Western Colorado

We left Denver on Tuesday, August 27^th and headed for Stagecoach State Park in Oak Creek, Colorado.  Let me step aside from the travel narrative here to explain how we plan where we are going next, which is probably somewhat unconventional.  When we get to one place, we decide how long we want to stay there and then we look at the map and figure out what route we want to take from where we are to where we are going (though we don’t always know where we’re going J).  Then we pick a town that is the right distance away – we only want to travel about 200 to 250 miles in a day.  Once we’ve picked the town, we google “Campgrounds near ___________” and see what comes up.  We look up each of the campgrounds on the internet and in our books, including reviews from other campers, and pick one.  Sometimes we make a reservation and sometimes we just show up and take our chances.  So far we haven’t had a problem with finding campsites available.  I will say that I prefer to make a reservation once we know where we want to go and Bob prefers to just show up – “just in case we pass a really cool campground on the way.”  We often alter our plans based on recommendations from other campers or natives of the area.

In any case, after much googling in Denver, we had found Stagecoach State Park and what a find it was!  It was definitely in the top 3 campgrounds we have stayed in.  Our campsite overlooked a reservoir with a sand beach and a marina.  We were nestled in, surrounded by mountains and every way we looked the scenery was beautiful.

  

There was an easy place to launch our canoe and we really enjoyed the beach for a cool (cold!) refreshing swim.  

We saw a western Colorado weather pattern emerge:  Very hot and sunny during the day, then in the late afternoon the clouds would roll in and sometimes brought high winds (twice we had to hold up the R-Dome through 40+ gusts), sometimes rain and lots of thunder and lightning.  Then it would cool off in the evening and by morning the temperatures would be down in the low 50’s and we’d be putting on sweatshirts and jeans.  But by 10:00 AM, the heat was back.

One added bonus at this park was that the concession stand, which was fairly near our campsite, had wifi.  You don’t usually get wifi at State Parks, but using the wifi booster antenna that we bought for our last trip to the Bahamas on Rhiannon, we were able to pick up a good wifi signal in our camper.  We had no phone signal but strong wifi the whole time we were there.

On our last evening at Stagecoach, we were sitting in the R-dome at dusk and Bob saw an animal walking by in the next campsite.  We quickly realized it was a fox.  It walked slowly and then climbed up on a rock and Bob snapped this picture of it.

We stayed three nights at Stagecoach – Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday – and would have stayed longer except Labor Day weekend was coming and we had made an exception to our “plan as you go” rule and had made a reservation at another western Colorado park for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.  It was good we did because we heard all the campgrounds around were full that weekend.  On Friday we moved to Yampa River State Park in Hayden, CO – a smaller campground, not as scenic as Stagecoach but with nice big campsites and a new and very clean building with laundry, bathrooms and showers.  

The campground filled up throughout Friday and Saturday and it seemed just about everyone had dogs and most had children.  Everyone was very friendly.  When we first got there and were setting up, the man at the next campsite came over and introduced himself (Max) and started talking to us.  He and Bob talked a little about their military background – Max had been stationed in Fayetteville, NC – and then I asked Max where he lived now.  He said, “I used to live in Boulder but I had to get out of there.”  I asked him why and he said “Too many crazy liberals!”  Bob calmly said, “Well, we’re crazy liberals.”  Max stopped for a moment and then just started talking again about something else.  Over the next three days, Max came by and visited with us frequently at cocktail time and we had some very interesting conversations, but never about politics!  Talk about crazy – he and his wife had SIX dogs with them in their camper.  You should have seen them trying to walk them in 3’s and 4’s!

While staying at Yampa River, we drove the truck (with the canoe on top) about 11 miles to Elkhead  Reservoir and went canoeing.  Poppy has gotten really used to riding in the canoe and she knows that sometime during the trip we will beach the canoe and throw the ball for her for a while so she can swim.  Luckily, our canoe only weighs about 55 pounds so it’s easy for Bob and I to put it on and take it off the truck.

We also visited the Wyman Museum in Craig, Colorado.  The museum was started by a man named Lou Wyman who just started collecting some old objects and quickly expanded into a rather large museum with lots of fascinating exhibits.  We really enjoyed it.  There was a museum cat who entered the building when we did and followed us around to all the exhibits, including the blacksmith shop out back.

We had planned to leave Yampa River State Park on Monday (Labor Day) morning, like most of our fellow campers did, but unfortunately, the mail we had forwarded to Hayden, Colorado by priority mail the Tuesday before did not arrive there on Friday or Saturday.  That meant waiting for Tuesday morning and hoping for the best.  It turned out to be a fortunate accident because on Monday afternoon, when the campground was almost empty, a couple pulled in with a fifth wheel and a trailer with a Honda Goldwing pulled behind.  They went for a walk and came past our campsite and we happened to be out at our truck and started talking to them.  Their names were Pat and Dan Rosales and we quickly found that we had much in common and an instant rapport.  We invited them into the R-dome for a beer/wine and we ended up talking for a couple of hours.  They invited us to come to their camper after dinner to play “Trash Train Dominoes” and we accepted.  Bob and I are not usually much for games but we enjoyed these folks so much that we had a great time and actually enjoyed the game.  They are originally from New Mexico (living in Denver now) and we exchanged emails.  When we get to New Mexico, they will give us lots of ideas of places to see.

Tuesday morning we packed up, hooked up and headed for Hayden with our fingers crossed.  Our mail was there and we happily turned westward toward Utah.