Tag: Boyd Lake State Park

Iowa to Colorado to Utah

After Mark Twain Lake we headed back to Iowa to visit family. We got to have dinner with all the Iowa kids and grandkids and spent some time just wandering around the area. We even went to see a couple of condo/town houses to see what the market point looks like. Eventually we intend on moving back there so the kids can watch our house/condo while we are gone for months at a time LOL!

Leaving Iowa we spent the first night at a Walmart parking lot in Grand Island, NE. I really don’t like staying in parking lots, but I also don’t like spending $30 or more for a few hours sleep. We then headed to Boyd Lake State Park in Loveland, CO. We had hoped for stay 3 nights, visiting Rocky Mountain National Park too. It is a nice campground, but the gate attendant put us in a site only available for two nights. Rather than moving to another spot in the campground, we decided to go on our way. We had a great trip to Rocky, though for only one day. The weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. Trail Ridge road opened up to Rainbow Curve, and we drove up it as far as we could.

2855A5D9-D8B3-4B43-B646-21006FD08B1BThe scenery is always gorgeous.

429D7253-5CA7-4045-A84A-773DE39B8349I particularly liked this rock at the Bear Lake Trailhead.

07B1900F-37DF-4900-AE80-67CFEC285C65A Gray Jay came by to see if I was sloppy with snacks (I wasn’t). I walked a little of the Bear Lake trail then went to enjoy the sunshine while Kevin walked around the lake.

D5D96B7C-CB19-4A39-8B83-B24F0F51F193Looking across Horseshoe Park is always lovely.

14ACA446-0C08-447E-B933-A714B43715B4There was certainly snow in the high country.

After leaving Loveland we headed south on the Peak to Peak Highway. It was slow and lovely, well worth the extra time. We eventually got to I-70 and headed west. We spent Tuesday night at Colorado River State Park in western Colorado. It was lovely and mostly empty this time of year, though I think it would be almost unbearably hot in the summer. The park ranger seemed lonely and was happy to see us! He said the park has sites open all year and even has water in the winter available at the entry office. We will definitely remember this place for spring and fall trips.

23B1E647-5881-4A9E-876B-2E32E432F31EI love the cliffs.

24DD15C9-9520-4384-B3B8-DBD47A3A36EEThe cottonwoods were a brilliant gold.

6E9F2108-9669-4ACF-B3E6-B72535A8ACB0There was a nice path along the the river. We road our bikes around and around the campground and along the river.

We finally got home on Wednesday (yesterday). I love travel, but it sure is nice to be home. Kevin got a bad surprise this morning though. As he was getting the propane tank off the trailer he noticed two shackles were broken on an axle! The RV place couldn’t get us in time, so he found an axle specialist who says it can be done in time for our next trip in a week. I hope!

I hate being sick

In my last post (a very long time ago!) I noted I had a bad cold. That bad cold morphed into a truly horrid sinus infection, and I have not posted our locations since then. Here is an update.

17-20 February: We ended up in Loveland, CO at Boyd Lake State Park the nights of 17-19 February. It is a very nice park in the middle of a housing addition, rather odd but ok. It was expensive since there is a park entry fee in addition to the camping fee so we paid $34 for a water and electric site. It was roomy and much nicer than the parks in town, so I don’t regret the money. Of course, I was sick the entire 3 nights we were there so I don’t remember much either. We did go to Rocky Mountain National Park, and that made enough of an impression that I have some memories of it.

Gorgeous as usual. It was the first time we have been there in the winter, but it was very warm with only a little snow in the lower elevations.

20-21 February: After Loveland we took I-25 to Sugarite State Park in New Mexico. We camped one night in the Lake Alice campground, the only campground open. The sites are small, the roads are dirty, and there was a boil order for the water, but it was set in a lovely piñon forested area. The cost was incredible at only $18 for a full hookup site (though no water). My sinus infection was getting worse, and I couldn’t do any walks let alone hike. The canyon had a number of historic sites, but all I could see were the ones viewable from the road. I basically stayed in the trailer and coughed my lungs out. I didn’t even take any pictures.

21-24 February: Off to Albuquerque and an Urgent Care center! We camped at our favorite Albuquerque campground, the KOA North in Bernalillo. It isn’t as fancy as some of the newer ones on the west side of town, but has nice people and doesn’t feel like a parking lot even though the sites aren’t large. We stayed three nights, and I got to a doctor. After Z-pack antibiotics and codeine cough syrup, I decided I would survive. I basically just hibernated the entire three days though.

24-28 February: (OK, it is just 27 February now, but we will be leaving in the morning.) The weather was warmer down south, so there we went. We ended up a few miles south of Alamogordo, NM at Oscar Lee State Park. What an absolutely gorgeous place and only $10 a night for a large, well separated dry campsite. This is the first time since Quartzsite that the weather and I both were good! Warm but windy meant I could sit outside and finally kick the  infection. Alamogordo is a pretty poor town, and we didn’t enjoy it at all. We did get to the city museum (quite nice) and the International Space Museum which was very good. Kevin and I worked in Aerospace for many years, and we related to many of the displays. I didn’t get any pictures there, but I should have!

The road into Dog Canyon where the park is.

The view off our campsite. Lots of variety in the desert flora. We have also seen roadrunners and Gambrel’s Quail.

Yesterday I actually did a short nature walk here at the park. We also went on a tour of the historic home of the park’s namesake. 

The house has been reconstructed, but it was hard to have anything but sympathy for the people who were making a living in this very tough and unforgiving land. They were successful, but what challenges they must have had! We also went to White Sands National Monument. I was there as a teenager with my family, but Kevin had never been.

 

Umm. I sure can see a difference in the quality of the pictures I took with my camera (RMNP) and the ones from the iPhone (all the rest of them). It is a pain to transfer the pictures from the camera to the iPad I post to the blog from, but I may just have to do it more often.

We leave tomorrow morning (28 February). The current plan (subject to change tomorrow morning) is to head to Las Cruces and I-10 tomorrow morning. I have no idea where we will end up, but that is part of the fun.