Brit on a Road Trip, September Hanging in WY, UT & CO

[Crazytown3]

That is a wonderful trip report! Very nice indeed! As a native and current resident of Utah, I have traveled many of those same roads throughout the region, but you introduced me to a few new places that I marked on my 'future trip planner'.

I have a couple of questions about 2 of the places you visited:

Curtis Canyon Campground overlooking the Elk Refuge in Wyoming - Do you remember if the access road to the campground off the main road was paved or dirt/gravel?

Granite Hot Springs & Campground - Did you end up camping at the hot springs, or at one of the other nearby campgrounds? I suspect it at the hot springs, but wanted to double-check.

You are right in your assessment of Cedar Breaks. It is often overlooked by travelers going to see Zion, Bryce and the other big attractions in the area. Cedar Breaks is very often much less crowded, and cooler in summer months due to the elevation. The campground at Cedar Breaks (Point Supreme Campground) is hit or miss as far as availability, but the times I have found a spot, there are usually good places for hanging a hammock.

Finally, thank you for including the GPS coordinates where you could for the 'unlisted' camp sites. I added them to my trip planner.

Cheers!



EDIT: Grant Village is my 'go-to' campground when I'm visiting Yellowstone. Glad to see it was one of your stops.

[jabraso]

Thanks for the report. I enjoyed your pictures. I've been to several of the same areas and hope to see the rest in person someday. I'm glad you were able to experience such beautiful country in my back yard. I've been across the country and 2 other continents besides, but nothing beats home for me.

Del Gue says it all:

"I ain't never seen 'em, but my common sense tells me the Andes is foothills, and the Alps is for children to climb! [...] These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here! And there ain't no priests excepting the birds. By God, I are a mountain man, and I'll live 'til an arrow or a bullet finds me. And then I'll leave my bones on this great map of the magnificent..."

[Rphen]

Amazing trip and GREAT report!

[rick417]

Thanks for the captivating report. Enjoyed every well-written word!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[TrailSlug]

Wow, that was one heck of a trip report and I enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for sharing this with us. I envy that you had the time and resources to do such a wonderful trip.

[C_Claycomb]

Thanks guys! Glad you enjoyed it. Sorry I don't have more hammock pictures!! Just didn't work out well for that and wasn't thinking about it enough

I see I need to do something to fix the video links, and I have some boring logistics stuff to post up at some point; costs, mileages, fuel used, one or two other things that might be handy for people who aren't locals and are wanting to plan something similar.

That is a wonderful trip report! Very nice indeed! As a native and current resident of Utah, I have travelled many of those same roads throughout the region, but you introduced me to a few new places that I marked on my 'future trip planner'.

I have a couple of questions about 2 of the places you visited:

Curtis Canyon Campground overlooking the Elk Refuge in Wyoming - Do you remember if the access road to the campground off the main road was paved or dirt/gravel?

Granite Hot Springs & Campground - Did you end up camping at the hot springs, or at one of the other nearby campgrounds? I suspect it at the hot springs, but wanted to double-check.

You are right in your assessment of Cedar Breaks. It is often overlooked by travellers going to see Zion, Bryce and the other big attractions in the area. Cedar Breaks is very often much less crowded, and cooler in summer months due to the elevation. The campground at Cedar Breaks (Point Supreme Campground) is hit or miss as far as availability, but the times I have found a spot, there are usually good places for hanging a hammock.

Finally, thank you for including the GPS coordinates where you could for the 'unlisted' camp sites. I added them to my trip planner.

Cheers!



EDIT: Grant Village is my 'go-to' campground when I'm visiting Yellowstone. Glad to see it was one of your stops.

Curtis canyon camp ground, 43.513131, -110.661106, the road from here 43.479742, -110.743214 onwards was gravel, so about 7.2miles of it. The stretch from the last straight (little car park) up to the camp is a bit rough, but there were people with regular cars getting up there in September. Google Maps says that Curtis Canyon Road is closed December to May, although I don't know why, but then I don't know how long winter hangs around there.

Off Granite Creek I nearly stopped and camped here:43.310839, -110.459570, but there was a couple already there, and they had hung their bear bag from the trees I wanted to hang from I didn't know about the camp ground at the end of the road, but ended up spending the two nights on different pitches here: 43.358033, -110.445709. That wasn't really "at" the hot springs, but 3/4miles before the spring. They said that they get a lot of snow in there, and that the road is packed for snow mobile access, the spring runs hot all year, which would be an interesting trip.

Just down from Cedar Breaks there was a dispersed camp area here: 37.661110, -112.745685, and it was from where this little road joined the main road that I cooked dinner an photographed flaming aspens. My actual camp was just a little pull off up the road. Lots of options in that area.

Thanks

Chris

[Alkali]

Awesome report!

[Trail Runner]

That wasn't a trip report, that was a trip disortation. Excellent!

[C_Claycomb]

Fuel Use

Driving a 2.4L Kia Sportage, one person and gear. Was full from collection at airport.
For comparison, my 2003 Seat Toledo saloon (like a VW Jetta) with a 1.8L engine averages about 33.3mpgUS (40mpgUK) and would have cost me about $500 to do that mileage in the UK. US fuel prices

Date	Cost $	Qty (gal)	$/gal	Miles	Where	MPG
3-Sept	25.06	10.36	2.419	200	Avada Denver	19.31
3-Sept	17.01	7.063	2.409	229	Rawlins	32.42
4-Sept	13.01	5.732	2.269	159.6	Riverton	27.84
4-Sept	10.92	4.55	2.399	138	Cody	30.33
7-Sept	20	7.41	2.699	280	Old Faithful	37.79
9-Sept	18.78	7.639	2.459	159	Jackson	20.81
11-Sept	20	7.382	2.709	209	Pinedale	28.31
11-Sept	10	4.168	2.399	100	Rock Springs	23.99
14-Sept	14.82	6.004	2.469	138	Vernal	22.98
15-Sept	25.02	10.092	2.479	273	Bicknell	27.05
17-Sept	18.91	7.006	2.699	237	Bryce	33.83
18-Sept	19.86	8.012	2.479	232	Cedar City	28.96
19-Sept	15	6.412	2.339	153.9	Richfield	24
19-Sept	17.42	7.115	2.449	255	Moab	35.84
20-Sept	14.5	6.07	2.389	175	Grand Junction	28.83
22-Sept	20	8.625	2.319	306	Golden	35.48
22-Sept	6.06	2.885	2.1	40	Murphy (nr. airport)	13.86
Totals	286.37	116.525		3284.5		27.74 avg

Food

Before going, I read various sources describing how much a person should budget for food and other things, per day, for a holiday. Most estimated that even on a budget trip a person would get through $16 to $50 a day on food. I am not proud of my camping culinary skills but I tend not to bore too quickly and the name of the game was economy. So, standard dinner was a one-pot boil up of broccoli, summer sausage, stock, herbs, garlic, and Quaker grits. Lunch was tortilla or rice cakes with peanut butter, jerky, lettuce, and an apple, not all together Breakfast was oats, granola, almonds, raisins and powdered goats milk (cow milk doesn't like me any more). With a few snacks I kept to less than $12 a day and certainly didn't go hungry. That includes eating out four times. No backpacking meals and only a couple of tins.

Keeping food cool. Bought two cheap polystyrene coolers from Walmart and cut them a bit so that they stacked better one inside the other. Left a big bottle of water out over night to chill, and used that in the double layer cooler to keep food cool. There was ice available at most of the supermarkets, but I never got around to using it. The food I had tended not to need much refrigeration.

One 8oz isobutane/propane canister lasted me with gas left over. If I had not eaten out those few times I might have used it all, but not sure I would have. Was surprised how well it lasted.

[Crazytown3]

Thanks guys! Glad you enjoyed it. Sorry I don't have more hammock pictures!! Just didn't work out well for that and wasn't thinking about it enough

I see I need to do something to fix the video links, and I have some boring logistics stuff to post up at some point; costs, mileages, fuel used, one or two other things that might be handy for people who aren't locals and are wanting to plan something similar.






Curtis canyon camp ground, 43.513131, -110.661106, the road from here 43.479742, -110.743214 onwards was gravel, so about 7.2miles of it. The stretch from the last straight (little car park) up to the camp is a bit rough, but there were people with regular cars getting up there in September. Google Maps says that Curtis Canyon Road is closed December to May, although I don't know why, but then I don't know how long winter hangs around there.

Off Granite Creek I nearly stopped and camped here:43.310839, -110.459570, but there was a couple already there, and they had hung their bear bag from the trees I wanted to hang from I didn't know about the camp ground at the end of the road, but ended up spending the two nights on different pitches here: 43.358033, -110.445709. That wasn't really "at" the hot springs, but 3/4miles before the spring. They said that they get a lot of snow in there, and that the road is packed for snow mobile access, the spring runs hot all year, which would be an interesting trip.

Just down from Cedar Breaks there was a dispersed camp area here: 37.661110, -112.745685, and it was from where this little road joined the main road that I cooked dinner an photographed flaming aspens. My actual camp was just a little pull off up the road. Lots of options in that area.

Thanks

Chris

Excellent, thank you very much for the information! My road trips are usually via motorcycle, and some of the dirt roads are fine, but I have to be careful with some of the gravel roads on a street bike.

Thanks again for the pinpoint coordinates! I added them to my trip planner.