Travelogue Tehachapi, California to Colorado Springs, Colorado

In real time we are in Wichita, Kansas, but let me take you back in time for a travelogue beginning in California and ending in Colorado. Get ready for some beautiful scenery.

Our time in California came to an end and it was time to point the BoggsMobile toward Colorado. Our route was going to take us to Barstow, California to I-15 through Nevada, Utah, a corner of Arizona back into Utah and finally Colorado.

We first were on these roads going the opposite direction in September 1992 We were traveling in a 1984 Lincoln Town Car with almost 200,000 miles. We had left Kentucky, preached one night in Kansas and then drove toward California. It was the first time over that route and as far as we know, we have never been on it again until recently.

I knew it was very mountainous and I was kind of dreading it, but there was nothing to it but to do it! I down shifted a whole lot, drove slow up mountain passes and slow back down.

We saw unbelievably beautiful sights too. I wish I could show you 800 miles of dashcam! Wow! It was awesome!

First, we had some ribs on July 4th and watched fireworks from the side of the bus in Tehachapi.

The next morning we left Tehachapi hoping to make it to a rest area in Utah before the heat of the day. Unfortunately, traffic did not cooperate and one hour before our planned stop we drove into extreme heat.

As a general rule, if the temperature is over 95, we drive at night. We got caught in this 100 degree temperature and eased our way up a mountain until we arrived at a Rest Area near Kenarraville, Utah at 6000' elevation. It was nice and cool there overnight.

Just before our overnight stop, we stopped for diesel.

Rest Area near Kenarraville, Utah. 402 miles took us 8 hours.

The next morning we were up early because I knew we had some big mountain passes to climb and I wanted to get them done early. We were rolling by 6.

We drove through mountains all day and ended up for the night at a rest area in Rifle, Colorado at 5300' elevation. We stopped several times during the day to look at the beautiful scenery.

We drove 412 miles that day in 7.5 hours.

We were parked next to the Colorado River so we went for a walk.

The next day we had a Vail pass in front of us at 10666' and Eisenhower Pass at 11158'. I had never driven the bus over those elevations and I was not looking forward to it. We were rolling by 5:40.

First, we traveled through the beautiful Glen Canyon. Wow!

Then we began creeping up Vail Pass and down the other side before creeping up Eisenhower Pass. Driving was too intense for me to take pictures, so  I captured a few from my dash cam.

At just over 10,000' on the Eisenhower pass, traffic stopped completely.

I took this picture from a standstill and my parking brake engaged.

Construction was moving three lanes to one and this box truck in the next picture broke down in the one lane. It took a while for everyone to ease into the closed lane and get around him but we made it.

The west bound Eisenhower Tunnel and the east bound Johnson Tunnel were the highest elevation tunnels in the world when built and are still the highest in the USA.

At Denver, we detoured north to Rocky Mountain National Park. I will tell you about that in a post to come.

The next day we drove across Denver and fueled up less than one mile from Souls Harbor Church in Colorado Springs.

That concluded a 1202 mile journey in four days with several stops for scenery thrown in. Not too shabby for me and a 27 year old bus in the tallest mountains I have ever climbed in it!

Thank God for His help!

Thank you for spending a few moments with us.

Davy