Sunday 9-7-25 New Campground, Hiking & Weather

 

Water pump at Silver Lake Campground

We had another super day visiting Medicine Bow National Forest. 

 

We spent two nights in Ryan Park Campground. Today we moved up the mountain 10 miles to Silver Lake Campground. Ryan Park was at 8,300 feet in elevation and Silver Lake is 10,200 feet elevation. We'll be here for two nights.

 

We woke up to the temperature in the low 40's. I got out of bed at 7:15. 

 

We weren't going far and wanted to let the other campers have a chance to pack up their stuff. I made premade biscuits in the oven for breakfast. I put things away and put a cooler together. 

We walked the campground trail, it is a bit less than a mile. 

 

We read until 10:30. Then we finished putting things away and secured. Then we got on the road again. We arrived at Silver Lake at 11:15. We parked the Minnie in a campsite, that was level and waited. There was another site we preferred because it has a view of the lake. Once the other camper left we walked over to check it out. While there a gentleman started to talk to us. He was out of the Dallas area. While I continued talking to him Larry went and got the Minnie. This site wasn't as level as the other one but we only had to block the driver side one block higher. The site is huge and has terrific views. It also has easy access to the short trail around the lake.

 

After setting up the Minnie we had lunch. While eating lunch we saw the skies getting dark. Then we had a quick mountain shower of hail and rain. It was very quick about five minutes. We discussed if wanted to stay one or two nights because this campground has two hiking trails. One goes to Meadows Falls, which is a 3.7 mile loop and the other one is Silver Lake , which is 1.3 mile loop. We decided to stay two nights.

 

We have no cell connection so Larry setup the Starlink. The Starlink uses a lot of power so Larry setup a set of solar panels to keep the batteries charged. We also have no power. Thank you honey for setting up the Starlink. 

 

We continued reading our books. About 2:30 we decided to go down to entrance of the campground and pay. We decided to hike Silver Lake Trail. The trail took us around the lake. A couple of places we had to use a small bridge to get across an arm of the lake. We also walked over a couple of boardwalks. We hiked through the trees and along the banks of Silver Lake. At the beginning we climbed down granite steps to the lake. We had to be careful because there were loose rocks. The trail has some rocks in it. Before doing the trail we said hi to a couple. While we were hiking we met up with the lady. Larry asked if they had lost a fishing net, we had seen one laying on the bank. She said they had just arrived and it wasn't theirs. She said she was going to hike the trail while her husband fished. There is a trail at our site that takes you to Silver Lake Trail. Instead of hiking to the campground entrance when we got to it we took it back to the Minnie. The trail was very well used and moderate. We had a beautiful hike.

 

 

 

Silver Lake

 

 

 

One of the bridges on the trail

 

Hiking trail terrain

Granite rock on Silver Lake trail 

We got back just in time because we had another small rain shower. The clouds continued to roll in and out for the rest of the day. 

We spent the rest of the day reading.

 

Relaxing with a good book

  

After dinner we went on a half hour walk around the campground and to find where we can pickup tomorrow's hiking trail to Meadow Falls. Larry wants to walk it the opposite direction, than other hikers usually hike the trail. It was a very nice walk. 

By the end of the day I had done 10,000 steps.