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Our annual April Fruita trip was a little different this go-round than usual. We showed up on a Thursday, thinking we’d secure a camp spot in the “real” 18 Rd campground. Alas, we were at least one day late to the party as all spots were full. So… now what? There’s a dispersed camping area on the other side of the road that we have taken to calling “Burning Man” just because of the assumed chaos of it. It’s a bit of a free-for-all with people parking wherever they feel like it. There are some rules but who knows how / if they’re followed.

The view to the North from our spot.

View from up above showing only a partial view of the area. The most density wound up being south of our spot.

Since we were meeting some people to ride 18 Rd and we didn’t really want to wander out to Rabbit Valley we thought, sure, let’s give this a try. I mean, we’ve got “facilities” and are otherwise self-contained so why not?

The view south at sunset.

Thursday was pretty mellow and we were surprised to see how many families there were. It definitely filled up for the weekend but everybody was, honestly, pretty well behaved. It was mostly quiet after 10pm and other than the occasional it-can’t-be-THAT-funny guy belly laugh or chatting voices in the distance, it was pretty nice actually. There was some epic people watching and lots of friendly dogs. There were definitely a few people we were happy we were not camped right next to but they were outnumbered by all the other mellow folks. Drawbacks: it was really dusty and there was no privacy. Everything is covered in a fine layer of dust. Think dry wall sanding kind of coverage. Can I hose down the inside of the camper? Hmmmmm…. Would I do it again? Maybe. Do I regret doing it this time? Nope. It worked out better than anticipated for sure.

Shhhh…

The view south on Saturday, which was the busiest day.

Oh yeah… why we came out here in the first place… the riding! We rode our “usual” Prime Cut -> Kessel Run first ride of the season which was, as always, pretty fun although I had no energy for some reason. The day was gorgeous so we had that going for us. Next day we rode Western Zippity -> Frontside -> Kessel Run. Western Zip is really pretty cool.

Western Zippity.

Frontside.

We got views of the valley we don’t see otherwise and it’s a nice, rolling trail. Frontside (heading East), however… is not so much fun. Between the cow depressions from when it was obviously muddy to the seemingly endless hike-a-bike hills, I was not a fan. I think this would be a fun ride to do if we rode Western Zip (which could probably easily suffer from the same cow depressions) as an out and back with parts of the west part of Frontside tossed in just to see what that’s like. Next trip.

Sunday saw some rain and we opted to pack up and head to New Castle via a drive through the Monument. We first stopped at Snooks Bottom Open Space for a quick walk. We saw an osprey and a great blue heron.

Once we arrived in New Castle (quick 1ish hour drive) we found a great Forest Service access / trail (Centennial Trail) where we walked Lula after checking in to the Ore House Inn. We, of course, got rained on and even a little hail, but it was really a pretty trail.

It’s not often I see moss covered rocks in Colorado.

We were in the “Area 51” themed room which had come awesome murals and artwork of all things sci-fi. Capped the evening with watching Star Wars Episode IV and then an easy trip home.

Couple of shots from the highway of the avalanche zones on I-70. A few of these buried the road and a few cars this winter.

She got in the kayak without much hesitation and didn’t seem too nervous. But she settled ok. Especially if she could go from kayak to kayak. Transfers worked ok, she only slipped off once but with the PFD and handle she didn’t fall all the way in.

Who’s a good dog?

She’s either getting used to this kayak thing… or gave up.

Labor Day weekend took us to Crested Butte for a few days. We, as always, had a great time hanging out with some friends in a condo for the weekend while attempting to mountain bike.

Crested Butte is one of those places where the scenery doesn’t look real in person, much less in photos.

Riding 401 trail

Dog walk at the Copper Creek trail.

We left the Butte and headed South to Medano Pass, which is a 4 wheel drive “primitive road” that winds up in the Great Sand Dunes National Monument… eventually. Road definitely had some interesting spots but the truck did great (thank you Slee Off-road, Toyota and Fred’s skills). We grabbed a good first camp site since it was getting to be late afternoon and we were getting close to the park.

I think we saw one other vehicle that drove by and that was it. We were on our own. Yup, that is a bear box in the last picture. Loved the spot but the 2am bathroom break was a little intimidating surrounded by all those bushes and trees. So… we moved 1/10 mile down the road to another campsite that was more open and a little further off the road.

That was better. We saw a few more vehicles go by including a couple that started down our “driveway” but turned around once they saw us. Still a pretty quiet spot.

From there it was on to the park!

The dunes are up to 850′ tall.

View from Molas pass trail.

The best view is from the Visitor Center.

Off to Zapata Falls Campground. This was a great campground with amazing views of the San Luis Valley with the San Juans in the distance.

We could have stayed there another night. Especially if we attempted to hike to the falls. But, we decided to break up the drive home and headed to Buena Vista.

The drive down from the campground had some pretty nice views of the dunes.

We wound up at Cottonwood Lake Campground… which really is more lake “adjacent” than on the lake. This is a nice campground with lovely views and good sites. Our site had some privacy with the table and fire ring down a few stairs. Unfortunately, the old camper further down the hill from us had a super loud generator which the owners ran basically all day. After all the quiet and solitude we had just had, that was tough to take. Note that further down the forest road past the campground there are dispersed sites available.

Fly fishing class we guessed. Pretty funny to see this line of identically geared people walking through the middle of the lake.

It’s April… must be time to head to Fruita. This time we decided to check out the 18 Rd campground. We found a nice spot with no close South neighbors.

Friday was a little cold… there were snow squalls off in the distance which blew some snow flakes on us when we did our short ride down Kessel Run with Lula.

Like that snow squall…

Sunset was lovely though!

Saturday was a nicer day with a good ride down PBR and back up Prime Cut. Lula was a champ and kept up although she wasn’t quite ready for the almost 5 mile ride / run.

We added a “Luminoodle” to the inside of the camper for some nice ambient light. It was especially useful at o’dark-thirty bathroom runs.

Nice location. With the exception of noisy north neighbors (uggghhhh), it was a perfect spot.

Lula looking lovely in her test Trail Mitts.

Sunday was the warmest day. We left Lula in the camper while we did another Kessel Run to Prime Cut ride. We would camp there again. I think we just got unlucky with the one bad neighbor. The rest of the campground was quiet.

Finally! We get to camp here.

What do you do with a dog that’s not a big fan of traveling in the truck for long distances? Instead of sitting in my lap (love her… but a 50 lb wiggly fur ball gets old after a few hours), we built a platform which let her be close but not in a lap.

Really was a nice spot. We could only see one other camper until Friday night when a desperate camper grabbed a “spot” by us.

Sunset on the Colorado River.

Our little mountain goat climbs every rock she can find.

More views from the site.

We were lucky to be out there during the full moon.

Another gorgeous sunset.

Springtime in the desert.

Happy dog.

Shhhhhhhh…

Lula waits patiently in the camper for Fred to return from his bike ride.

McDonald Creek Trail hike.

Of course she finds a puddle to hang out in.

Looking back at the campground area from the end of the McDonald creek trail.

Last trip of the season for us. Quick trip back to Pinewood Reservoir. In the “best” spot in our opinion.

Sunset.

The spot has decent privacy especially back at the picnic table.

Sunrise… time for a hike.

Love the seed heads on these mountain mahogany shrubs.

That’s a wrap on the season.

This was a non-camping trip but our first actual foray to Palisade. Fred rode the Tour of the Moon ride which went over the Colorado National Monument. We stayed in a cute Airbnb house on Main Street.

Cool truck outside one of the wineries. We discovered the awesome distillery and brewpub and never actually made it to a winery for tastings.

The view from the Palisade Rim Trail. A few hardy souls trying to bike this but in our opinion it’s too much of a slog. Great hike though.

Mary’s Loop!

Ahhh, Hot Tomato.

Finally we get to Crested Butte. On our way there, we stopped at Taylor Park Reservoir just to check it out. We liked it so much we decided to spend a night.

The view.

Our site.

Made the next day a short one to Crested Butte. Having never camped there before we had a few options. The camp host at Taylor Park told us the area we were targeting to camp had been closed down due to misuse. So, we went to Oh Be Joyful campground, a free, no reservation area.

This will definitely do.

Lula approves.

Crossing the stream we hiked the Oh Be Joyful trail that goes up the Slate River with beautiful views.

Mount Crested Butte.

More views from the trail. Officially entering the Raggeds Wilderness area. Imagine our surprise when we rounded a corner and bumped into a herd of cattle. Who knew?!

Even the view on the road leading away from our campground was amazing.

Snug as a bug.

We HAD to drive through the river on our way out of the campground since the trailhead for the hike was on the other side as well as some camp sites.

We wanted to drive up the road to check out the dispersed camping. The views!

Just a little view at 11,000′. There is some dispersed camping to be had up here as well as a number of dirt roads leading all over.

Crested Butte is known for their wild flowers and it did not disappoint, even in early August.

Finally, a warm camping trip! Although… it was a little TOO warm Thursday afternoon but hey, no thermal underwear, gloves or hats for sitting outside at night around the fire.

Lula, surveying our view from campsite #1 (Wed night – Thursday morning).

Shhhhhh…..

We continued on the 2 mile trail that goes around the reservoir.

There is a nesting pair of osprey here! We were lucky enough to see one of them fishing Thursday night and Friday morning. Thursday night we could see one of the camp hosts out in the reservoir on her kayak and the osprey snatched a fish right in front of her. I wonder if that’s one of the perks listed in the job posting.