Northwestern Colorado

Wed, Sept 14

Although our site was beautiful and we really liked Snow Mountain Ranch, other adventures await.

So, we headed off toward the Northwest, with a vague plan of getting about half-way to the Dinosaur National Monument.  I had tentatively picked a couple of Forest Service Campsites on a State Scenic Byway.

As we got closer, I started doing some inquiring about where the sites were, and found out that they are on a 40+ mile dirt road - which didn't sound very promising for RV travel.

Our first stop was at the "General Store" in the middle of nowhere.  In talking with the owner, he said he was located "convenient to nowhere" - which I guess is true.  Looks like the store has been around a while.

"Convenient to Nowhere"

The scenery is beautiful, but a lot different from the trip across the Rocky Mountain National Park. 

We decided we'd better make sure we couldn't get to the campsites I had picked out earlier, so we stopped in Yampa, Colorado where there is a Forest Ranger station. 

Were we surprised.  Yampa's main street is dirt, as are all the side streets.  It's a pretty little town, but I can't imagine what it must be like after a rain.  I guess they don't pave the streets because it makes it easier to maintain them in the winter.

Main Street - modern street lighting and dirt streets

The Hotel in Yampa - Note you can get a shower

After discussions with the rangers, we decided to skip the dirt scenic byway and started looking for alternatives.  Then I noticed that about 20 minutes to the North is a state park - and so far Colorado State Parks have been pretty nice, so we decided to go for it.

It turned out to be a great decision.  It is absolutely gorgeous - as everything seems to be in Colorado.
 

On the way to the State Park, we had to wait on the cows

An idyllic setting

I took a nice long bike ride around the lake just before it started raining a little.  This is only the second time we've seen it rain since we left Beaufort a month ago.  There hasn't been enough rain to hardly settle the dust.  Maybe it will rain more tonight.

Thursday, Sept 15

For the first time in all our RV travels, including going to Michigan and to Florida, we have had rain.  It rained most of the night and about half the day.  It was kinda nice.  We settled in for a slow morning, but about noon, we decided to pack up and go the Steamboat Springs to see what it was like, with the idea that we could come back to Stagecoach later in the evening.

After lunch, Clara did some shopping and I started looking around for a campground in the general direction of Dinosaur National Monument.  I found the Yampa River State Park about 20 miles west of town, so we headed in that direction.

Again, a totally different type of scenery.  This area is fairly flat.

As it seems most of the campsites are, this one is fairly deserted.  It located on the banks of the Yampa River, one of the tributaries of the Colorado River.

I'll bet it has some stories to tell

Yampa River State Park