13 days in Ridgway State Park…
After staying put in Nathrop for over four months, it was strange to move! The longer we stay in one place, the more things we acquire, and the more things get displaced. It took us 2 or 3 days to prepare everything for the move. The RV skirt was easier to take down than we thought. It only took about 90 minutes!
We took our home to Holiday RV in Poncha Springs for a few repairs. Lance and the gang treated us wonderfully and made us confident things were in good shape when we left.
While we were homeless, we went to the Front Range to visit family and resupply.
We had some good adventures with our friend, Brian. As usual, he guided us to some cool spots and great food in the Colorado Springs area!
A hike with Brian and Maggie around Garden of the Gods
Playing at the penny arcade in Manitou Springs
I also got to take my nephew, Jordan, geocaching…his first time. The little guy found 5 caches and walked 4 and a half miles around Pulpit Park!
My nephew, Jordan’s, first geocaching adventure
We found 5 geocaches in Pulpit Park!
We took Heather and Izzy to Pulpit Park the next day…she liked the Mr. Potato Head geocache!
After we hitched the trailer in Poncha Springs, we raced against weather over 11,000 foot high Monarch Pass. We won that battle, but big heavy, wet snow flakes enveloped us in Gunnison. It was a white knuckle drive for the next 50 miles but thankfully, the snow didn’t stick on the pavement! As we dropped into Montrose, the snow changed to rain and we relaxed a bit. The temperature was in the upper 30s and it rained as we set up camp in Ridgway State Park… yuck!
Big heavy wet snow flakes near Blue Mesa Reservoir
Ridgway State Park, elevation 7,000 feet, is about 25 miles south of Montrose, 6 miles north of the town of Ridgway, and 15 miles north of Ouray. The state park is great! All of the roads and campsites are paved, and most sites have electric. The campsites are large with plenty of space between sites. Though water is not available at every site, there are enough dispersed spigots to hook up from many sites. There is a convenient dump station just inside the park. During the off-season, only one loop is open. Between the 10-15 miles of hiking trails and closed campground loops, walking our 4-legged friend was very enjoyable. The views were spectacular, there were tons of deer, a few eagles, and we even spotted fresh mountain lion tracks (confirmed by a Park Ranger) in one of the closed loops! The park has multiple laundry facilities, but they were also closed. That’s alright…the town of Ridgway had a decent laundromat. On a 1-5 scale, we give Ridgway State Park a 5. The only things we’d add would be wi-fi (rare in state and federal campgrounds) and more full hook-up sites.
Ridgway Reservoir and the Sneffels Range…beautiful!
Our home in Ridgway State Park with 14,157 foot Mt Sneffels on the right
Weather in the Rockies is always a crap shoot, even more so in spring and fall when things go from quite comfortable to quite miserable in a hurry. The week before our arrival, Ridgway was 10 degrees above normal with temps around 60 degrees. During the bulk of our stay, temps were below average and included a few days with lows around 5 degrees and highs in the upper 20s, roughly 15 degrees below normal!
One of Ridgway’s claims to fame is John Wayne’s movie “True Grit”. Much of it was filmed in the area. We enjoyed eating at the True Grit Café and were mesmerized when we gazed at the incredible Cimarron Mountain Range and Chimney Rock that were featured in many of the movie’s scenes.
A fun meal at the True Grit Café in Ridgway
Me with Chimney Rock to the left Screen capture from True Grit…Ned Pepper and his gang
Hikes and Geocaching…We attempted a hike or two, but the slick and sloppy conditions were more than we could handle. We only found one geocache and it was a good one! The person that placed it, proposed to his sweetheart there. The view was incredible…a great place for a proposal!
A geocache on Log Hill…looking south towards Mt Sneffels Range and east towards Cimarron Range
Ouray bills itself as “Switzerland of America”. Its national historic downtown is tucked into a dramatic steep-walled box canyon. It’s also known for its 4-wheel drive routes and hot springs. We couldn’t drive any of the rough routes, but we did enjoy one of the hot springs: The Wiesbaden. The “vapor cave” was relaxing, interesting, and intense with 108 degree water. We could only tolerate two short soaks before we headed outside to the 100 degree pool. We had the place to ourselves and reveled in comfort surrounded by incredible scenery!
Soaking at the Wiesbaden Hot Springs in Ouray
We also hiked part of Ouray’s perimeter trail. We watched a couple of ice climbers and checked out Box Canyon Falls.
Arleen on the Perimeter Trail with “The Amphitheater” in the background / Box Canyon Falls / An ice climber
Looking south over Ouray from the Perimeter Trail
One of the main reasons we came here was to fish the Uncompahgre River. The tail-water fishery below Ridgway Reservoir is catch and release for trout. You can usually expect catch and release water to hold sizable fish, but you can also expect those fish to be difficult to catch. I hooked three nice 15-17 inch trout and Arleen got skunked. We also fished Ridgway Reservoir. 95% of the lake was frozen, but there was open water where the river entered the lake. We worked the ice line with lake leaches and hooked 6 or 7 stocked rainbows. Sometimes fishing like this can yield excellent results…we were happy just to have some action. The bird watching was more entertaining than the fishing. We watched two eagles soar above the lake, land in nearby pinon pines, and then take flight to soar over the lake again. A great blue heron flew by us low and slow a couple of times. And pretty ducks in formations of twos, fours, and sixes flew by on a regular basis. It was a great way to spend a comfortable spring day!
First trout of 2013! 15 inch Uncompahgre River rainbow / Fishing the ice line on Ridgway Reservoir
Trip to Telluride…
Telluride is a cool town with a great ski resort. Arleen had never been, and I visited once, about 20 years ago.
It was an easy and scenic 45 mile drive from our temporary home in Ridgway State Park. We picked a warm 50 degree day with bright blue skies…perfect! “Spring conditions”, i.e. slushy snow, were prevalent after noon or so. It was so easy and fun to carve that Arleen even tackled two tough expert runs: “Plunge” and “Bushwacker”! The views from the “See Forever” ski route might be the best of any ski run in the United States…not to mention that it’s super fun! The resort is big and we left lots unexplored. However, we racked up 10,000 feet of downhill with little effort. Our last run accounted for nearly a third of that as we dropped rapidly from almost 12,000 feet to 8,700 feet…it was awesome!
WHERE WE GOT OUR MAIL
Ridgway CO
This area is one of the prettiest in the US! Outdoor activities and amazing views are endless. Unfortunately, between poor weather and feeling under the weather, there was much we didn’t do. No worries…we made a vow to spend a month here during some future summer.
Speaking of weather, we have had enough of winter! It will be so nice to walk our four-legged friend and not have to grab coat, gloves, and a hat every time. Winter clothes are headed to the back of the closet…yay! Bring on summer!
After being in southern Colorado for ten months, it’s time to move on. We plan to check out Utah for the next year or two! These are the places we expect to stay in the next year: Blanding, Needles Outpost (Canyonlands National Park), Moab, Dead Horse State Park, Goblin Valley State Park, Junction, Torrey, Pine Lake, Bryce Canyon National Park, Kents Lake, Panguitch Lake, Escalante, North Rim Grand Canyon, Kanab, Lees Ferry AZ, Zion National Park, Valley of Fire State Park NV, and split the winter between Cedar City and Beaver. We are excited…life is great!
Parting shots…
The view from our front window shortly after we arrived / Our alert friend posing during his morning walk
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