My camp neighbor, Devin and his kids inviting me for breakfast.
Saying my goodbyes after a nice evening and breakfast of talking about their rancher lives and sharing about India.
Heading down into Atlantic City.
I wondered how it got such a grand name being so far away from the Atlantic Ocean and then read it was the first town on the Atlantic side of the Continental Divide and a famous mining town from the late 19th century.
The Atlantic City Mercantile store, in operation since 1893.
Heading up out of town onto the...
...road across the Great Divide Basin
Looking ahead at 150 miles across the basin, a high elevation desert.
It's actually a very nice, beautiful landscape with the single lane road adding intimacy to the bare surroundings.
I took frequent breaks to rest the bones and take in the beautiful silence with a harmony from the wind.
Being a geologic basin means it's cutoff on all sides by mountains, as the Continental Divide splits around it.
The yellow sage-brush by the side of the road were the only bright colors across the landscape. It smellt great.
Prong-horn sprinting off at great speeds across this open land.
The gentle-rolling terrain and good road condition made for a nice ride.
The hard packed mud road surface could soon be impassable when wet, but what a beautiful day it was today.
Taking a lunch break just sitting down in the brush there. The temps were very favorable.
Coming across civilization towards the south end of the basin. Oklahoma, that way.
Nearing the end of the basin.
Bah, tarmac might be more convenient, but it doesn't look natural.
South of Rawlins on Sage Creek Rd.
Entering Medicine Bow National Forest near the Colorado border.
That wretched Mountain Pine Beetle killing so many trees.
Some good elevation change.
The beautiful Aspen Alley, a corridor of closely spaced white-barked green-topped trees.
Now that they're dead, we might as well cut the pines down and use them.
So will this area be all Aspen trees then?
On WY-70 heading to the state border, a nice road with gentle corners.
The beautiful landscape of south-central Wyoming.
I didn't know if the bottom lines on the board meant the road was closed only in the winter. Some passing locals cleared the doubt.
Crossing back and forth across the border for the next few miles.
Passed lots of charming farms nestled in this narrow valley along the border. The rain clouds added to the lighting.
The setting sun adding warmth to the nice ride through this lush valley. Heading towards Hahns Peak off there in the distance.
Entering Routt National Forest
It was getting late in the day and I would be camping in the forest as soon as I met my friend Mike coming the other way from Denver.
Being dusk, the cattle were out en masse. The campground owner in Montana joked about the hazards of cows saying that you'll likely run into black cows at night and white cows in winter.
Mike's XR650. He would be joining me for the next 3 days over Labor Day Weekend.
Next: Day 10, Northern Colorado
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