appeared to be much drier and the ground a lot browner.

We stopped in Vernal, Utah, for groceries, a free birthday breakfast at Denny's for Carl, and fuel. 

At the fuel stop, we saw this interesting "toy hauler" trailer. Often, we see toy hauler 5th wheels, and the back of the trailer opens as a ramp so the "toys" can be disgorged -- and then the "garage" area becomes a living area (office, kid's room with bunks folding down from the wall, etc). In this design, the living area is only in the front section (https://genesissupremerv.com/overnighter-toyhauler-trailers-new/).

As we continued east, we eventually crossed into....

... Colorado!!! This is a big event for us -- faithful readers (especially if you use the web to look up the blog entries) may have noticed that on our "North America Visited" image on the right frame that we have had only two states remaining that we have not visited as a couple (each of us have individually visited all 50 states) -- Colorado and Kentucky. If you consider what a map of the US looks like, it would seem that maybe we've been doing figure-8s for the past 5 years! At any rate, our plan this summer was to "collect" those last two states -- and on Thursday, we collected Colorado (and the North America Visited image has been appropriately updated!).

Note that in that picture, it is hard to justify being welcomed to "colorful" Colorado... 

We continued on to the Canyon side of Dinosaur National Monument, in northwest Colorado... 

... heading up into the national monument -- Colorado's colors are starting to show!

As we climbed, we could see way off into the distance -- even though blowing dust and possibly some smoke is making it look hazy.

It is a big day to collect one of our last states!