Author: Bill

Just wandering around..
Posted on

Royal Gorge, Canon City, Cripple Creek and Victor Colorado

We left the convergence and drove about 30 miles east to a nice small campground just up the road from the Royal Gorge.  I didn’t know much about it but decided we would visit and know a lot more.

After setting up in our campsite, we drove over to the gorge that afternoon.  It was very hot that day, so we just drove around to see what was there.  It struck me as odd, the bridge over the gorge was this huge suspension bridge and it seemed to go nowhere.   We decided to come back the next morning when it would be a lot cooler.

The next morning we drove back over there and paid to go into the “park”.  Turns out this whole thing is really an amusement park.  The bridge was built over the gorge strictly as a tourist attraction.  On the other side of the bridge, which you can only walk across now, is the amusement park.

We decided to take the gondolas across then walk back over the bridge; but after being in line for it for about 15 minutes, they shut it down due to high winds.  And it was very windy!

There were also two ziplines that originated on the other (uphill) side of the gorge and people were zipping over.  They came in very fast, and there were rubber blocks on the line that slowed them down very quickly.  I was thinking whiplash might be a real possibility.  Those ziplines are over a thousand feet in the air.   Hard to imagine that.

After the gondolas were shut down, we walked down to the beginning of the bridge, then out on it about halfway across.   We were glad we didn’t bring Dusty as it was so windy out there we probably would have needed to carry him or he could blow away!  I could feel the bridge moving and that’s not a comforting feeling.  We snapped a few pics and proceeded back across while watching my footsteps as there were a lot of older boards that didn’t look so sturdy to me anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve crossed a lot of bridges in my life, but I do not remember one that was anywhere near as high off the ground as this one.  It was about 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River below.  Interestingly, I saw a RxR track running alongside the river way down there.

When we left there, we headed toward Canon City, just a few miles east of the gorge.  I had read something about Skyline Drive, so I decided to use that route to get into town.  That was quite a drive, not for the faint of heart.  Narrow one lane (lucky for us, one way also)  that traverses the top of a mountain ridge all the way to town.   There were a few parts that my acrophobia kicked in and it was all I could do to stay in the middle of that road and look at nothing else.  The dash-cam video shows just how small and high it is.   It comes out at the bottom of the hill after a few switchbacks right into a residential neighborhood.

First Half of Skyline Drive

 

Not  far from the base of the end of Skyline Drive was the Colorado Prison Museum.  We drove by and they didn’t allow dogs inside and it was way too hot to leave him in the car.

I did get to see the gas chamber they used there.  Interesting gadget.  The walls were very thick steel, something I would have expected on a diving bell to see the bottom of the Marianas Trench, not something for using at sea level.

The following day we headed up to Cripple Creek, an old mining town in the mountains.  What a beautiful drive with everything green as far as you could see, miles and miles of trees and meadows with some cattle grazing along the way.

We got into town and we decided to drive thru it to see Victor first and then come back to CC.  On the way to Victor, we saw a very tall pile of dirt, I mean really, really tall and wide. It turns out it’s an active gold mine, a big open pit, but there appeared to be no way to see into it.  We drove for a few more miles, the whole time the wall of dirt was just to the left of us.

We arrived in Victor and it’s a really nice little mountain town, lots of old buildings.  We stopped at a small parking area across from the fire station and city hall.  Nice mural right there.   I saw a fireman outside washing his rig, so I went over to talk to him, figuring he knew a lot about this town.  I knew nothing.

He turned out to be a wealth of information, and the best part was he knew a way to see into the big strip mine just up the road.   We wandered around the town for a little bit, then headed out, remembering the directions to the overlook.  They were a bit vague, but we found it anyway.

And it was spectacular!  Even the platform was over the top, made out of the bed of one of the old ore hauling truck beds with a platform and stairs welded into it.  Quite an impressive structure.  And the view from it into the mine was great.   It’s an active mine and we saw trucks moving ore to and fro.

Turns out they produce more than half a billion dollars of gold per year.  Not chump change!   I didn’t know we had much gold mining in the US.

The pit is Huge, yes, with a capital H, huge.

After spending time to take it all in, we headed back to Cripple Creek and along the way stopped at an old shaft gold mine that is now a tourist attraction.  There is a mine elevator that takes you down 1,000 feet and then you can explore the tunnels.  No dogs allowed and it was still very hot, so I just took a picture of the double-decker elevator that had just a single cable hauling it up and down.  Looked like a single point of failure to my eyes.

We drove the few miles into Cripple Creek, and the first thing you notice in the small town are the 500-foot-high cranes you see when they build skyscrapers, and they appear to be building some right in downtown.  I wasn’t really impressed by the town.  It appeared to only be a casino town.  Lots and lots of casinos.  Nothing much else there.

We wanted to get lunch, and there was nowhere that allowed pets and almost all were actually part of a casino.   We couldn’t even find a takeout place.  Sad.  We did find a nice pavilion on a slight hill with picnic tables in the shade to eat some snacks we brought for the drive.   It was odd, there wasn’t even a Subway to get  a sandwich in the town.  And they seem to be everywhere you look.

We noticed big, dark clouds in the west (the direction we had to go back) and I called the local police station asking about this other road I could see on the map that went almost directly south toward our campground, 50 miles away or so.    The dispatcher said it’s not a road for the faint hearted nor is it ever maintained as it goes along the river on a ledge for miles.  So no go.

We drove toward the storm.   But missed it, only skirting the edges and got a few sprinkles.   But when we got back to the coach, the wind was blowing hard and it started raining buckets of water.  I was glad I wasn’t driving a mountain road in that.

The next morning I drove down to the prison museum by myself and took the tour.  Pretty underwhelming.  Old and musty place.  It was worth the $3 to get in, but just barely.

The next morning we were off to Colorado Springs.

 

July 10th thru the 13th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Salida Colorado

We arrived at Poncha Springs Fairgrounds to attend an Xscapers convergence for July 4th, 2022.  We would be spending 8 nights dry camping and with only 30 amp power.  We were hoping it wouldn’t get too hot as that amount of power will only sustain 1 air conditioner running at a time.

We are starting to get used to Colorado weather: Thunderstorms each afternoon with high winds and often hail.  So far only pea gravel sized hail, so just a bit noisy and no damage.   The good part is those storms really cool off the afternoons nicely.   We got to meet a lot of folks we had not met before and a few we had.

A day into the event I met Chip who was parked a few rigs down from us.  He came by to ask if we were experiencing low voltage.  I said I didn’t know and proceeded to look for my multimeter.  At that moment we were getting 115v, which is fine.  But later in the afternoon I checked it again and we were at 104v, not good at all.  That’s when I realized I had nothing but the multimeter to measure voltage.  My smart plugs only measured watts used, but not the more important voltage.  After researching there was really nothing available that would measure voltage and log it somewhere.  So I did the next best thing.  I ordered one of these real-time meters from Amazon.  Hughes Autoformers Dual Color DVM, LED Digital Voltmeter .

About a week later, it had worked so well I purchased another one to go onto the other side of the incoming hot wires.  It doesn’t log anything, but at a glance you can read the voltage.   If the voltage is 108v or higher, the back ground is green; if below that it’s red, easily seen and unmistakable.   I saw that red color a lot while camped at the convergence.

The next morning I decided to test out my special Y cable that is supposed to combine the 30 amp outlet with a 15/20 amp outlet to give you about 45 amps.  It did not work, specifically it doesn’t work if the 20 amp outlet has a GFI, which these all did.

I also noticed my existing Surge Guard didn’t even allow the 30 amp to work as the other leg was dead.  (L1 & L2 make a 50 amp connection)

It was then I noticed the other pedestal at the front of the bus and looked in there.  Low and behold, there was a 50 amp plug.  I got out my 50 amp extension and tried to plug it in, but someone mounted the outlet upside down.   The way the plugs work, there was a bar in the box that prevented it from connecting.

I walked over to the fairgrounds office and found the manager, explained my issue, and she tried to call the site supervisor.   He didn’t answer and she told me she would keep trying.  I left, and probably 1/2 hour later I saw him at the event building across the way.   (at least I saw his truck)   I found him and explained the issue.  He mentioned he knew about that but needed a certified electrician to do the work.  I asked if I could do it, it was a simple thing to rotate the outlet, and the breakers were right there next to it to shut off to make it safe.   That’s when he said he would do it, and we walked over and in 5 minutes it was fixed.  I was then able to plug into the 50 amp outlet.  That didn’t really solve the voltage issue, but having two legs of power kept the voltage above 108v the rest of the time, not great, but way better than before.  And now on the hotter afternoons we could run both AC’s if needed.

We decided to hang back at the fairground to watch the fireworks with a bunch of others in their camp chairs.   It was about 4 miles from downtown Salida, so the fireworks were spectacular but the sounds were way off due to the distance and the difference in the speed of light vs sound waves.  But we got to see fireworks.  Really hadn’t seen any since the Pandemic started.  We almost could see them while in Memphis last summer, but they were too far away to feel like you really got to watch them.

The next evening was the Lot Crawl, but just prior a big storm moved in and it rained for a couple hours.  Usually the afternoon storms were done by 5, but not today.   Kathy and I had made our Fireball Jello shots for the crawl and they went over well.  There was only one left at the end of the evening and it was really, really good! (I got it)

They had moved the Lot Crawl into the event building due to the weather.  We were hoping it wouldn’t be a super spreader event.  No one got sick from what we heard.  Some folks were saying a lot of folks caught it at the Escapade which occurred a few weeks before this event not very far from here, over in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

I think it was the next night after the Lot Crawl we had a band (The Status Crowes) play for us.   We had heard them at the Bash a couple years back and they were pretty good.

One morning on the way back from town, I stopped in a gun store.  It had to be the biggest one I had ever seen.  They had so many rifles and handguns it reminded me of an armament museum I checked out in Cody, Wy, a few years ago.  Something that I had never seen prior, and didn’t think were actually legal in the US, were silencers or suppressors for rifles and handguns.  Some of the handguns I looked at had threads for the silencers.   Wow.

The next weekend we stumbled upon their yearly Brewers Rendezvous down at the Riverside Park in Salida.  It looked like a big deal, there were at least 60 brewers there.

There were a lot of Starlink users at this event.  I got to see many different mounting options for the dishy.     When we get home this year, I will probably turn off three of my 100GB Data SIMs and replace them with a Starlink setup.   Starlink’s monthly is about $70 less per month than those 3 SIMs, and Starlink now allows you to turn off your service when you don’t need it. (for us that’s about 6 months of the year when we aren’t traveling in the motorhome)   The SIMs cannot be turned off when we aren’t traveling.   We will see what’s available from SpaceX this winter.

July 2nd thru 10th.

Posted on

South Fork, Colorado

I was hoping to find a place near Pagosa Springs, but there was nothing available that we could fit into; so I kept looking further and further and found a place with a spot for us in South Fork.

The drive there was interesting. Once we got to the grade for Wolf Creek Pass, it got steeper than any of the grades we had done since starting this adventure in 2017.   I was literally in second gear going up that hill.  That had never happened before.  I was talking to a buddy that grew up in Colorado, and he asked me if I had ever heard the song about Wolf Creek Pass.  I hadn’t and then found it on Spotify and listened in.  It was by that trucker guy,  CW McCall, from way back.   It was a long, steep climb to the top.  Seemed to take forever.

There was an interesting structure along the highway.  We only got a picture of it from inside it, but I found a Gmaps Street View.  It was a cover of concrete angled at about 25 degrees to allow the rock slides to go over the road instead of on to it.  Never seen one of these before.  Seems like a great idea and could be used in many other places.

We made it to South Fork and of course Larry wasn’t anywhere to be found.  It was a very small town, with a grocery store and hardware store above the grocery!  Not sure I had seen that before.

The campground was called Grand View Cabins and RV Resort.  (Way too many places use the “Resort” moniker in their name, and they do not in any way resemble a resort)   It was a nice place to get hailed on though.  That seems to be a Colorado staple… hail.  And thunderstorms every afternoon.

While checking out the place, 98% of all license plates in the park were from Texas.   I asked my neighbor if there was a direct freeway from Texas to here.  He laughed and said no, but it sure looks like there must be one.

The weather there was nice and cool being at a high elevation.  Most of the folks here were staying all summer.   Since Haviland Lake was electric only, we used this place to refill the water tank.   Our next stop was just outside of Salida where we would dump and refill again so we could dry camp for 8 nights with the Xscapers group rally.

June 29th thru July 1st

Posted on

Haviland Lake, San Juan National Forest

The drive from Silverton to here was beautiful, no worries during the ride on the MDH to here at all.

When we arrived at the campground, it was very interesting.   There was a small earthen dam we had to drive over, one very narrow lane with an angled curve halfway across.  As I got to that, I wished I had unhooked the car, but it was too late to do that at the time.

The lake was beautiful with all the trees and a few folks fishing from the banks.  We drove a ways into the park and found the camp host who told us how to get to our site.   We arrived unscathed, dodging the tree branches as best I could, and our site was very nice and turned out to be a double-wide site, even two electrical pedestals.  This was dry camping, no water or sewer here.  And lots of room to park the car!

This had to be the most peaceful park we’ve been in.  Cool breezes and just a bit of background tree rustling noise from that.  Otherwise extremely quiet.

I was talking to a friend while there and he mentioned a great Mexican place down in Durango, about a 20-minute drive from where we were, so I added that to our to-do list for one of the days coming up.

The next morning our coffee pot died on us, so I got the brand new one, still in the box, out from under the bed storage and set it up.  Low and behold a part was missing.  And of course it was the part required to use the K Cups we use while traveling.   I had bought it at Walmart while in SLC as that coffee maker was exhibiting some unreliability when we were there.  Having a backup seemed like a good idea.  I bought a cheap Farberware model for about $40.

Now that I found it was missing a critical part, I started searching for the receipt to bring it back to a store in Durango.   It was not to be found anywhere.  Apparently it had been put in the trash.   So I called the support number on the instruction booklet and Walmart answered the phone.  A sinking feeling was observed right then.  But I told the person on the phone what the problem was and about the missing receipt.  She said she could help!  That was a bit shocking.  She said she needed the date of the purchase, the store zip code, and the last 4 digits of the card I used.

I looked up the zip code on Google, logged into my CC Card website and retrieved the date, and then gave her the digits, date and zip code.  She then said she found it  (Really, they keep all that?)  and asked for my email address so she could send me the receipt.  Wow, it worked!  I returned the one with the missing part and bought another one, and checked it first to make sure all the parts were in it this time.

The best part of all this is this is the best K Cup coffee maker we have used!  And it was less than half the price of the broken Keurig maker.  It immediately starts brewing and is done before any other of the prior coffee makers even started pouring into the cup.  A lot earlier!  It also has a water tank, so there was less work to do for each cup.   And as a bonus, it holds taller cups than any prior models we have owned in the last 5 years.   (Travel Mugs!)  We don’t use the  K cups when home, but I will never buy another Keurig again after using this Farberware model.

Here is a link to the old model:  Keurig K Cup.

Here is a link to our new one so you can see it.  Farberware K Cup Brewer.

I called the Mexican place to see if we could bring Dusty and they said sure.  We drove down and saw a small outdoor covered patio.  I went inside to let them know we were here and that we had our pup with us.  There was no issue.  It wasn’t till after we ordered lunch that I noticed that there was a sign on a tree just outside the patio saying No Dogs on Patio. ??   After a while longer two more small groups of diners came in there with their dogs.  The food was excellent!  It’s difficult to get decent Mexican food outside of SoCal, but this was an exception.

On the way back we decided to stop at a hot water vent right on the side of the road I had seen on the way down.   It was very interesting, not something you see on the side of the road often, and in my case, never before.   Pretty cool.  (or actually warm)

The next day we were off to traverse Wolf Creek Pass and onward to South Fork, Colorado.  (No, not the one where JR lived.)

Just outside this campground was another group campground.

June 27th thru 29th

 

Posted on

Silverton Colorado

We got to Silverton around lunch time and figured it was too early to check into the campground, so we looked for a shady spot to park the bus for a while and maybe fix some lunch.   We found one next to the courthouse.   It was on the west side and had beautiful grass and big trees providing shade till around noon this time of year.

After lunch and a walk for Dusty, we unhitched the car while there and then headed to the campground to check in.   After checking in, they lead us to our spot, which was one spot away from an odd-colored creek.  The water looked clear but the rocks were an orange-ish color.

The next morning we heard the whistles from the steam locomotive that brings tourists from Durango via a narrow gauge railway track.   I wanted to see that.  It’s not often you get to see a working steam engine, let alone one that is run every day of the year.   It is very cool to see!

I wanted to ride on it, but we were at the wrong end to do that.   We could ride it down to Durango, but then we probably would have to stay overnight to get a ride back.  Or maybe a very expensive Uber ride.   That wasn’t a very good option, so I  had to watch it leave a little while later.

I talked to the engineer for a while, and they had just converted it from coal to oil fired a couple years ago as they had started a huge fire a while back from the sparks that the coal emits from the stacks.   I cannot remember how many gallons of water they hold, but he did say they fill up halfway up and back to keep enough water.  This locomotive was built in 1927 and has been running constantly since.  In 5 years it will be 100 years old.  Wow!

You cannot believe how much oil leaks from all the moving parts.  Their oil can for filling the lube cups at each joint is the largest one I have ever seen.   When that is filled, it would last me twenty years of adding drops of oil on things I need to lube (not very often anymore.)

Watching that locomotive leave was almost breathtaking for a gearhead like me.  Below is a link to a video I shot of it leaving Silverton station.

LocomotiveLeavingSilverton

After watching it go on its journey back to Durango, we went looking for a place to eat lunch with the pup.  We found Natalia’s 1912 restaurant with a shaded outdoor patio you can just make out on the left side of the building.  The red umbrellas can just be made out in this screen grab from Google. They even had someone playing music toward the back.   The burgers were tasty and they brought a water bowl out for Dusty.

After a late lunch, we wandered all around the town going into every shop.  There were some interesting shops, even a blacksmith who gives lessons.  Someone was there with him making something, but I wasn’t sure what and really didn’t want to bother them with questions.

Silverton was a fun small mountain town to visit.    One thing of note was the elevation:  I noticed there was a bit more breathing to be done while moving about due to the thinner air at 9,500 feet.

We loved the paint job on this house in town, so we had to share a picture:

 

I will leave you this question posed by a tee shirt I saw in a window in town….

[Yes?]

June 25th thru 27th

Posted on

Million Dollar Highway drive to Silverton.

I had read about the Million Dollar Highway for many years and knew I wanted to see it.  This was the year!  We were spending a lot of time in Colorado to keep in the higher elevations, hoping it would be cooler up there for the summer.  That turned out to be a quite right assumption.

I verified the highway is a Truck Route using the Rand McNally Truck Route Map Book.   We left Ridgeway Park in the early morning to make sure we avoided the afternoon thunderstorms while driving the MDH.   We were camping in Silverton that night.

The road tightens up probably 1,000 feet just south of Ouray.   It gets very narrow and very windy with sheer cliff within a few inches of the white line.  No distractions, please!   Kathy was gripping the hand rail by her seat with a death grip as I rounded the corners, so close to the edge I couldn’t look that way or bad things might happen.   Lucky for us that part was only about 10 minutes of the drive, but it did seem like a few hours at the time.   And it’s only a 24-mile drive from Ouray to Silverton.  Stunning views once I was able to look at them again when we got away from the cliff edges.

The rest of the drive was uneventful.  There was a nice overlook not much past the twistys.  We stopped there just to make sure nothing had fallen off and down the cliff, and also to allow blood to flow back into our hands after the death grips we experienced.  There is an 11,000+ pass you must ascend and descend about 1/2 way between the two towns.   I don’t know how anyone goes down those big grades without an engine braking system. (Jake or Pac Brake)

June 25th

 

Posted on

Telluride Colorado

The day after we went to Ouray, we drove over to Telluride for a day trip.  We got there fairly early and were able to find a parking space quickly.   We walked over to the gondola and looked for a gondola with paw prints on the side, which indicated we could bring Dusty on it.   Then we were off, climbing to 10k feet, where the car stopped and then proceeded to head downward to Mountain Village.   While it was stopped for a few seconds, we saw a great poster on the wall of 5 Labrador Retrievers in a gondola with goggles and headgear on.  Very cute!  Kathy didn’t buy the coffee mug of this picture while on top, so she had to find the studio in town to get it when she changed her mind!!

We arrived at the village a few minutes later.   By this time we were looking for breakfast or lunch and settled for brunch in a very nice outdoor restaurant.  Afterward we wandered around the village for a little while and then boarded another pawed gondola for the ride back down to Telluride.   Once there we walked over to a farmers market that was taking up a side street going up the hill.  The farmers markets in Colorado do have some veggies along with the other stuff.

Overall Telluride was a nice small town, Mountain Village was more of an upscale destination with the requisite prices to go along with that.  I personally liked Ouray more, and would skip Telluride, unless you want to take the lifts up for mountain biking.  (or skiing in the winter) .

June 24th

Posted on

Ouray!

We drove the short distance from Olathe to Ridgway, Colorado, and slipped into  our very nice pull-thru site in Ridgway State Park.   The campsite had a great patio and even had a metal roof structure over that.  This park had no sewer hookups and just a few central water faucets to fill your tanks, but it did have 30 amp power in case we needed to run the A/C, which it turns out wasn’t required here.

The next morning we drove the car over to Ouray, a small town with a special waterfall that I had read about.   On the way out we passed by quite a few deer grazing by the roadway.  We got to the waterfall set up a narrow dirt road.  Once there you couldn’t tell what the trees were hiding, so I purchased tickets in the gift shop to go check it out.  I think they were $3 each.   While doing that I found out it is a city park.

The short hike was amazing.  The metal catwalks were as described in whatever site I had read about them.   There was one very short area where a big piece of rock hangs over the cantilevered walkway;  needless to say, I had to duck.  As you walk closer to the falls, you can just see a glimpse of the falls,  but the noise from them was unmistakable and very loud.  The kind that requires shouting for someone next to you to hear you.

This is something you must experience if you are within driving distance of Ouray.  It’s a short jaunt around the whole place, but well worth the experience.  I had not seen anything quite like this before.  Stepping down into this narrow loud canyon was pretty awesome.

 

OurayWaterFall  This is a link to a short video of the falls from down in the canyon itself.

After seeing everything we wanted to, we headed back to the car to visit the historical town of Ouray.   It had a big, wide main street with a good slope in all directions.  We walked the town looking for trinkets to remind us of this pretty, small place.   I found a very nice pint glass and christened it that evening back at the campsite.    Also picked up a small magnet for the fridge.

Just as we got to the top of the hill, the furthest from the car, it started to pour!  And of course our rain coats were in said car.  Dusty wasn’t happy at all.  He really dislikes going out in the rain, and here we had no choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the campground and got behind this camper with the most bikes hanging off the back I have ever seen.  Made me wonder if all the riders fit into that camper.

When we got back to Ridgway SP, we explored all the areas of the campground.  We were camped in the Dakota Terraces campground just above a very large lake (reservoir) with a huge boat launch area to our north.  There was also a camping loop probably 500 feet higher than our loop, but it was mainly for smaller RV’s, although there was one squeezed into a site up there that was probably our size.

I just loved the Jetsonsesq looking camper that was just down the road from us.  I had never seen anything like it.  I never saw anyone around it.  I kept looking as I wanted to ask them about it.  The tail lights were to die for. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we drove down to another part of the campground called Pa-Co-Chu-Puk Campground that was below the huge earthen dam holding back the reservoir.    To me, there is just something about camping right below a huge earthen dam over my head that would probably prevent me from sleeping at night.  Apparently I didn’t think to take a picture down there, so here is a Google Sat View showing the campground near the bottom right and the dam just above it.

June 23rd

Posted on

Grand Junction and on to Montrose Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We left Green River the next morning after the park attempted to flood the RV.  I liked it there, but the fire hose situation was maddening.   We drove east on I-70 all the way past Grand Junction to the small town of Paradise, Colorado, for fuel.  I found a place that was $5.39 a gallon, about 25 cents lower than anything nearby.   It took a long time to fuel up here too as the clerk could only put in $299.99, nothing higher; so I had to go back in for them to restart the pump two more times to fill up.

After we filled up, we headed to Olathe, Colorado, where we stayed at a very nice park called Uncompahgre River RV Park.   It was in a residential area and lots of shade trees.  Once I saw the huge trees lining the long wide driveway, I new I had probably made the right choice to stay for 5 nights so we could explore the area.

The next morning we headed out early to check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison before it got too crowded.  It was a good choice, even early in the morning there were only a few parking spots left at many of the overlooks.  The canyon had very steep black cliffs, so it was named appropriately.  We were in the south section of the park and there were trails out to some overlooks that were farther away from the road, but the terrain made me think there weren’t many real hiking trails, unless they were only for big horn sheep.

We were out of the park before noon and there was quite a long line at the entrance kiosk to the park by then.  We were very happy we got an unusually early start.   We were also happy to use our National Park Senior pass again.  That was $10 well spent on our first trip back in 2017 at Montezuma’s Castle.    Unfortunately I did not keep track after we saved about $300 that first year on national park admissions.  But again,  best $10 ever spent.

That night we wanted Mexican food and there were 3 places within around    10 miles, 2 very close and one out in the middle of nowhere.   Turns out the one way out there was the best rated, but it closed at 2 pm every day.  One afternoon on the way back from somewhere, we found the spot it was supposed to be, a small clearing at the corner of a couple small roads.  We saw a couple picnic tables under the trees back off the road, but no restaurant that I could see.  Turns out it’s a food truck, and apparently they drive it home around 2 pm.

I ended up getting takeout from Carniceria El Bajio on Main Street.  Talk about a hole-in-the-wall place.  It’s nothing to look at when you walk in, and you might want to walk out once inside.  Not the cleanest place I have ever been in, but the tacos were some of the best I have ever had.

The next day we headed into Montrose about 10 miles south of Olathe and we wandered around the old section of town.  It was the Juneteenth holiday and lots (most) of the shops were closed for the holiday.  It seemed odd as a lot of them were small places that tourists would probably love to check out.  Even the small brewery on the main street was closed.  Seems the folks in Colorado take their brand new National Holidays very seriously! The town had some awesome large bronze statues along its wide boulevard.   Here are some pics.

Later we picked up some lunch and drove over to the Montrose Water Sports Park and what a wonderful place it was.   The city modified the river’s path to include some rapids for surfers to ride and some square stones to make it easier to get into and out of the water.  Lots of small kayaks and even tubes were traversing the waterway.  We wandered around there for an hour or so just watching and admiring the park that they had built and so many folks there enjoying it.

IMG_8277_1655671021000 IMG_8275_1655670859000

We were heading toward Ridgeway State Park next and from there would check out the towns of Ouray and Telluride.   After that we would traverse the infamous Million Dollar Highway.

June 17th thru 22nd.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Green River State Park, Oasis in the middle of a very brown desert

We left SLC in the morning and headed over the mountain to Green River, UT.  It was an uneventful and quiet drive all the way there.  No manifold leak!   As we got down the other side of the mountain and closer to the I-70 freeway, the landscape got more and more brown and barren of any vegetation.   Once on the freeway, it was just a few miles to the exit.  Off in the distance we could see what appeared to be a large green area.  Apparently the Green River supplies the whole area with water and they really know how to use it.

We find the State Park and check in.  They made it a point to mention the sprinklers go on in the morning and we wouldn’t want to leave anything outside to get wet.

 

What they forgot to mention is the sprinklers are more like fire hoses than any sprinkler I have ever seen and that most folks move out of their campsites prior to them going on in the morning.  They went on around 10 am the next morning and we were very lucky we closed the roof vents as the fire hoses are only directed at the campsites.  One consistently watered our roof.  Another one of the fire hoses sprayed its hard stream on the side of the coach under the slide, in an attempt to get water inside the bus.  There was another head on the driver’s side and it hosed the whole left side of the bus off, doing its best to get past the window seals.   Any water that didn’t directly hit the bus just showered the road.

In one of the pictures you can see I placed one of my chairs in front of the sprinkler head to see if I could divert it a bit.  I did the same thing to the head on the other side.  It helped a bit, but the pressure was so high it kept moving the chairs out of the way and I had to keep moving them back in the way.  I asked one of the rangers about adjusting them and it wasn’t his job.

This picture might be all you need to know about Utah:  That and maybe reading the book or watching the recent series called Under the Banner of Heaven.

 

I would stay here again as it was a beautiful park, but I would not be there on Monday or Thursday mornings when the sprinklers were to be run.   Oh, and of course the water was probably the hardest available, and the calcium spots required vinegar to get them off.   The campground was right on the Green River, which surprisingly was a very large river and moving along pretty quickly.

June 15th thru 17th.