To South Fork Campground, South Fork, Co

 

As we left Target Tree we came upon a Doe and two fawns...one fawn is in this picture just to the left, behind a green bush, of its mother...the third went somewhere nearby, but out of camera range.  We got a picture of all three that I took, but it was blurry.

Got on highway 160 and fairly quickly we came to Durango.  This is the Animas River as you come into Durango.  At Durango we stopped at a Walmart for new house batteries.  Our last day at Target Tree we struggled holding a charge with our 5 year old house batteries.  Walmart had a special on their EverStart Marine & RV 27DC 750 MCA for $94 each.  Paid a core charge of $12  each for the two I bought, and off we were to get gas.  

 

Just outside of Durango there is a brand new Maverik Gas Station and gas was $3.85 per gallon!  Back on highway 160 and follow the river for a short distance, and then we head a more easterly direction towards Pagosa Springs while the river heads south into New Mexico.

There is a lot of high country ranch land between Durango and Bayfield, in the 6,500 to 7,000 foot elevation level.

Halfway between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs we drive near Chimney Rock National Monument.  This would be an interesting place to return to some day if we were able to do the strenuous hike to visit the Ancient Ancestral Puebloan Indian Village Ruins just to the right of the smaller, thicker Chimney. 

Pagosa Springs looked like an interesting mountain town, sitting at 7,100 ft level.  Sure has some pretty scenery surrounding the town, as attested by those mountains in the far distance.  Perhaps I should have had an 'errie feeling', but I did not.

So far it is just looking pretty...did not know that it would turn into "pretty high up" experience.

It was a very pretty, yet hard drive from Pagosa Springs to Wolf Creek Pass, Elevation 10,850 feet.  For miles and miles I was in second and even first gear...climbing and climbing at a rate of 20 MPH at times.  Cars passed easily, only a couple of trucks came up on me...thank goodness that they had a truck lane for nearly all of the climb, most of which seemed to happen within a 10 mile distance.  Traffic was very light, thank goodness.

With the tunnel it became down hill from there.  South Fork is at the 8,200 ft level, so the drop was easier and shorter than the climb.  By the time we got to the campground, I was EXHAUSTED! 

Don't know why but it seems that we have run into more parks which are or have just 'changed ownership' than ever before.  Unlike our experience at the boarder town between Nevada and Utah, these folks here are real professionals.  There was a computer glitch with my reservation which I made the day before we arrived (new computer system as of August).  I wanted a pull-through, but they were all taken even though the computer allowed me to register.  They did have a back-in site, and that would be fine.  But the new computer system was not allowing them to proceed, and the manager had to come up to the office to register me.  It even took her a bit of time.  All in all, it took about 20 minutes to register and pay for the three days. 

Lucky for us, it was a back-in site, with lots of shade...so when I changed out the batteries, I was in the shade the entire time.

A few of the sites sit along the South Fork of the Rio Grande River.  Below are some of the RVs sitting along the river getting this and other views of the river.  I think it cost an extra $10 per day for the view...

Here are the pull-through sites, which would have required us to unhook the car anyway.  I just like having the car all hooked up on the morning we leave...but the shade was sure nice, even though the day-time temps were only around 78 degrees.

NOTE:  I did not take pictures of the battery install, got too involved with it.  And YES, we were essentially running off of one battery.  Apparently the negative connection between the two batteries had come loose on the back battery.  This could have happened anytime on the trip from Sandy and Arny's to Target Tree Campground.  So I could have gotten another year or two out of the Interstate Batteries, HAD this connection not come loose.  One battery read at 12.4, but the one which lost its connection had dropped down to 12.0.  Still at a recovery stage, but who knows how long it would last.  All in all it took about 90 minutes to set up, do the exchange, and put everything away again.  Next Walmart we come to, we will get our $24 back on our charge card when I turn the Interstates in.