End of Season Camping

17 10 2022

In what is becoming a tradition, we’re joining friends at Hecla Junction, one of the campgrounds in the Arkansas River Headwaters State Park.  This small campground is along the Arkansas River about 12 miles north of downtown Salida.  We’re parked in site #1101 along with friends in #1102 and #1122.  On this last weekend of September, the leaves are just beginning to change here along the river, but were beautiful over Poncha Pass.  Warm sunny afternoons are perfect for explorations in nearby Salida and we enjoy lunch at the Boathouse Cantina and some interesting cocktails at Woods Distillery.

Hecla Junction Campground, AHRA

Woods Distillery, Salida, CO

After being home for a weekend, we’re soon back on the road to Circle the Wagon’s RV park in La Veta.  Just a 17 minute trip from home, we’re here for closing weekend and the 4th annual Chili Cookoff Championship.  7 chili’s are presented and tasted, and in the end judges select 3 awesome bowls!  Our stay this year is a bit bittersweet – the owners that have become great friends have sold the park and will be moving north, near Denver.  B&B, we’ll miss you!

Chilli Cookoff Champs

After 2 nights at Circle the Wagons, we’re headed to Chatfield State Park south of Denver. Chatfield is a great spot for us to shop “big box stores” as well as catch up on various professional appointments such as an annual eye exam.  We’re at Chatfield for the entire week, and stay busy visiting with friends staying at the park and others that live in the Denver metro area. As we depart the metro area on Sunday, October 16th, we’re sure this will probably be the last camping of the 2022 season.

Chatfield State Park

We’ve towed nearly 6000 miles this year, representing 161 nights on the road.  Once again we’ve visited favorite spots in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming and of course Colorado.  Next up will be the massive RV show in Quartzsite, Arizona in mid-January.  More from there…


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How Time Flies

18 09 2022

Wow, how time flies.  Since our last outing to the Montana Owners Group meeting in Dolores in early June, we’ve managed only one trip.  Our annual trip to Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, WY

Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo

Cheyenne Frontier Days, Frontier Nights Stage

As in past years, we spent the full 10 days at AB Camping RV park and enjoyed both concerts and rodeo.  Our concert schedule this year included Dierks Bentley, Parker McCullum, Sam Hunt and Brooks & Dunn.  We also attended a day of rodeo and spent an afternoon on the midway.  After CFD we were once again back at Boyd Lake to catch up with friends and family in Northern Colorado.

Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ 4014 in Cheyenne

So, in over 3 months, we’ve spent only 13 nights in the RV.  However, we’ve been busy with lots of house guests and some non-RV travels.  We also just returned home from Europe, where we spent 3 nights enjoying London before flying to Rome to sail a 10-night Greek Isles cruise onboard the new Celebrity Beyond.

&Juliet at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre

Celebrity Beyond in Santorini, Greece

Celebrity Beyond in Santorini, Greece

RV travel continues later this week with a trip to Hecla Junction, one our favorite campgrounds in Colorado.  We’ll also spend closing weekend at Circle the Wagons RV park in La Veta and then a week at Chatfield State Park near Denver.  That will take us into the last week of October, and most likely the undesirable task of winterizing the RV.

But, let’s not get into winterization yet – more from Hecla Junction later this week…


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WestView RV Resort, Dolores, CO

15 06 2022

Four Corners – Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico

We’re just 4 miles from downtown Cortez, about 7 miles to Dolores and only 40 miles to Four Corners, the only point in the nation where 4 states share a boundary, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

Site #37 is conveniently located in the last row of the “original” 45 sites, and right across from the new section that extends the park to 93 sites.  The first row (#1-17) are pull-through sites, but located next to a lumber yard with plenty of noise and dust while we were there.  The next two rows are back-in with off-set locations so that you aren’t looking directly into your neighbors back window.  All remaining “new section” sites are pull throughs, in 4 rows of 12.  All sites offer concrete pads and full hookups.

WestView RV Resort, Dolores, CO

Our site has a significant side to side slope, requiring 3 blocks under right tires and about 6 blocks under the rear jack.  WiFi is provided by several access points in each row, and while the signal is excellent, the speed appears to be limited to exactly 2Mb for each connection.  The service was fairly solid, streamed OK, with occasional fuzzy pictures but rarely any buffering.  T-Mobile cell coverage was full bars of 4GLTE and we found no over the air TV.

WestView RV Resort, Dolores, CO

We’re in Dolores to attend the week-long Western Region Montana Owners Group rally.  This is our first Montana Owners rally, and while we probably won’t visit places like Mesa Verde or Silverton/Ouray with the group, we plan to enjoy the daily happy hours, the Keystone sponsored dinner, the baggie breakfast and the pot luck dinner with white elephant gift exchange.

WestView RV Resort, Dolores, CO

Door prizes were handed at the opening meeting and we ended up with a certificate from “Once Upon a Sandwich”.  During the week we visited the sandwich shop and the Lounging Lizard restaurant, both on Main St. Cortez.  We enjoyed the “SOB” (south of the border) with Turkey, Green Chilies and Pastrami at Once and a Southwest Cuban at Lizard.  There are plenty of food and brewery/cidery options that we’d like to get back to explore in both Cortez and Dolores.

Lounging Lizard, Cortez, CO

After wrapping up the Montana Owners meetings, we’re joining friends in Pagosa Springs at Pagosa Riverside Campground.  The campground is about 2 miles north of downtown Pagosa Springs in a wide meadow between highway 160 and the San Juan River.  We’re parked in sited 38 & 39, “reversed” from normal so that we can share our patio area.  Most sites here are full hookup, however these center sites (#21-#41) provide power and water only. The riverside sites are the best, however none of the sites are far from the river, all provide adequate privacy and are relatively quiet, even with the highway nearby.  The best sites are probably #80 and #81, full hookup, riverside next to the tent section.

Pagosa Riverside Campground, Pagosa Springs, CO

Pagosa Riverside Campground, Pagosa Springs, CO

Riff Raff Brewing on the Rio, Pagosa Springs, CO

While in Pagosa we enjoyed both locations of Riff Raff Brewing (“on the Rio” is better).  Next time we want to check out Kip’s Grill and The Lost Cajun.  On Sunday we’re packing up (during monsoon rains) and headed home.  Our next planned outing is Cheyenne Frontier days in late July. More from Cheyenne…


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Off to the Montana Owner’s Rally

6 06 2022

We’re bound for Dolores, CO and the Western Regional Montana Owners Club Rally.  However, we’ll make 2 stops before the rally and one after.

On Friday we packed up and made the very short drive (12 miles) to Circle the Wagon’s in La Veta, CO.  We’re joining up with friends that we met several years ago when they were work camping in this park.  This is also the park where we spent most of the Summer & Fall during the house build in 2018.  It as a weekend full of great food & fun – from the new Lokal Burger café in the former Corners Diner building to a fabulous dinner at Alys’ Restaurant. https://www.alysrestaurant.com/

Mountain Merman Brewing Company

While in La Veta we learned about the grand opening of the Mountain Merman Brewing Company on July 1st.  This new brewing company is in the former location of the Capture Colorado real estate office on Main Street.

They already have collaborative brews in the works for opening day with Square Peg Brewerks in Alamosa and Platt Park Brewing in Denver.

Good Luck JD & Jen, we can’t wait to come visit soon!

On Tuesday we’re bound for Woods & River Campground in Del Norte:
https://smallhomebigyard.wordpress.com/2020/08/30/woods-river-rv-park/

We last visited this park in 2020.  Several upgrades are immediately noticeable, a big new “lodge” building is underway, and the WiFi system has been upgraded.  However, as with everything – prices are up.  Our 2020 visit was $45/night, this visit is $57/night.  Ouch!

“Out the Back Window”: Rio Grande River at Woods & River Campground, Del Norte, CO

We’re back in a riverside site, and on our previous visit these sites had no WiFi service.  With new towers along the river, downloads blaze along at over 80Mb and uploads are nearly that fast.  The T-Mobile network also appears to have been upgraded, screaming along at 30Mb download and nearly 10Mb upload.  Apparently there’s plenty of bandwidth in this sleepy little town along the Rio Grande river!

Next stop, West View RV park in Dolores.  More from there…


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