We have been in Colorado for two weeks now and have called St. Vrain State Park our home during that time. It’s been a very busy two weeks as I had to put in very long hours at the office I manage in Louisville. Since CO State Parks only allow 14 consecutive days of camping, and we could never get ahold of the park manager to see if we could stay longer, we decided to head out Saturday morning. I wanted to get away from it all and not think about work. Robert wanted to do a little road trip.
We were mighty low on propane, so we woke up early Saturday morning and drove the motor home to Longmont. I followed in the Jeep. We decided to park in the Super Wal-Mart parking lot and do some grocery shopping while we waited for the propane business to open (practically connected to Wal-Mart’s parking lot). Robert invited some Missouri friends who happened to be in the area for breakfast.
By the time we shopped, cooked, ate, visited, and got propane, it was about noon and we had no idea where we were headed next. We got out the Colorado state map to decide where to go and after a few minutes of study and discussion, we were headed south to Canon City to see the Royal Gorge. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid in the mid-80s and it had been more than 10 years for Robert.
We had such a nice drive and arrived in the Royal Gorge area about 4:20 p.m. Wouldn’t you know it…all the campgrounds were closed for the season. We called a couple that might have been open, but didn’t get an answer we assumed they were closed.
We still had a bit of daylight left and wanted to park the motor home, unhook the Jeep and tootle around a bit. The more pressing question was “Where to park?” Thought we’d drive back into Canon City and park overnight in the Wal-Mart parking lot, but when I called them, I was told they no longer allow overnight parking.
As we were driving aimlessly, we ended up making a wrong turn off of Highway 50 and went down Highway 9. By the time we found a good place to turn around, we crossed into public lands. We realized later we were on the Gold Belt Scenic Byway passing through a Bureau of Land Management area. Since dusk was fast approaching, we decided to forego any last minute sightseeing for the day and stay at the roadside turnout for the evening. We unhooked the Jeep and turned the motor home around so that we would be all ready to go in the morning. The turnout was huge and we decided that it was as good as a place as any to boondock.
We decided that we would get up early on Sunday and get to the Royal Gorge Visitor’s Center to park, then we would be free to do the tootling we wanted in the Jeep. In the mean time we thought it was entirely too early to turn in for the evening, but we knew we didn’t want to drive the winding roads after dark. We settled down and watched a movie, slept a bit and ended up having to take the dogs out at about midnight. The sky was amazing. We had never seen so many stars. For too long we had been near cities and hadn’t had a chance to experience the true beauty of the night sky. We just wished it wasn’t freezing, because we couldn’t tolerate the cold outside air too long in our jammies.
Sunday morning we were up before dawn and got ready to go as the sun was rising. What an amazing sunrise. The sky was on fire. We got to the Visitor’s Center at the bottom of the mountain off of Highway 50 and Co Rd 3A at about 7 a.m. The center was closed until mid-March, but they have a huge parking lot, which happened to be empty. We weren’t too sure how the road was up to the Bridge, and we felt better parking the motor home and just driving the Jeep.
Although once we officially arrived to the Royal Gorge Park, we found out there is RV and bus parking available, we were so glad that we didn’t drive our motor home all the way up. We were the second guests to arrive at the park. We were able to take some wonderful pictures with no people before the other attractions opened.
We walked and drove the world’s highest suspension bridge, rode the longest single span tram, and the steepest incline railway. It was a beautiful day and we were glad that we caught the attraction off season and avoided any crowds.
We headed back north at about noon to settle in at Chatfield State Park and get ready for another week of work.
