9-13 Junction Creek Campground

Junction Creek Campground

Before leaving Big Meadow Larry and I went on a hike. The trail took us around the lake and was very nice. We were glad that it wasn’t too strenuous considering we were at 9300 feet in elevation. It took us through trees, over fallen trees, through creeks and over a few bridges. It was a little cool when we started the hike but at the end it was warming up. As we hiked we saw Canadian geese swimming in the lake and a couple of beautiful blue jays. The lake was so flat you could see the trees and geese reflections in it. We saw a couple of walls of rocks that looked like they were man made so we checked it out. There was a door laying against one side so we figured it was an old shelter or an old mine entrance. The hike was over three miles long and took a little over an hour and a half. We had a great hike.
 

Larry on one of the bridges we crossed during our hike

The structure we saw

Big Meadow Lake

Canadian Geese

 After our hike we got ready to go to our next adventure in Colorado. We had a wonderful stay at Big Meadow Campground in the Rio Grande National Forrest.

A view from the overview

Chimney Top National Monument

One of the tunnels we drove through

Today Larry drove a little over 100 miles, we didn’t intend to go that far. We started down the road towards Pagosa Springs and drove by Wolf Creek, a ski resort. We drove through a couple of tunnels and drove through a magnificent mountain range. We stopped outside of Pagosa Springs at a scenic overview of the countryside. Then we went into Pagosa Springs for fuel and lunch. We were about 30 miles from our first destination, which was Lower Piedra Campground. Before getting there we drove through another campground called Ute but it was run down so we didn’t stop. We had seen a sign for Chimney Rock National Monument so we decided to check it out. We got to the entrance gate and found a long gravel road to the visitor center so we decided to leave. We saw the monument from the road. In order to get to Lower Piedra Campground you had to take a mile long gravel road, which wasn’t too bad. It was a beautiful campground and we would have been the only ones there but we decided to go to Junction Creek, which is located right outside of Durango. The road to the campground was also a gravel road for about three miles and it was rough and a times very tight. It was a very pretty campground but very busy. We drove around for awhile and was ready to leave when the host came around and asked if we needed help. He told us the sites that were halfway level and available. Then we found a site and setup for the night.