Yankee Hill – Page 2 – Not Your Average Engineer

July 27, 2016July 30, 2016

Kingston Peak and Yankee Hill with Jaime and Franziska

I took Jaime and Franziska up for some 4x4ing in my 4runner to show them an enjoyable American pastime. Jaime is studying at TU Delft and Franziska is a friend of Jaime’s from when they were in high school or early college.

We went up over Yankee Hill and then onward to Kingston Peak. The mailbox at the top of the first section of road out of St. Marys Glacier and Alice is in good shape although I couldn’t find the guest log.

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Jaime and me with the truck.

Someone recently replaced the American Flag that always seems to be up there.

My truck looking great as always.

Don’t stop me now (’cause I’m having a good time)
Don’t stop me now (yes I’m having a good time)
I don’t want to stop at all… yeah!

Looking down the shelf road.

Both Jaime and Franziska took turns driving the 4runner and had an absolute BLAST doing it.

Waiting for a truck to get off the shelf road so we can proceed forward.

My truck sure is great!

My beard matches the truck.

Jaime spied me through the windshield. I really should label all of my switches and tidy up those lights…

June 19, 2016June 21, 2016

Yankee Hill Explorations

After going up Barbour Fork with Rising Sun 4×4 Club, Andrew and I went over to Yankee Hill to do some more 4x4ing. We started by going up Cumberland Gulch from Fall River Road. Andrew took over driving for a while to see how much fun a Toyota minitruck really is.

Bumping up the road. The last time that Heather and I went up here, this road was full of water.

Great views of the mountains up on Yankee Hill.

Coming down the north side of Yankee Hill, we found the water bar on one of the forest roads had gone out, diverting half the creek down the road bed.

Down the flooded road we went!

We gingerly picked our way down the road bed in low gear (using 4.70:1 gears). I hate driving through a bunch of water due to environmental reasons but there wasn’t another way down. We made it through just fine, aired up the tires on Apex Road, and headed back down to Golden.

June 19, 2016June 21, 2016

Chinns Lake, Fall River Reservoir, and Yankee Hill

Heather and I loaded up the Toyota 4runner (it still needs a good name…) and headed up to the Fall River Road area to look for somewhere nice to make dinner. We went up the road toward Chinns Lake and almost got to the lake itself before running into a big wall of snow. After turning around, we headed back down to another spur of the road that goes to Fall River Reservoir. It was a wonderful place to cook dinner.

Making some sausages on the grill next to the spillway below the dam.

Now we’re cooking!

Not a bad place for dinner.

Looking around the dam and end of the road from a rock above our little dinner spot.

After the sun set behind the mountain, it got a bit chillier. We packed up and got ready to head down the hill.

Instead of going straight back to Golden, we took a detour through Alice and St Mary’s Glacier to go up and over Yankee Hill. We got up to the top of the first hill climb just after the sun had sunk behind the mountains.

Looking in the general direction of Kingston Peak.

Big mountains on the continental divide in the distance.

My truck sure does look great!

I think that’s Mount Evans on the left.

The nearly full moon rising over the plains.

Up on top of Yankee Hill.

Looking south. This would be a great place to camp!

LET THERE BE LIGHT! The light bar on my roof is amazingly bright.

Airing up the truck after a great evening of 4x4ing. These long early summer evenings are great!