ridgway state park

Dolores River Campground

24 08 2020

Dolores River Campground, Dolores, CO

Leaving Lightner Creek, it’s a very short trip (less than 1 hour) to Dolores River Campground, just north of Dolores, CO.

We’re parked at site #14, a nicely shaded back-in site on the fishing pond, with the Dolores River beyond.

Dolores River Campground, site #14

This is a 50/30/20 amp, full hookup site complete with a concrete pad and picnic table. Most of the sites along the pond are well shaded, which might make for a bit of a satellite dish aiming “challenge”. The other challenge here is the lack of cellular service and what appears to be fairly low bandwidth WiFi service. The WiFi worked for casual browsing and email, but we had to head back to town to confidently make phone calls or download any large files.

Dolores River Campground

Dolores River Campground offers about 80 RV sites, both serviced and rustic cabins, a 1953 Vintage Airstream, 2 Yurts, 2 beautiful Conestoga Wagons and several tent sites. We enjoyed our stay and plan to return soon!

Dolores River Campground, Yurt and Conestoga Wagon

From Dolores we’re back to Ridgway State Park where we last stayed early June. We’re in site #179, up on the ridge overlooking the Dakota Terraces Campground. The views are great, but the downside to these ridge sites is that you get some noise from highway 550. We like our last site (#86) better, and it provide more privacy.

Ridgway State Park, site #179

From Ridgway we’re bound for a 2 night stay in Del Norte. More from there…

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

3 07 2015

Good Morning from Southwestern Colorado.

After 1 night in Montrose with good friends, we’re parked in site #115 in the Elk Ridge campground at Ridgway State Park. We’re a part of a group that will eventually total 15 people camping in sites #108 – #115. Set high on a ridge overlooking the reservoir, the D and E loop contain about 100 campsites. Nearer the lake, the Dakota Terraces campground provides about 80 sites in 3 loops. Lakeside near the marina is a boat ramp (with the required Invasive Species inspection) a small swim beach area and several day-use covered picnic tables. All of these facilities make up the Dutch Charlie area. Further south is the Dallas Creek area designed primarily for day-use with fishing areas and picnic tables. There are also about 80 full hookup campsites at the Pa-co-chu-puk area to the north, below the dam.

All of the Elk Ridge sites offer 20 and 30 amp electric hookups with conveniently located threaded water taps. Site #115 has many trees, great for privacy, but impossible for awning use. The roads throughout the campground are asphalt as are each sites parking area – some back-in, some pull-through. There is also a concrete apron with picnic table and fire ring. These aprons are placed at various locations, some on the left, some right and some rear. Not all the locations are ideal – our fire ring is directly outside the RV door and under a low hanging tree. With 15 campers, we used the large picnic table and fire ring area at site #113. The trees thinned out a bit toward site #108 where awning can be deployed fully. These 5 sites are well spread out and not always convenient for toting food or chairs between sites. A better alternative would have been to select sites around the inside of the loop end (such as #84-#113) or across from each other (#115-#112).

Best sites at Elk Ridge are those along the upper loop #165 – #184. Many of these sites offer great views off to the east with good privacy. On the lower loop the first campsite #80 provides beautiful lake views, but might be a bit short and narrow for some rigs.

We had a great July 4^th weekend at Ridgway and would like to return here again on another long weekend.