Sunday 8-29 Big Meadows Campground

 

Overcast Afternoon

We woke up to a brisk 46 degrees with a little wind. It felt great. We didn't have any power so I put a lite jacket on.

I made oatmeal for breakfast. We weren't in any hurry to leave because we didn't have far to go. We put things away and were on the road by 7:50 a.m. 

Larry wanted to check a few areas out in the area for camping and hiking. First place was in Del Norte, it was a BLM hiking trail. There really wasn't any place to park an RV, we could have parked in a neighborhood but that would not be ideal. Next up was another BLM area called Elephant Rocks, it was a half mile down a dirt road. Larry drove slow to try to keep from beating the Minnie up. From the description of the place Larry was hoping it would be like City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico. It is gorgeous and has a lot of huge rock formations to camp in. The rocks are red and very picturesque and there is quite a bit of hiking within the rocks. This area was much more plain with small rock formations, there were a couple of places where we could camp but we were not excited about the area. Next we headed to an area with good reviews that had rock climbing and Native American carvings. The roads to this area were very rough and when we got to the gate we discovered we would have to travel about three more miles down a dirt road. Nope, not interested.

We have been in this area before and have enjoyed camping at Big Meadows Campground so that is where we headed. We stopped in South Fork, at Rainbow Express to fill up the Minnie. From there we passed by Fun Valley Resort where we have wonderful memories of square dancing and camping, unfortunately they no longer offer square dancing. From the highway we could see the square dance hall and the area where square dancers camped, the area was empty. A few more miles up the road is Big Meadows Campground. It sits above a small mountain lake, it has hiking, campsites with fire pits and picnic tables but no power or water, some sites are first come first serve. Our site has a great view of the lake. The rest rooms are pit toilets but very clean. We are not sure how long we will be here but we started off paying for three nights.  

 

A view of the lake from our site

Larry set up the solar panel so we can have a bit of extra power. So far it is working super, time will tell how much it helps and of course you need sun for it to work. We're very excited about using the solar panel.

There is some cell service in this campground but the signal is weak and sometimes it disappears. Fortunately for me we had enough power and cell service to allow me to play my games. The computer uses quite a bit of power so I might have to cut back on the game playing.

We spent the afternoon reading. I played my games. I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Spider). It took me 2 hours and 59 seconds to complete, which put me in 24th place in my group.

In the evening Larry and I hiked the trail around the lake. It is over 3 miles long and took about an hour. We only planned to go on a short walk but ended up going further. As we hiked we saw people fishing off the banks and in small blow up boats. We met people on the trail and met a couple of dogs. The trail is very nice and well used, you do have to be careful of the rocks, tree roots and fallen trees. At times you had to cross over a creek via a bridge. We had a super hike.

Wildflowers on the hiking trail

After resting a bit I walked around the campground for about an hour. In the afternoon we had some sprinkles and come evening we had a mountain shower for about fifteen minutes. After it stopped I finished my steps. I ended up doing 25,000 steps, which put me in 8th place for the week with 177,069 steps.