First weekend in our 171 - Event Date: 06 Jun 2015

We just took our new 179 to Boulder and back 2 weeks ago. Started in Reno area at a friends. Then to the Ruby Mountains outside of Elko, Nv. A place called Lamoille. Drive up the mountain to the National Park campgrounds. No services [elect./water] so come prepared. Beautiful spot with some easy hikes. Then you could drop down to Great Basin but I'd advise against it because of the heat. But the caves are spectacular. We drove past Salt Lake to Park City. RV Park off of Hwy 40. Park City, home of the Winter Olympics 2002? We stayed on 40 to Vernal, Utah [KOA] visited the Dinosaur Museum then off to Dinosaur National Park. RV/tent camping with no services. Beautiful mountains and interesting fossils. Oh, I forgot, in Vernal drive to the homestead of a very interesting woman, forget her name but the RV Park oeople will tell you. We drove to Granby [40 and 34] and stayed at Lake Granby, Stilwater RV/tent camp. Beautiful lake, fishing...full hookups, inexpensive. If you are old enough get a "golden years " pass. $10 gets uou in to many National Parks etc with a discount. The drive over Rocky Mountain National Park was nice but the drive through Colorado National Monument should not be missed. This was our first trailer vacation so we stayed at just about any RV Park we came upon. I suggest getting a good book on campsites [not AAA]. KOA is expensive but they have a pool and are clean but we found parks for under $20 that we liked. Don't know idf you are going further south  [4 corners] way to hot right now.  Hope this helps . Have a good trip.
Ken
PS love our 179!

Originally posted by techntrek We toured Green Bank 2 years ago.  Didn't know they had a star party there, I'll have to check it out, eventually.

It's really nice, but the best part is that due to being in the national radio quiet zone....no cell phone service! (finally some true peace and quiet).
http://www.greenbankstarquest.org/

We toured Green Bank 2 years ago.  Didn't know they had a star party there, I'll have to check it out, eventually.

Originally posted by Sapper Mike I will be replacing the white lights with red LEDs I picked from Astro Gizmos a couple of years ago at the Texas Star Party.

Save some money and cut these theatrical lighting gels sheets to dim them to a perfect red:

http://www.pnta.com/lighting/gels/lee/lee-027-medium-red/

Ill try to take some pictures of mine on this weekend

Congratulations on your purchase. I will be at Starfest this year, arriving on Wednesday. Have been going there every year for the last six years after a hiatus of about 10 years. I'll also be in one of the full service sites so will look for you. Haven't noticed many R Pods there so we shouldn't be hard to spot. Good to see that there are fellow amateur astronomers on this forum. I will be replacing the white lights with red LEDs I picked from Astro Gizmos a couple of years ago at the Texas Star Party.