Category: Camp Sites

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Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We had such a good time in the spring at this national park that we wanted to go back.  Our favorite site A-9 was already booked so we reserved site A-34.  Not as nice but we made it work.  Set up in the rain – white canopy and patio mat first.  Good system.IMG_7189

IMG_7202 We spent three nights here riding our road bikes on the rim, hiking the trail that allows dogs and checking out the diversion tunnel set up to send water to the Uncompaghre Valley.  We saw a young bear on the road back from the diversion tunnel! Also went to the Montrose Aquatic Center for a short swim and showers.  All in all, a fun weekend and not too far from home.

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We are tightening up our “systems” for future travels, getting rid of things we really don’t use.  We left the umbrella at home and will not bring the small aluminum table any more.  We really like the additional space we have after taking out the air conditioner.

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Weekend getaway

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We camped in site #32 at Monarch Park for two nights. It’s less than 30 minutes from home so it’s an easy pack up and go. We set up on Friday night and came back to Salida on Saturday for a couple of events in town. Quick shower and back to camp! It was the first time we have left the T@G alone, locked up in camp. We were home unpacked by noon. Although the site itself was adequate, site #34 is the better site.
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Crested Butte Disbursed Camping

Weekends are busy in Colorado but Crested Butte seems the busiest for us. We found this spot on the Slate river about 6 miles out of town. Very dusty and dry and nothing left in or near the trees. Price was right though! Our set up worked great and we didn’t miss having a picnic table. Next trip we will be looking for trees and shade!

Rikki took us four-wheeling over Paradise Pass.  There were some wildflowers still and the views were spectacular!

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New Set Up

We switched the canopies putting the white larger one over the “living space.” Gave us much more room!
Thoughts on Collegiate Peaks CG: we lucked out with this site with its large space and relative privacy. Although the CG FULL sign was out there were two available sites right near us. We call the smaller wooded sites the “inner city” since they are so crowded with lots of families and kids. We are “out in the county” here and prefer it. Doubt we will be back here this season. Too many other places to go.
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Collegiate Peaks FS Campground Site 31

This is a very large site. There’s enough room to park three cars in the parking space. Susan came up early Thursday morning to grab a site in this campground and this was the last one available for a two or three night stay. There are lots of shaded spots throughout the campground but this one and a couple around it are wide open with out trees. I’m hoping it won’t get too hot. But because we’re finding our T@G to be more self contained than our SS, we wanted to try setting up closer to the trailer not depending so much on a provided picnic table.

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Monarch Park site #11

Here’s our site for tonight. We decided on a whim to check out Monarch Park while we drove near it. We discovered not very many people camping here and decided to pay for a spot and we’d go home to get our trailer.

What worked out well was most of our gear was still packed from the trip we took this past week. It’s nice and cool here compared to Salida today.

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Goodland KOA

Well after avoiding RV campgrounds for the last few years in our Silver Shadow we decided to stay in a KOA tonight. Given that we’ve been traveling all day and we are tired and wouldn’t mind playing with our new toys plugged in we said lets do it. The air is cool compared to the mid nineties we had all day. Nice little campground. We’re in spot #34.

Television and stereo work great. I think we got the fridge working, but not sure how. It was showing an error on the road today. Now it seems to be getting down to the right temp. We are hooked up to the 30amp plugin at our site. I’m thinking that might have something to do with it. The air conditioner works great. We love the windows and doors. Big improvement for us.

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South Rim Campground

We’re in site #A9. Surrounded by scrub oak. Lots of wildlife: birds, deer, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, and mice. Simon hasn’t been trying to chase any of them but we’re keeping an eye on him.

This has been one of the nicest sites we’ve ever stayed at. One of the first things we noticed was the lack of generator motors running. Later we learned it’s because they are not allowed in this loop of the campground. The amount of vegetation also makes most of the sites feel isolated. Choose wisely.

Another welcome addition to our “system” is our ground mat seen clearly in this pic. It’s relatively cheap at Walmart, reversible, and gives us a nice clean area to be on. Folds and stows super easy. We highly recommend it. Don’t know why we waited so long.

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One nighter

Supposed to be the height of the meteor showers so we found this spot in hopes to see some later. We’re just about 25 miles from home but seems like so much further.

We are in the San Luis Valley Campground, a private campground. There are only about half a dozen sites. Only one other camper while we were there who seemed to be semi-permenant resident.

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Our last night

Spent our last night in site 38 at the Colorado National Monument-same site we stayed in at the beginning of this trip. Beautiful warm night with quiet neighbors around us. This was night 16 of the 18 nights on the road in the Little Guy. Looking forward to seeing our garden and riding our bikes on familiar roads.

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Cave lake state park

About 7 miles east of ely, this was a beautiful stop for the night. Clean, large sites, plenty of water and showers albeit not very warm but plenty of pressure. Probably the quietest place we’ve stayed in. A little pricey at $17 but still recommend it. On our way hoping to make it to the Colorado National Monument tonight.

Great Views
Had to stop to take pic of this sign.
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Simon gets to lay in some grass

We’re stopped in Susanville, CA for the evening. Walmart closes at 10 but they said we can park overnight. There is a do it yourself dog wash very nearby in the Safeway shopping center next door. We took advantage and gave Simon a much needed bath. We can tell he feels much better. Now in our parking spot at the end of Walmart’s lot he’s enjoying mowed grass. He hasn’t felt that in over two weeks. We’re finding Susanville to be a pleasant little town. At over 5000 feet the weather here is cooler and the air is a little thinner. Much more like what we’re used to in Salida Colorado. Enjoying it for now. Tomorrow night we will be in the desert somewhere along hwy 50. The loneliest highway.

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On the road again

We decided to leave the redwoods after doing our laundry and checking the map. It’s gonna be a long drive home!
We found this site at the east fork campground on CA 299 near Willow Creek. Just $4 with senior discount.
We plan to be out early anticipating road construction as we head east towards Redding and points beyond.

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Redwood forest

We’re stopped near Crescent city California in a part of the redwood forest. Amazing how dark it is in the trees. We’re lucky to find this site. It seems all the campgrounds are filled. We should have known because it’s the weekend. We probably should have stayed one more night at our spot at Crater Lake. Luckily we got the last spot in this campground. Unfortunately our new neighbors have had their old noisy generator running non-stop since we got here about 3 o’clock. We think the adolescent boy needs the power to play video games inside their motorhome. That was four hours ago. Hopefully they’ll follow camp rules that say quiet time after 10pm. For now we just have our music turned up loud enough to make tolerable.

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Crater lake

After we left Klamath falls we were getting very excited to set up home at crater lake. Our spirits dropped upon arrival when the “campground full” sign was posted. So disappointed! The nice lady at the visitor center told us about Annie’s Snopark 10 miles away. Set up camp but too many bugs and dirt for us. We stayed in the parking lot. Up at 6 am to register for a site when the opened at 7.
We are finally home and set up for a few days. Relaxing and enjoying the sites.
Internet and cell service is spotty and unreliable so it may be a few days before we write again.

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Walmart Parking Lot

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Spent the night in Elko, Nevada. We were on our way to Winnimucca but decided to stop here instead. We were getting tired and must have misjudged the distance. The Walmart Super Center in Elko seemed quiet and safe. They lock the doors of their Auto Center, Garden Center, and Pharmacy entrances at night which ends up making a huge section of their parking lot vacant. They don’t allow trucks to idle after 9 pm and so it gets quiet. We restocked on some food, grilled up some steaks, had some pie and rested for the night.

During the night it rained pretty hard with lightning and thunder so sleeping in the Little Guy was nice and cozy. We did learn one thing about leaving things on the ground in the rain. Even though our plastic bins keep stuff nice and dry, the rain drops splattered dirt all over the sides, even on the pavement. Not really a big problem, just wiped things off with rag. Something to consider though before going in for the night.

Tip: Rain will splatter dirt on things if they are on the ground.

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Lassen volcanic national park

This park is midway between Lake Tahoe and crater lake. It’s $12 for a campsite and free entry with seniors access card otherwise it’s $20 to get in and $24 for the campsite. Lassen has been devastated by fires and drought so lots of dead vegetation.
We were nearly out of gas and the campground ran out. But rather than wait till 11:00 we took the risk and went to Old Station where we paid $3.69 for gas. Yikes!
We were going to head to lava beds national monument but after looking at the map thought we would push on to Klamath falls to re supply.

Tip: Get gas when you can.

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Slight detour

Looking at the map the other day, we realized that with just a little detour we could visit Lake Tahoe and Susan’s sister. We arrived mid afternoon and joined Rosemary at kings beach where her son Frank was there with his family and several friends he grew up with. They had a great barbecue going on, live music and of course the fabulous view of the lake. It’s always so nice to be here and relax in her beautiful home. Glad we stopped!

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Nice Morning at Jordanelle State Park

Love our umbrella. We move it around as needed.

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State campgrounds aren’t really our thing, but national forests tend to be fairly off the beaten path and harder to find. The official U.S. Government website is almost useless when traveling down the road and looking for a place to camp for an evening. There’s just too much info to wade through. There ought to be an app for that but have not looked for it yet.
We took Simon for a run this morning on on our road bikes. He totally enjoyed it. 😀
We’ll be on our way to Winnamucca, NV right after we use the park shower facilities and pack up what little needs to be. We’re pretty settled in where all the stuff is where it belongs and easy to find. Not having to set up a canopy is a huge time saver.

Tip: If using an umbrella it helps to bungie it to the handles of the galley lid. The umbrella is not very tolerable in the wind.

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Colorado National Monument

Standard back up to table.
Great views from up here.

We were pleasantly surprised to find almost all the camp sites open in the Colorado National Monument. It was about 4 o’clock when we arrived. Again setting up with the umbrella is sooooo much easier than a canopy. Great view from our site, number 38, loop B, of the valley.
We picked up a bundle of firewood in Montrose, but can’t use it here. No fires allowed. We have some charcoal, but probably won’t cook with it tonight.

Tip: Forget the firewood. No open fires here.

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First night

We got out of Salida around 1:30 after a morning of reorganizing and packing.  We realized that carrying the bikes on top of the truck would free up alot of room inside so Rick modified his ladder rack to hold the bikes.  Nice job!  We got to Gunnison to stop at our favorite camping store, Gene Taylor, and found our stadium chairs and a replacement skillet for the one we forgot.  Back on the road we ended up at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park campground and set up in Loop C.  A beautiful rainbow and yummy grilled veggies for dinner was all we needed.  It rained off and on and our new umbrella worked really well – just moved it wherever we needed it to be.  Simon is dealing with his new environment and will most likely get more comfortable as the days go by.

Today we are on our way to Grand Junction and Brown’s Cyclery to consign my Trek mountain bike and shop with the credit I have there for selling my Pinarello.  Should be a fun day!  Not sure where we will be tonight.  Stay tuned.

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Tips:

  1. Bikes don’t go well inside the pickup topper because we need that storage space for camping gear and they are too hard to get out. Bikes are better outside.
  2. Square frying pan works better on a propane stove with wind guards.
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Slight rain when we arrived, but we were treated with a pretty cool rainbow.

We’re finding our new umbrella to be pretty handy. I don’t think I’ll be setting up the square canopies again until we’re planning on staying in one spot for more than one night. Pulling out the umbrella and base is fast and set up only takes seconds. We were looking for one of those hitch umbrella stands, but now it seems like it would be too limiting.

Finally starting to get things organized where everything has it’s own spot and we know where everything is. I had way too much stuff that didn’t belong in the “garage” and it was a pain to get stuff out. Now that I’ve moved things around to where they are needed, it won’t be such a panic to set up in the rain.

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Temporary site

Soaking up some sun this morning in the Colorado National Monument, Saddle-horn campground loop A. It was a little chilly last night but a down comforter for each of us kept the cold out. This is our first trip of 2015. Some lessons: don’t move boundaries in national forest campgrounds, choose your site carefully, if you plan on eating out find a campground closer to town, don’t forget the boombox. However this was intended to be a shakedown cruise, so all is good. Learning to chillax.

Tip: Don’t move USFS campground boundaries because the man in uniform gets upset.

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Long haul today

Welcome relief at Green River State Park. Just back up open the galley cook our steaks and relax. We’ve been traveling since 8 this morning. We’re ready for a good nights sleep.

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Bob Scott Campground

This is a nice site in Nevada just east of Austin called Bob Scott campground. It’s higher elevation so it’s nice and cool. Looks well maintained and quiet. Not setting up to much tonight. Don’t want have a lot to pack in the morning. Just backed in, started a fire, cooked dinner, cleaned up and now relaxing. There is decent cellular service here too.

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Heading east

After two restful nights at Schoolhouse Canyon Campground (highly recommend) we packed up and are heading toward Lake Tahoe to see Susan’s sister Rosemary. Here’s a few observations for future trips:

  • We’re thinking disposable dishes and utensils would make for easier cleanup.
  • Privacy popup/potty works great as intended.
  • RV parks are less desirable because they are too crowded and we don’t need the hookups or extra services.
  • Watch for dirty/dusty ground surfaces when selecting a site. We and the dog brought extra debris into the LG.
  • Firewood can be an issue since you can’t carry it from state to state, so be on the lookout for good firewood to buy.
  • Keep an eye out for Top That Yogurt. The best treats and our new favorite.

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Sound Carries in Schoolhouse Canyon

I think I figured out why they have an “Adults Only” section in the Schoolhouse Canyon Campground. We learned that sounds carries quite well in this little box canyon. I bet they created the adults only section to maybe be a little quieter if there are kids noisily playing. Last night however, there was a group of “adults” still talking and “playing” loudly two tent sites away from us. Finally after about 12 midnight I asked them if they could please try to keep it down. They did maybe a little bit, but they were still loud. Luckily our ceiling fan sort of drowns out external noises.

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Off the grid

This campground, Schoolhouse Canyon, is pretty much out of cell phone range. Maybe others services might be here, but ATT is not. Curious if this post will make it to the website.

It’s very peaceful here in the trees. There are steep slopes on all sides of our camp site except for the entrance of this little box canyon.
I think the sun has a hard time penetrating the trees to the ground in here. A welcome thing during these hot days. As a rest spot after the hectic trip for Cristin and Lachlan’s wedding this is ideal for us right now.

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Schoolhouse Canyon

We drove into Armstrong Redwood area to see the trees and maybe camp there. We dropped the trailer and started up the road to the campground. After about 1/4 mile of the 3 mile road, we realized why no trailers were allowed up there. Turned around and headed for Schoolhouse Canyon where we are now in a sweet site deep in the redwoods. There’s even an area where it’s adults only – imagine that!! The owners even put redwood chips all around this site do it smells so good!
We’ll probably go back to Armstrong park and see more trees. We are planning to cook in our site tonight after a swim in the Russian river. Life is good

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Hikison Petroglyphs camp Site

Dusty dry but easy. It was getting late and we were getting tired. Found this US Forest Service campground called Hikison Petroglyphs. There was no water, but we carry at least 5 gallons in our Coleman jug. We didn’t even unhook the Little Guy. Just cooked our dinner, cleaned up and crawled in for some welcome sleep. We found the air was so dry that condensation inside was not an issue at all. Even though we turned the ceiling fan on a few times during the night, I don’t think we really needed it.

I think we were a little anxious when we chose to stop here. If we’d gone another hour we’d have reached Bob Scott US Forest Service campground. We stopped to take a look on the way by it this morning and discovered it was higher in elevation, had more vegetation, and seemed way less dusty. Oh well, next time through there we’ll know. In other words, I’d recommend Bob Scott over Hikison Petroglyphs campground.

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Day 2 depart

Not a bad spot for a quick nite. Green River state campground. Some sort of unexplained smell this morning sort of like a sewer. Camp guy says it’s high water.

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Little Guy big guy

We thought it was kind of funny to be parked near a big air stream this morning.

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It rained some last night. It’s a soothing sound inside our cabin. Simon barked a lot last night at passersby and who knows what else. Finally at 1 a.m. I put him and his bed in the car.

We’re heading up toward I-70 this morning.

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Another Walmart

Walmart lots seem safe and they’re super convenient. We’d rather get groceries than eat in a restaurant. If you prefer restaurant eating then Cracker Barrel lots might be better.

We’re drawn to the grassy spots along the parking lot. Gives Simon a place to lay down outside of the car or Little Guy cab.