alamosa | Small Home

A Southern Colorado Loop

27 09 2020

Gunnison Pioneer Museum

We’re off to some of our favorite campgrounds in southern Colorado, starting with the Gunnison KOA. This KOA is participating in the VKR Appreciation Weekend allowing Value Kard Members to book Friday, September 18th at regular rate and get Saturday, September 19th for free.

We’ve visited this KOA before: Gunnison KOA, August, 2019 This trip we’re parked in site #16 which is a standard back-in site on the western edge of the park. During this visit we learned that odd numbered sites are pull-in, or what they call nose-in sites. In some cases these odd/even sites share hookups, making them fairly close to each other. We prefer the even numbers sites on the outer loop, #20-#40. While in town, we enjoyed time at the Gunnison Pioneer Museum.

Gunnison KOA Park Map

From Gunnison we’re returning to Dolores River Campground. We’re parked with friends in sites 39, 55 and 56. These central sites are not nearly as roomy as site #14 back along the pond and river. We visited Canyon of the Ancients National Monument on this visit. Unfortunately the visitor center was closed due to Covid-19, however we enjoyed exploring the ruins at Lowry Pueblo.

Dolores River Campground

After our stay in the Four Corners area at Dolores, we’re headed to Alamosa where we’re back to Cool Sunshine RV Park. Conveniently located in downtown Alamosa, the park provides an easy walk to places like the San Luis Valley Brewing Company. We’re parked with friends in C6 & C8 and D3. Either D3 or A9 provide nice private corner locations. From Alamosa we enjoyed an afternoon trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Cool Sunshine RV Park

Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: alamosa, cool sunshine, dolores, dolores river campground, gunnison, koa
Categories : Summer Camping 2020

Island Acres & Ridgway State Parks

28 05 2020

Island Acres site #12

Island Acres is located in the narrow De Beque Canyon just east of Palisade, with railroad tracks on one side and busy I-70 on the other. Sounds great huh? Well, even with this “location” problem, we’ve spent time in this beautiful park at least 4 times. De Beque Canyon was formed by the Colorado River and all of the sites are within easy walking distance of the river. RV facilities include 80 sites, both Full Hookup and Electric only. All sites are 30Amp except 61-63 and 79 & 50 which are 50Amp. There’s a swimming beach, stocked fishing lakes and a guest services building with showers and a laundromat. All campsites provide a fire ring, a picnic table (some covered) and a grill.

In the past we’ve tended to select low-number sites, along the river and as far as possible from I-70. This weekend we’re in site #12, an interior back-in site. Friends are in site #16 and #20. Site #12 has a nice shade tree to the east – however, after being parked under this tree for 4 days, we understand how messy a honey locust can be – dripping sap and lots of fallen branches make for extra clean-up work on the top of the slides and in the outdoor mats and chairs.

Ridgway, Elk Ridge, Site 86

From Island Acres, we’re headed to Ridgway State Park, only about 2 hours away, and just south of Montrose. We think Ridgway is one of Colorado’s most beautiful State Parks. There are 3 campgrounds along the Uncompahgre River and Ridgway Reservoir, Dakota Terraces with sites 1-79, Elk Ridge with 80-187 and Pa-Co-Chu-Puk with 200-280. We’re parked in site #86 in Elk Ridge. The back-in site provides 30A electric along with a paved walkway to a gravel tent pad and a large shady area with a picnic table and fire ring. Ridgway’s website, updated in May 2020: “A cell tower in the park permits most carriers to have good reception in the park. There is NO T-Mobile reception.” The Verizon hot spot worked well and they are right, absolutely no T-Mobile service.

Ridgway, Elk Ridge, Site 86

After Ridgway, we’ll make one more stop at the new Cool Sunshine RV Park in Alamosa. Located just behind the main train station in Alamosa, this park provides a great location for short walks exploring downtown Alamosa. After 9 nights traveling through south western Colorado, we’ll make the quick trip over La Veta pass and back home. It’s been a great “first of season” trip. In 3 weeks we’ll return through Alamosa for a trip to Creede, CO. More from there…

Cool Sunshine RV, Alamosa, CO

Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: alamosa, cool sunshine, Island Acres, ridgway state park
Categories : Summer Camping 2020

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

7 10 2015

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We’re enroute to Albuquerque for the world famous Balloon Fiesta! Our first stop is at the Alamosa KOA. Fairly typical for a KOA, our $37 buys us a fairly flat, gravel space with electric & water – and in this particular site, a bit of a privacy break with a tree and some sage brush on our slide-side. Facilities appear to work well, the nearby bathroom is clean but the shower house has a bit of a locker room smell – not particularly inviting.

Our second stop is to a familiar RV park, Santa Fe Skies. We first visited Santa Fe Skies in the truck camper back in 2010. Our “thumbs up” impressions sticks – this is a nice park, on the outskirts of Santa Fe, with great facilities. Our $50 here (we’re close enough to Albuquerque to feel the effects of Balloon Fiesta pricing) gets us a fairly long pull-through site (Aster #7), very tight with a huge coach to our curb site and fortunately no neighbors on our slide-site. The site had electric, water and sewer. Normal rates at this Good Sam park run about $35/night.

Santa Fe Skies RV Park

Arriving at Balloon Fiesta on Thursday morning for the 2^nd weekend, we find the Premium and Standard RV spaces very full. With 5 rigs in our group, it’s not immediately clear that we’ll even be able to park near each other. But, “Bob”, the friendly and more than accommodating organizer finds us a perfect spot in the last row of the standard (dry camping) area. With new, more stringent fire regulations being enforced, we’re unable to build the previously planned compound with our trailers encircling an open social space. But, after a bit of finagling of a couple of the trailers, we’ve built an acceptable space that will accommodate all 12 of us.

Our past few trips to Fiesta have brought some fairly miserable weather conditions and plenty of event cancellations. This year’s final weekend is a beautiful example of why Fiesta is held in Albuquerque in early October. With cool, clear morning skies and afternoon temps in the 80’s, we’re treated to Special Shapes and Mass Ascensions every morning of our visit. Only 2 Balloon Glows end up being cancelled due to winds. On Saturday, the Music Fest kicked off with performances by Two Way Crossing, Gloriana and The Band Perry. Splurging on “Premier Seating” for $50/seat, we enjoyed an enclosed seating area, a nearby bar and easy access to a huge line of porta potties. Well worth the extra $’s – especially on an afternoon when the temps were pushing into the low 80’s. After the concerts we hang around the Fiesta grounds, grabbing some dinner from the Midway and watching one of the largest Balloon Glows in Fiesta history.

On Sunday morning, after viewing the Farewell Mass Ascension from the RV lot, we are making preparations for watching the Denver Broncos at the Oakland Raiders. With lots of awnings, towel and blankets we manage to make a shady spot for all 12 of us to crowd around a much-too-small TV screen. After a tight game, but Denver finally squeaking by, we begin to wrap up Balloon Fiesta 2015, bidding good night and good bye to those that have early plane flights and therefore will be departing the Fiesta RV lot way before sunrise. It’s been a great 44^th Annual Fiesta – with good times had by all.

As it typical, we’ll stop on the way home – this time at another favorite southern Colorado State Park – Lathrup. Impressions of Lathrup are here: LATHRUP STATE PARK. This may well be our last trip of the 2015 RV season. After winterizing and storing the camper away for the winter – we’ll be back on the road next spring as we hit the road to escape the end of the winter weather…more then.