Taking the back roads on the high plains of Wyoming

Taking the back roads on the high plains of Wyoming is an adventure in the summer.  On many of the gravel roads, rain can wash them out in only one down pour so be careful.   Recommend you only drive these with a four wheel drive vehicles and have a few gallons of water with you.  Always let some one know what route you plan to take and when you come back.  Two auto exploring is even better especially if you have a tow chain/cable/line.

 

Many of the gravel/dirt roads in Wyoming are great roads to travel on.  Those on  state and federal campgrounds and private parks are often just fine.  However some of the other roads are more for small to medium ranch and pick-up trucks.

 The Desert is a beautiful place and yet it is also a dangerous place, drive slow and stop often to enjoy.

Count on getting at least one flat tire and prepare for two and you should be OK.  Test your jacks and make sure you can jack up your auto on sandy uneven ground.

Flaming Gorge - Buckboard CG

Most views are of the sagebrush plains.  For 2015 it was listed at $20.00 a night with flush toilets.  Only 5 or 6 sites have electric (extra charge for electric) the rest are totally dry camps.  But is is right up from the boat ramp and marina.

 Above are the restroom and showers, below is my camp site in July.  All generators need to be off between 10pm and 8am.  My solar and 3 batteries will run my CPAP and Concentrator for one whole night.  The second night I can only run my CPAP and use an O2 bottle.  It takes two days to recharge the batteries completely. So with two bottles and solar I can go 3 to 4 nights off the grid.

Preparing for fall classes

I like reviewing new and updated text books during the summer around the Gorge from our Motor Home when we are in town.  Some days I just drive out for the morning to enjoy.

Our RV acts a a blind to some degree so the animals often get a lot closer if you stay inside or if you stay still.

Below is a bay near Lucerne Campgrounds looking toward the Gorge at mid day.  Saw a bull snake today as he crossed a jeep trail did not think to take a picture:)

Bought our Dolly tow vehicle

We bought our dolly tow vehicle today. It weighs just under 2200 lbs, now looking for a dolly that weighs under 1000 lbs.  We have a 3500 lb hitch on our Class C so my goal is to have the weight of both under 3200 lbs.  If I can do this my combined weight will be under the legal load limit and mileage should not suffer to much either.

Our goal for this year is to keep down sizing and gear up for Full Time RVing in a few years.  We currently take the RV out more and more each year when off. 

Rving at Flaming Gorge at Lucerne Campgrounds

Flaming Gorge at Lucerne Campground

Very nice campground 10 to 25 yards between many sites. Only has electric 115/30/50, but there are water faucets everywhere and a dump by the entrance. Camp cost with electric $28.00 per night or $392.00 for 14 days. If you have an Access Pass (Disabled) it is only 18.00 a night or $252.00. I think a senior pass also gets the discount but please check. Also I booked on line and there was a $10.00 Registration fee. I stayed two nights and cost me $46.00 (10 was registration fee).

The sites also have a nice picnic table behind a nice windbreak fence on a cement slab as well as a nice above ground fire pit. Every other camping loop has a flush toilet bath with running water and every other bath has showers as well. I believe the campground is open May through October and is currently managed by American Land and Leisure and they are doing a nice job.

 Many of the campgrounds have flush toilets and showers and they are well maintained.

It is the end of June and in the 90's in the day but cools to the 50's and 60's overnight. I went out at 6am and it was 57 degrees. Just an FYI.

Only a few campgrounds have electrical hook-ups and often they are full so book weeks out on line through Recreation.gov especially around any holiday.  You can show up for any remaining openings.

My AC and CPAP along with O2 concentrator worked well so did not need my solar panel and batteries back up.

Comment posts are welcome.

RV and an Air Cooler

RV and an Air Cooler turned out to be a good option while visiting friends and plugging in at their homes for a day or two.  We are always afraid to use the AC when plugged in to someones home on a 15 amp cord so we don't.  My Daughter gave me a six gallon Air Cooler for my birthday this year and it is great!  While not as good as running the AC it is a lot better then just running fans in a hot climate and it can run off my batteries.

I have ran it for six hours and it dropped the inside RV temp by over ten degrees.  The AC will knock the temp down by 20 plus degrees.  So it is not perfect but it beats just having fans blowing around hot air.  Also I could still run my CPAP all night on the batteries as well.  Please note I used a O2 tank not my concentrator on this test.   I will try all three (CPAP, Concentrator, Air Cooler) on batteries soon, if they all work through the night I will very happy.

Our trip and power

Our trip down southeast gave is a few days without power.  Twice we ran the generator and AC all night (with permission) and once we slept with just the windows open because it was a cool night.  We also ran it going down the road a couple days (turned off while fueling).  The owners manual says our gene runs on six tenths of a gallon per hour my experience shows right at a half a gallon no big difference, which is good.  So with 55 gallon gas tanks I have about 40 gallons usable for the gene at best.  So we have just over 60 hours of gene fuel if needed and we started on a full tank of course, which still leaves over 13 gallons of fuel to drive with.

Our miles per gallon ranged from a low of 6.5 (includes a night on the gene) to a high of 10.5.  Lower end miles seemed to be in the mountains and at elevation and the higher mileage was on the flats below 2000 feet.  The most typical miles per gallon was in the 7 mile per hour range.   So I will stick with 7 miles per gallon for planning purposes since most of our current time is spent above 5000 feet..

Our refrigerator did seem to have some issues keeping below 40 degrees at time when it was above 80 degrees out if not on 30 amp shore power so I will be looking into this.  Most days in travel mode we put 13 pounds of ice packs in the refrigerator and they just kept it below 40.  More on the trip later.

RV Auto Steps Broke in Out Position

RV Auto Steps Broke in Out Position while driving through a bug city.

We got up early (4am) to drive through a big city with a lot of road repair underway.   So when we left I did not do a walk around and just looked through the mirrors into a dark void and thought the steps retracted. (Mistake!)  Later as the sun came up Kathy saw that the steps are out!  We pulled over in a closed store parking lot and spent over two hours figuring it out.  There was no damage to the steps and there was no traffic this morning.  Lesson learned always do a walk around and run a checklist.  Ours only takes about two minutes tops.

Last year when we had our RV in for some work I asked the technician to just talk me through manual retracting the steps and slides at our RV pick-up.  I had read the owners manual but standing next to the RV and having the technician explain it helped us. So now I pulled out the manual for the steps and looked at the diagram than crawled under.

 Above the steps are out.

 Here (above) you see the grounding clamp with wires attached, they were broken off at the clamp that morning.  So once I found them and reattached them the steps worked fine.

In this final photograph you can see a round yellow step light and just to the right is the step retracting arm.  On my RV all I needed to do to retract the steps (if I could not fix) is pull a carter pin which would allow me to free one end.  This action frees the steps so I can tie them up in the closed position if I needed to until repairs.  Thankfully, I found the broken ground and saved a repair bill.

Please note that these steps worked for me and our RV.  Your RV is different, read your manuals and or seek good advice for your issue if you ever have one.  What worked for me does not mean it will work for you.