The final State on our epic RV road trip was Colorado and I would definitely say we saved the best 'til last. We had made virtually no plans for where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do beyond visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park if the weather permitted and exploring a few ski villages.
We had bought a couple of fantastic guide books that we referred to throughout the trip and they were a great starting point when planning what to do in Colorado. We had an epic 300 mile, 6 hr drive back down from South Dakota to Fort Collins which we broke up with a stop off at the Historic Fort Laramie.
Fort Collins is a University town to the North of Denver, we tried to book onto campgrounds in the vicinity but they were all full... we later found that we had hit another Home Coming and Parents weekend!! We did however spend a fab evening in the Sweetwater Brewhouse sampling their beer flights and watching student life on game day.
The weather forecast for the duration of our trip was blue sky days and 20°C so we were excited to get some hiking days in. After a google maps and All Trails search we decided to head up through Poudre Canyon which was a stunning drive that followed the river. We hiked to the summit of Mt McConnel which was quite eerie and desolate in places. For most of the 5 mile hike, we walked through forests that were dead, with just tall needless trees towering above us. The views from the summit were incredible, you could see the switch backs and sweeping curves of the mountain pass cutting its way through the wilderness. In the 6 hours we were hiking we passed only 3 other hikers.
On the journey through the canyon, there were several forest campgrounds, all closed for the season, they would have been amazing, remote places to stay and it gave us the push we needed to do some research and find if there were any that we could stay at.
Quite scarily, on our journey back to Fort Collins we drove past a forest fire that had obviously just got going, it was amazing how quickly the visibility changed and the smell of smoke was quite pungent. At least 6 emergency service vehicles flew past us and it was with much relief that the fire was very quickly under control, luckily it was quite a still day so it was not spreading quickly. Chatting to people in the campground later that day, it is clear that it is a huge and very real fear for the people that live out in back country, especially after spells of very dry weather.
With another superb days weather forecast on Sunday, we set off to the Rocky Mountain National Park. This is one of the busiest National Parks, possibly due to its proximity to Denver, and it operates on a permit system. We could only get a slot for entering the Park after 12pm so we explored the lovely town of Estes Park first. This is a park we had high expectations for as the guide books were full of stunning landscape and wildlife photography and it wasn’t long before we came across a herd of Elk and Mule deer. We did a really pretty hike up the Lawn Lake Trail, however we did not make it to the Lake as it was too far in the daylight hours we had. On the descent we chatted to young lad from Boulder who gave us some great tips of places to visit in and around the ski villages and a top-tip to go to St Elmo Ghost Town.
Although we loved the National Park, we were really disappointed to find the Trail Ridge Road Closed due to snow (no surprise when we realised it has an elevation of over 12,000ft!) This meant that we could not access most of the vistas and view points and we missed about 80% of the park. The risk we took being so late in the season!
We did however manage to sneak access onto the permit only Bear Lake Road and watched the sun set over the lake, at one point it looked as though the tips of the mountains beyond were on fire.
Feeling optimistic after seeing some of the Forest campgrounds earlier in the week, we found a list of the grounds still open. At this point they are not bookable and were on a first come, first served basis so we set off early in search of Peacevalley campground just off the Peak to Peak highway. I got very excited as we climbed higher and higher and the valley became more remote because for the first time on the trip, we saw a ‘beware - moose on the road’ warning sign!
We needn’t have rushed to get there, it was a huge campground with only 4 pitches taken! But it was stunning, situated next a small river in a forest clearing. There were bright orange ‘Bear in the Area’ warnings plastered everywhere and the camp steward confirmed that a female black bear visited the campground most nights. It certainly added an extra level of vigilance when we were BBQing!
With a high population of moose in the area, we set off on an evening hike to a local pond where they have been seen regularly. We waited until almost sunset with no sightings and wanted to get back to the campsite before dark, and it was at that point I heard a rustling in the forest and a huge female moose appeared in a small clearing about 50m away. We had been warned they can be more dangerous than bears, so we stayed still behind a large fence and just calmly watched her as she had a sniff of the air and munched away on leaves. It was our one and only sighting of a moose in 5 weeks.
That night was also one of the most stunning sunsets I have ever seen, the whole sky turned different shades of orange and lit up our path as we meandered our way back to the campground. I think it was one of our most perfect evenings, with a clear sky bursting with stars and the milky way shining through as we sat around a campfire (listening for rustling in the trees that could be the resident bear! She did not appear)
The next couple of days were spent travelling around and exploring some of the iconic Ski villages. Breckinridge was the first, with a bustling quaint Main Street, full of cafes, restaurants and touristy shops. There was a real buzz around the town as they were preparing for the start of the ski season, all they needed was a decent dump of snow which came about a week later. We were tipped off that there was a huge troll hidden in the forest, Isak Heartstone, who was incredibly cool.
Richard wanted to visit a town called Leadville that he had heard of through the mountain biking community. It was like going back in time and such a laid back community, one of the bikes shops had a sign in the window stating that the weather was good so they had closed for a few weeks to go backpacking YOLO!
Another tip off was to take a road called ‘’Independence Pass’ from Leadville to Aspen as it was iconic and due to shut for the season imminently. At 12,095ft, It is one of the highest mountain passes in the country and crosses the continental Divide. There were several warnings that vehicles of over 35ft were not allowed due to the tight switch backs and narrow road that has passing places at one point. Luckily at 25ft we were ok and the switch backs were nothing worse than we had encountered in Europe. The narrowing of the road was interesting at times with a cliff on one side and steep drop on the other, but we did not meet any traffic so all was good! Phew!
Aspen is renowned as one of the most expensive ski resorts in the world and the playground of the billionaires and it was certainly a lot more polished than the other ski towns we had visited. The main streets were lined with high end boutiques such as Gucci and Prada and the 2 beers that we had at the Hotel Jerome were a steep $32 and not even pints! It was quite entertaining though to sit in the lavish lounge and people watch. The fall colours in Aspen were quite spectacular, an intense yellow with a smattering of deep reds lined the streets and each gust of wind sent a flurry of leaves spinning through the air. It was a long day as the nearest campground that was still open was a good hours drive away, luckily we had rang ahead and we got the last pitch.
Our next destination was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and another park campground. We arrived at 12.30 and managed to bag the last spot. It was a little bit of a chaotic first come, first served campground system that led to a couple of unhappy campers who had paid for their pitch, put a little yellow slip, as directed, on their pitch marker then gone of exploring for the day. When they returned someone had removed their little slip of paper and taken their spot and they were about 40 miles from the next campground. I was a little paranoid to take the van out exploring the next day but it was fine.
The Park was incredibly picturesque and based around a huge, deep canyon with steep sided cliffs of streaked rock. The landscape was rugged and blanketed with oak tree shrubs that has already lost their leaves. It is probably the quietest and most under rated of all the national parks and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.
Salida was our next stop on another recommendation from a few fellow travellers. It is a small town on the banks of the River Arkansas. It is a hot bed for river rafting and other water based sports and had a really bohemian vibe to the town. We were just in time to catch the last few days of the stunning fall colours and the reflections of the leaves on the water gave it a golden yellow glow. We spent a lovely evening there eating pizza, drinking beer and watching the world go by. Richard was a little shocked at the fact that there was a man protesting on a street corner with a fully loaded semi automatic about his right to do so with out jeopardy, not something we are used to seeing in the UK.
Walking back to the RV we came across a small herd of mule deer in front of the city hall munching away on the beautifully cultivated lawns. The camp ground at Salida was probably one of the most luxurious we had stayed at on our whole trip. The facilities were brand new and included a club house with TV's and sofas and bottomless drip filter coffee in a communal kitchen area. We liked Salida that much we stayed an extra day!
We were aware at this point that our travels were nearing the end and that we needed to slowly head back towards Denver, so with a quick search of the guide books and maps we plotted a route which passed St Elmo’s ghost town. We nearly did not make it as it was 14 miles down a side road that abrubtly became a dirt track for the last 9 miles. The Cruise America RV does not handle particularly well on rough roads but we persevered as we rattled and shook for 20 minutes! The town was certainly worth it, it has been preserved as it was 100 years ago by local investors and the ramshackled assortment of buildings were great to explore. There was also my favourite part of the town – Chipmonk Crossing. Dozens of the curious and mischievous tiny critters were scurrying around in search of sunflower seeds and nuts that they must be fed as the ground was littered inches deep in shells. They were quite tame creatures and would come and sit on you, it was only after that I thought about the considerable risk of rabies had I been bitten!
Our last 2 nights in the RV were spent just outside of Colorado Springs at a quite dubious Motel campground. We were finding places to stay increasingly hard as the tourist season drew to a close. However, it did give us easy access to 2 fantastic places. We had seen photographs of the Garden of the Gods in our guide book and had decided that it could not be that vivid in colour and that the photo’s had been highly enhanced – but we were wrong! The red rock monoliths towered around the park contrasted against the richness of the vegetation, we visited twice as the contrast of the stormy skies was equally as stunning as the blue skies for taking photographs. We were also rewarded on our second trip as we came across a small herd of big horn sheep.
On our last full day touring, we took the Cog railway to the summit of Pikes Peak. At over 14,000ft we found it quite a challenge just sauntering around. We were breathless and quite light headed and made us realise what a challenge it must be climbing the worlds highest mountains. We were also quite bemused by the fact there was a great big car park and a mountain road leading to the restaurant and gift shop at the top. It was over 4,500m high! (For context Ben Nevis is only 1,345m)
Getting back to the UK was quite a challenge. We had an email from BA stating that our flight was cancelled and we were delayed 24hours! Being early retired, this did not put us in a blind panic as we did not have to get back to the UK for work deadlines, so we booked an airport hotel and went to the pub for the afternoon!
The Friday we were due to take off was 20 degrees and shorts weather, the Saturday forecast was -2 degrees and blizzards, the difference 24hrs can make in the Rockies! Our 2nd flight was luckily only delayed by an hour as the plane had to be defrosted ready for take-off.
Annoyingly, after landing only a few minutes late at Heathrow we were not allowed to go through to our connecting flight even though we had 45 minutes. Instead, we were rebooked on the next available flight nearly 10 hours later with a ‘goodwill’ £10 food voucher each. At this point my goodwill was wavering as we were exhausted and would not get back to Manchester until 10pm Sunday, 36hrs later than planned.
My new motto is ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ so we just chilled out at Heathrow knowing that we should be entitled to €600 each compensation for the delays, which could book us our next American flights ready for our next adventures!
So now we are home and already starting to plan our next adventures - skiing in the French Alps with our family, followed by a few weeks in the van, in the alps...in the winter!
Jackie and Richard
Comments