9-17 Camping at Vallecito Campground

Got up this morning and decided to make pancakes for breakfast, normally I do very well at pancakes but for some reason today I had troubles, made three and all of them were over done, must be the stove, surely it couldn’t have been me. Larry stared at his. Before we left Sky Ute Casino I went back to the casino to gamble a little and gave the casino another $3. I was there for about an hour. I was having so much fun that I hated to leave but I had to get back to Larry and Flo. Next I went over to the spa area and took a shower, after that we got the Minnie ready to leave. Check-out time wasn’t until 11 and we weren’t going too far so we weren’t in any hurry. Once the Minnie was ready we were on the road again.

On the way to our next destination was to get propane at Walker’s Hardware. The customer service was excellent. Before we even got to the propane filling station an employee was already there. He was very friendly. When Larry went inside to pay the other employees were also friendly. Larry said that the store was immaculate. Once we got the propane we were back in business.

Vallecito Lake

The river that runs by our site

Larry barbecuing

Flo keeping Larry company while he barbecues

Our next destination was Vallecito Campground in the San Juan National Forest. Larry had programmed the campground in our GPS and it gave us a route but he found a shorter one. So he reprogrammed it. The route took us to Vallecito Lake but once we crossed over the dam the road turned to dirt so we turned around and went the other route which was blacktop and it went through a cute town. Vallecito Campground is gorgeous with a lot of tall pine trees, big camping sites, a hiking trail and a river that runs by some of the sites. We found a site and setup the Minnie for a couple of nights.

Larry hiking the trail

Larry standing on a bridge at the beginning of the trail.

Once we were setup we took Flo for a walk around the campground. When we got back we had lunch. After lunch Larry and I went to checkout the hiking trail. Larry had read some reviews on it, some said it was strenuous and others said it wasn’t that bad. We started at the trail head in the hiking trail parking lot. The trail took us around the campground. When we got to where the trail actually started we found out that there was another entrance from the campground which was a lot shorter. We hiked a little ways and found out that the trail wasn’t too strenuous. We rested a little bit and then went back to Flo. When we got back we relaxed on our chairs until it was dinnertime. Then we took Flo for another walk. When we got back Larry barbecued a couple of HEB Brisket Hatch Chili Burgers. After dinner Larry and I walked around the loops that were closed then sat in our chairs until it started to get chilly. Before going inside we took Flo for a short walk. While inside the host came around to collect the camping fee. They told me that the site we were in was more expensive because it was by the river, the sign at the front of the campground only listed one price for a campsite. I had already written out the check so they decided to let us have the site for the cheaper price. If they would have insisted on more money we would have simply moved across the road. But it worked out great this way. We had a great day .