So, we’ve made it to yet another new state. Colorado, here we are!
We spent our first few nights at a BLM location called Rabbit Valley. It is located only a few miles across the border. It was blazing hot those few days so it felt like we were still in the desert of Moab, UT.
We were visited at the Valley by friends, Lou and Dale. Sure is fun to see our friends from Georgia on the road full-time and enjoying this lifestyle like we are. On one of their visits we walked a trail that had some dinosaur bones on it.
They were right there in the rocks. Funny how once this stuff gets pointed out you start to see it everywhere and realize you’ve probably been walking right past similar things for years. Above photo is of part of a spine. 
Closest living relative to a dinosaur that we saw on this hike.
Lou and Dale invited us to visit them in town at the RV park. While there, we played a game called Bloing Ball.
The objective is not to look like all of the other players when you throw the ball. That just sort of happens. Your goal is to wrap these string-tied golf balls around the bars for points. Different points per bar.
We did alright for ourselves!
One afternoon, Dale had a kayak to test paddle before he made a decision to buy it so we headed to the park.
Fits one tall man and a dog… SOLD!
It was such a beautiful day, we enjoyed a picnic…
under the trees before heading back to our rigs.
It only takes a few days in town before the urge to get back out to the peace and quiet of public lands starts to gang up on us. So, before long, it was out to Little Bookcliffs BLM area for us. We found a nice level spot just off the road with some great views.
We could still see snow atop the Grand Mesa.
Close-up of snow on the Grand Mesa.
Little Bookcliffs is a wild horse sanctuary so we kept a look-out. 
If you squint your eyes and lean your head to the left, it sort of looks like a horse.
Alright, so we didn’t see any horses this day. But we did see a LOT of…
bullet casings. These were shotgun but there were 22’s, 45’s, 40’s, 38’s, 9’s and a load of various sizes from rifle’s, as well. It seems that some public lands are not just used for boondocking! What?! You’ve got to be kidding. OK, we knew that but up until this point most of what we saw was a lot of OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) use. We also had not yet seen a display such as this one. Give a guy (or gal) some public land and a gun and besides the standard beer bottles, cans and plastic containers, they’ll shoot the oddest of things.
We admit, the bowling ball trick must have been pretty cool to see and we sure hope there wasn’t a guy in the sneakers (there was a pair) when it all went down.
The eggs above were apparently un-harmed during the experiment but we can’t say the same for many others we saw. Skeet discs seem to be the target of choice and they are reportedly biodegradable being that they are made out of clay (we’ll hold our tongues on that one).
Wasn’t there some song a long while back about blowing up your TV? And, the yellow pages… really?! What did they ever do to you?
Besides the above items, the ground in the area was literally peppered with casings and trash of all kinds. As users of public lands ourselves, we are happy that they are being offered so generously to outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds. However, seeing things like this, pretty sure it used to be a fridge,
and other piles like it does make us take pause.
More and more public lands are being closed in exchange for pay areas that can be monitored and regulated by paid staff. With examples like this one we can surely see why. It would take some serious regulation or better yet some personal responsibility on the part of the public that is permitted to use this land free of charge to prevent the kind of environmental impact that is happening here.
Just saying… and that’s all we’ll say but really, think about it people.
While we are saying that… one morning we had just finished breakfast when a whole bunch of trucks rolled up and blocked us in our spot. They hopped out, introduced themselves in a very friendly manner and proceeded to inform us that they were from a shooting group and would be shooting in our spot for about two hours. Up went the skeet set up and out came the shotguns of every variety!
Another round of… where’s Annie? Can you see her?
These folks were a hoot. Super friendly, inviting us over and over to try it with them and to join in with saying “It doesn’t kick that hard, really.” With four months of climbing coming up we opted to save our shoulders and to just watch. We had a great time for the two hours that they stayed and played a host of various games of elimination.
After the guys were through with the baby stuff… shotguns, rifles, handguns…
the Birthday Girl pulled out the BIG GUNS and showed ‘em how it was done!
It was actually really neat to see these folks having such a great time. They even cleaned up after themselves… an added bonus. Afterward, we were invited down to the river for a Birthday BBQ but opted to take in what was left of our day in peace and quiet.
Ahhhhh…
Obligatory, peaceful flower photo.
Followed by quiet flowers in the meadow.
The next few days were relaxing and rather uneventful. Then Lou and Dale came to visit a few times. We had some fun setting up targets from the trash laying around and shooting them with Dale’s 22 rifle (which is much quieter than a shotgun and has zero kick). Nicole and Darlene had collected 30 skeet that had been missed by the shotgun folks and we set them and some random trash items that were laying around at varying distances and took turns. Yes, we admit that the last of the Easter Eggs pictured above finally met their end during this process.
We had fun coming up with individual ways to steady the rifle. Dale improvised with walking sticks, Nicole curled up in a ball and braced on her knee. Darlene took a one leg up on the trashcan stance and Lou basically kicked back and relaxed. Before long, the up-close targets just weren’t cutting it in the one-up department and challenges with items smaller and further away started being set. Example, a golf ball in a tree 250 yards away. For those unfamiliar, after about 100 yards, the scope on the gun is basically useless for anything other than to ‘see’ the target item and possibly a measure of how to adjust each shot. This sort of challenge required some serious sniper mentality.
We shot round after round at the golf ball set in a dead tree 250 yards away. In this photo of Dale, a rectangle is drawn around the tree where the golf ball sat. The rectangle is around the whole tree to give you perspective.
On day two, Nicole had one bullet left when Dale told her if she shot the ball out of the tree he would eat it for dinner. She shot the ball out of the tree! Once we figure out a way to sautee it just right… Dale will eat ‘Top-Flite’. Another perspective of our shot is below.
This is the tree the ball was in. If you look ahead of Dale and Bonnie you can see Annie in the distance. We were shooting from right in front of her. On the third day, Dale managed to whack the ball out of the tree and Nicole got a second shot on it knocking it out of its perch yet again.
Darlene and Lou held their own shattering skeet after skeet at similar distances in the 200+ yard range. Boy did we have a blast (pun not intended but we’ll take it) and yes, we did clean up after ourselves and then some! The fun didn’t stop there. Lou and Dale also brought their compound bows for us to play with. After a few lessons, one in which Lou showed us how to group three arrows in the bulls-eye,
Nicole was managing to get it in the target and Darlene was matching Dale’s arrow for arrow challenges like a pro!
Darlene nearly took the ‘feathers’ off of Dale’s arrows in the challenge.
Well, all that gun and bow toting can wear a girl out. There’s nothing like a little hike to look for wild horses to relax you.
We plotted our course.
And off we went.
Maybe if you squint and lean your head to the right this time? OK, still nothing.
How about this then?
YES! We finally saw one. A loner wearing white socks on his back feet. Apparently he was new to the desert because we can’t seem to keep our socks white out here! We sat atop a cliff watching this beautiful one graze near the river for a while before the wind started blowing.
Well, they say that all good things must come to an end and so our time here shall come to a close. In a week or so we will arrive at our summer destination where we will be volunteer campground hosts until September. So, we’re on the move, yet again with more details to follow.
Until next time…
Keep your eye on the ball!
