Colorado Nat’l Monument to Basalt

Just wandering around…

I left SW Colorado and headed north with hopes of less rain. I was partially successful. Once out of the mountains and into the more arid part of the state, the clouds were still there but the rain barely fell.

I went from this (above) outside Telluride to this (below).

To get to CNM, I took a winding road up from the Fruita area. This deposits one on a near flat-top mesa. Of course, that means as the weather swept through at night, my little trailer was getting buffeted by the winds up there. Vaguely reminiscent of being on the boat in port when the weather picked up. Harry and I slept fairly soundly. (Yes, I miss the boat.)

The next morning we stopped for yours truly to grab a shower at an RV park, and were then off again towards Glenwood Springs. Once there I had to decide to camp somewhere, or simply continue on. I continued on.

Basalt

We rolled into Basalt to find a somewhat cute town, mostly modern, with nothing much happening. I stopped by local law enforcement to inquire about camping in the town for the night and was told that would get me a fine. No reason to stay where I’m not wanted, so we took off to the east along a two lane road, headed towards the Ruedi Reservoir.

While I thought I might find dispersed camping out there, instead I paid $15 for a nice USFS site. Real (clean) bathrooms, bear boxes for your food (definitely bear country), and an overall beautiful place to be! Like every night we had a bit of rain, but not much. I did learn that with the design of the camper roof, if you’re not flat, the roof will leak a tiny bit. That “drip…drip…drip” sound that’s just loud enough to annoy you as you try to go to sleep. When I get a dry day I’ll have that fixed in no time!

A view of the reservoir as I left this morning. I could see a little bit of that from my campsite.

The road out (and back) parallels a lovely river in a fairly narrow canyon. Those who own houses along the way truly have a little piece of paradise out there, though I imagine winters can be a bit rough.

Lots of lovely places along the way to stop for pictures of the river. Very big with the fly fishermen too!

This morning before I left I met a guy who also owns a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon like Harry. A much smaller 3 year old female. She’s very cute!

Today I made it to Aspen. More on that in the future.