Bear Belly Adventures

Although we were looking forward to getting back on the road, we left Quartzsite with good memories—and every intention of returning next winter.

We pointed north toward Andover, Minnesota. Nana has her annual eye appointment there in May, and we had nineteen days to get there.

We spent a little time around Flagstaff before moving on to the Valley of the Gods in Utah.

If you’re ever looking to camp among high desert rock formations, it’s worth the trip. It’s also close to Goosenecks State Park and an easy drive to Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation.

From there we moved into Colorado and spent a night in the San Juan National Forest.

I knew some forest roads closed seasonally…
What I didn’t fully appreciate is that some of them don’t really open until May.

Lesson learned.
If you’re heading that way early in the season—call ahead. Don’t be me.

We ended up near Piedra, Colorado along the Piedra River. The road was partially open and had a few spots to camp.

I picked what was basically a gravel pull-off next to an old livestock corral.
Naturally, Nana got her own personal dog park.
She was having a great time… right up until she figured out she could squeeze under the gate.

That’s when the real fun started—for her, at least.
I’m pretty sure I’ll never be as interesting to her as a fresh set of smells.

We kept moving through Colorado and eventually found ourselves camped in the San Isabel National Forest.

That morning I woke up at 11,000 feet.
Sitting at camp, I realized I was looking across at peaks in the 13–14,000 foot range—almost eye level—with clouds drifting through the valleys between us.

That kind of view stops you for a minute.
It’s hard not to think about how different life looks when you decide to change it.
A year ago, I wouldn’t have woken up to something like that.

It’s an amazing world we live in.

The next day we were greeted by a firefighter.
Apparently the road we had come in on was also closed… and someone had broken the gate to get through.
They suspected it was a local taking advantage of turkey season.
Since we were planning to leave the next morning anyway, I tried to work a little charm and stay one more night.

No luck.

But they were kind enough to point us toward another place to camp.
So all wasn’t lost.
We still got to experience a place we otherwise never would have seen.

South Dakota gave us a different kind of experience.

Our first taste of “gumbo.”
It sounds better than it is.

It’s their term for the clay mud their backroads turn into when it rains. It sticks to everything. Builds up on the tires. Turns traction into a suggestion.

We got stuck about a mile from camp.

I was able to unhook the Jeep and make it the rest of the way, but the trailer wasn’t going anywhere.
So we slept in the Jeep that night.
I knew I could get the trailer out once things dried.
What I also knew was…
I wasn’t sleeping another night in the Jeep.

The next day I called a recovery service.
They showed up with a tracked skid steer and drove several miles down the road to get to the trailer.
I was told they almost turned around because they had never seen the road that bad.

That made me feel a little better.

Once we got the trailer to camp, we let everything sit for a couple days.
As the mud dried, it became manageable. The wet stuff was just too heavy and smeared instead of coming off.
Eventually, the roads dried out enough and we were able to get moving again.

We made it to Minnesota a couple days ahead of Nana’s appointment.

From there, we’ll be spending some time with family just across the Mississippi in Wisconsin.
There will be some maintenance work on the Jeep and trailer.

And Nana…

She’ll be busy finding new things to roll in.