This morning was a bit chilly but the sun warmed us up fast. We took some time for ourselves; Rick likes to journal, Susan likes to putter. Around 11 we headed out to explore the roads west of here. Simon wasn’t too sure. The aspens around the campground are just stunning.
First real stop (after taking a wrong road that led to nowhere) was fishing at Dome Lake. Simon was pretty happy since he likes to “help” with the line. After several casts and no bites we gave up. Those fish are smart because we could see them.
We were about 10 miles off highway 114 and Rick wanted to ride his bike back to the road. Then he wanted to ride to the chain station at the bottom of Cochetopa pass and with only a mile to the top, off he went. Great ride with challenging winds.
Now it was Susan’s turn to ride down the pass and back to camp. Really windy and scary at times with big trucks passing and not a lot of shoulder. But she made it and we both spent the rest of the day relaxing at camp. We’ll probably sleep well again tonight.
One more trip
We couldn’t resist going out once more given that the fall weather has been so superb. We headed south from Salida and west from Alamosa to Buffalo Pass campground. For $5 a night ( with our senior pass) why not?
It’s only about an hour and a half from home and we took it easy setting up. Only two other campers in the park and not near us. Simon busied himself looking for the chipmunk that clearly had left its nest. He’ll sleep good tonight!
We took a drive to the top of North Cochetopa pass which is also the Continental Divide. Rick wants Susan to ride down from the top (4 miles) just for fun. Stay tuned.
It gets dark early these days so at 7:30 it’s time to go inside. There is no cell service around here so these posts will all come in once we head home. So nice to be away from the news and politics.
Exploring around the campground
I caught the moon riding over our campfire last night. It sure has been throwing big shadows at night!
Today we wanted to see where the trail just outside the campground led. On the way in site one we met Russ and Linda Colling from salida! We visited with them for a while and learned we have much in common. They told us about some old tables and fireplaces that may have been an old campground. We said we’d check it out. We will probably bump into them in salida since they live just up the street.
On we went on our hike and made it as far as we felt comfortable going. There was no trail and boulders and deadfall made walking tricky.
Back at the campground we found the site Russ was talking about. We could really imagine others being there perhaps 100 years ago?
We spent the afternoon relaxing in our campsite and even played a game of cribbage! It was fun once we remembered the rules 😂. And lastly we got on our bikes and rode down to the highway then back up to camp. Round trip 2 miles. Rick did it twice.
Tomorrow we head home and will close out the season for 2023. It was a good one seeing lots of new places and campgrounds.
