6/13/2026

 6/13/2026 Great Basin National Park, NV

Yesterday, after a long day of driving, we made it to the top of the mountain (Wheeler Peak Campground- $10 with senior parks pass). The campground roads were paved and each campsite had a concrete area for the picnic table. Beautiful.

Something scary happened when Ron and Duke were at the picnic table. An arrow came whizzing by and landed near them. A lady came by and apologized for the errant arrow. Guess they weren't good marksmen. Luckily, neither of them was struck.

Midday today we came down to tonight's campground at Baker Creek. Gravel roads and barely a pull-off for tonight. Quite a contrast for the same National Park.

Paved picnic area

view from Wheeler Peak

View of the desert we crossed as we came down the mountain

Our road after we make the hairpin curve

6/12/2026

 6/12/2026 East Fork Bear Campground to Great Basin National Park

We left our East Fork Bear Campground along the rushing stream and headed for Park City, Utah. Ron found a road out of Park City with very steep climbs and we ended up on Pine Canyon Road with more steep grades down and switchbacks. We met a few brave cyclists climbing up. From there we headed into Provo, home of Brigham Young University. The median age in this city is 24.

The next section of our travels today was "the loneliest road in America" and I believe it. Great Basin is a desert with no services for 100 miles. The basin got its name because no water flows out of it. Instead, it feeds into underground aquifers. Tonight we climbed 12+ miles to Great Basin National Park-Wheeler Campground, Nevada at 10,000 feet. This one of the least visited National Parks with only 150,000 people annually compared to Zion that has 5,000,000 per year.

Park City-many condos

House overlooking Pine Canyon Road

Deer Creek Reservoir

 "loneliest road in America"

Looking at the desert  behind us on the way to the campground

6/11/2026

 6/11/2026 Tetons to the National Forest, Evanston, WY

Before leaving the park this morning, we drove up Signal Mountain (4 miles). Throughout the day we traveled through Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. We are camped in a National Forest south of Evanston, WY. The campers next to us are in a tent with their 11 week old baby!

Tetons

Tetons

Lupines

Driving through Tetons

Jackson Hole

Tonight's campsite

bubbling stream right next to campsite

6/10/2026

 6/10/2026 

Camped at Colter Bay Village last night.  Tonight we are at Signal Mountain Village.  Both are in the National Park at Grand Teton.  The weather cleared today and we drove through the park, had lunch and moved to our new campsite.  The weather was cool today, in the 50s, but around 5 pm we had snow showers and now it is raining.  What beautiful scenery here.

driving in the park

returning to the park after lunch, a very long line of cars

Lunch at Dorman's in Moose

WOW

6/9/2026

 6/9/2026

We got an earlier start today (as we head to the Tetons) because of predicted high winds with gusts expected to be 50+mph. We should arrive there midday. Scenery is very different here.

new scenery

Thankfully, Ron is a great driver and gripped the wheel for 2 solid hours as the wind pummeled us. The last 2.5 hours the wind died down, but as we got closer to the Tetons we had rain and temps in the upper 30s. It's so cloudy we can't see the mountains, but we made it and are nestled in for 2 nights.

cyclists fighting the wind, too

rain and cold

6/8/2026

 6/7 and 6/8/2026  Church in Denver and Dugway Recreation Area Campground

We attended church in Denver at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.  The rector there attended the same Catholic grade school as Ron in Elizabeth, NJ.  The priest's sister and Ron were classmates.  We had a short visit with him after mass.

On the way to the Grand Tetons, we spent the night at a free BLM campground.  The North Platte River flows just below the bluff in front of us.  Sammy had a great time running leash-free.  

Sammy, running free

6/6/2026

 6/6/2026 Celebration of Life for Carol Vucich Hetherington

Friends from high school, Ellen Franks and Sally Hoffman Jones and her husband Jerry flew in for the Celebration. It was held at Kirk and Lisa Hetherington's home and at a large tent a few houses down the street.  Many stories were told about Carol, as a friend, a mother, a grandmother, a wife and a teacher.  Kirk was eloquent as he told stories about his mom and his dad.  After the many stories, we returned to Kirk's and Lisa's home for a large spread of appetizers and a toast to Carol.  Close friends and family were invited to a dinner at Biaggi's, where we were treated to more food and drinks.  

Kirk, celebrating his mom

Carol's brother Jim

Sally, Ellen and me

Kelly's son, playing another favorite of Carol's

Kirk and Lisa's son playing Carol's favorite tune

Kirk

Kelly and family (Carol's daughter)

Kirk, Sally, Jan, Ellen, Kelly

Lisa, Kirk's wife--adorable

Jim, Ellen, Tom (Carol's brouthers)

6/5/2026 Fort Collins

 6/5/2026

We are here for the Celebration of Life tomorrow for my life-long friend, Carol Vucich Hetherington.  After arriving early, we decided to seek out a dog park for Sammy.  The daytime temp was 95 and not a lot of share at the park.  

The campgrounds were full, so we opted for a welcome center/truck stop.  Sometimes that works out, but in this case it was marginal.  The welcome center appeared closed, the cars in the parking lot appeared to be filled with homeless living in their cars, and the truck side where we parked had some sketchy looking RVs.  The guy that pulled his RV in next to us, seemed to be having relationship issues and yelled a lot at the woman who was with him and slammed doors.  Of course Ron had to walk Sammy, but he steered clear of that guy.  During the night, a semi pulled in next to us and ran his engine the entire night.  We survived!

On the way to Fort Collins

One of the less classy RVs

This is the RV next to us

6/4/2026 Rocky Mountain National Park

 Jan Matuska is with Ron Matuska at Timber Creek Campground in Rocky Mountain.

June 4 at 1:56 PM ·Grand Lake, CO ·

Shared with Your friends and Ron's friends

6/4/2026. Today is our 3rd day in Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park. Great weather. We attended two Ranger talks. Last night Ranger Zoe asked for our best coyote howls. The audience responded and so did some actual coyotes. Tomorrow we head for Ft. Collins. Drove to Beaver Ponds Campground for lunch and were rewarded with this elk meandering across the road.

A great pic of Sammy