Dear Isaac, Maia, and Virtual Wanderers:

Summer took us on the road, again – for a LONG camping road trip to Dinosaur National Monument, Flaming Gorge, and Northern Colorado. We extended our initial plans to pick up a new senior rescue dog named Simone (now Cimarron) from our favorite rescue – Harley’s House of Dreams in Berthoud, CO. Read more about Cimarron’s story here.

Day 1: It is now our tradition to start our trip on granddaughter Maia’s birthday – a way for us to celebrate her life and the special person that she is! However, summer trips mean yards and indoor plants need a lot of water, so I don’t leave super early. We head for destinations close to home – and so our first night’s stop was just 2-3 hours away, at Rifle Gap State Park.

I pitched the tent as the light rain began to fall. We waited out the rain in the tent, had dinner, and headed to Rifle Falls State Park. I had just gotten Koko a new tracker because she had run away (briefly) last month when we went to Black Canyon. I decided on Tractive – all the trackers except Garmin require a cell connection. We had in-and-out cell coverage at Rifle Gap, so it was a good test of the system. I also got both girls a Tile tracker as a backup for close-range Bluetooth tracking. Both were in and out and burned through some cell battery with notifications – but I did feel some sense of security knowing I was getting some response from both.

Eventually, we got over to Rifle Falls for a short hike. I have been here many times through the years – The regular hike is short. There is a hike with stairs (see photo above), but I was still restricting Koko a bit because of her bilateral perineal hernia surgery in May. So we took the short path to the falls and gained a mile in our hiking log book for the Hiker’s 365 Challenge. It was both beautiful and noisy – I think it freaked the girls out a little. We got back at dusk and enjoyed our first night of our adventure. Tomorrow, we turn north on Colorado Highway 13!

Love ya’all, Cathy Hartt (Grandma Hartt)

PS – The blog is being written in January, 2024 but posted on the day the blog references.