Saturday, July 08, 2006
Another beautiful, wet day
This morning we awoke to more rain at Ridgeway. We had pancakes, packed up and left. We passed through Montrose and stopped at a Super WalMart where we got an iPod charger so that we could listen to the iPod in the motorhome (we have iPod docks built into the trailer and Suburban, so I hadn’t brought a charger).
We stopped along the side of the road just beyond Gunnison and made lunch. We arrived at Monarch Park at 1:30. It was as beautiful as advertised. You drive a mile and a half out a dirt road. At the campground entrance there are a number of beaver ponds. Our campsite (#25) was along the creek and was gorgeous. However, there was a problem. It was pouring rain, and it looked as though it had been raining for a long time and the sky looked like it was going to continue for a long time. So after some thought, we decided to drive on to Mueller State Park near Colorado Springs where we were supposed to be tomorrow night. It was very disappointing because Monarch Park was gorgeous, but it seemed like we’d probably stay inside the whole time we were there, so we thought we might as well be driving if we were going to sit inside.
We took Hwy 24 and made it to Mueller by 4:30. It rained just about the whole way, but stopped as we arrived at Mueller. It turns out Mueller is an incredible place. It’s a huge park. There are tons of hiking and biking trails and about 150 campsites. All the sites are very private and back up to forest (as opposed to more sites). In addition all the sites I saw had electrical hookups. It’s just stunning.
So far, of the campgrounds we’ve been to in Colorado, I’d love to return to Molas Lake, Monarch Park and Mueller State Park. We had lots of rain in all 3 places, so it would be great to come back and see them when it’s drier.
Now we have a couple of days in this area, so we’ll be able to do more things. There are so many choices. We have horseback reservations for Monday morning.
We stopped along the side of the road just beyond Gunnison and made lunch. We arrived at Monarch Park at 1:30. It was as beautiful as advertised. You drive a mile and a half out a dirt road. At the campground entrance there are a number of beaver ponds. Our campsite (#25) was along the creek and was gorgeous. However, there was a problem. It was pouring rain, and it looked as though it had been raining for a long time and the sky looked like it was going to continue for a long time. So after some thought, we decided to drive on to Mueller State Park near Colorado Springs where we were supposed to be tomorrow night. It was very disappointing because Monarch Park was gorgeous, but it seemed like we’d probably stay inside the whole time we were there, so we thought we might as well be driving if we were going to sit inside.
We took Hwy 24 and made it to Mueller by 4:30. It rained just about the whole way, but stopped as we arrived at Mueller. It turns out Mueller is an incredible place. It’s a huge park. There are tons of hiking and biking trails and about 150 campsites. All the sites are very private and back up to forest (as opposed to more sites). In addition all the sites I saw had electrical hookups. It’s just stunning.
So far, of the campgrounds we’ve been to in Colorado, I’d love to return to Molas Lake, Monarch Park and Mueller State Park. We had lots of rain in all 3 places, so it would be great to come back and see them when it’s drier.
Now we have a couple of days in this area, so we’ll be able to do more things. There are so many choices. We have horseback reservations for Monday morning.
# posted by Craig @ 7:14 PM 
