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.

Target Tree Campground, San Juan National Forest

 

  

As I was mapping out our route, and knowing that we like to stay at some National Forest Campgrounds now and then, I really found this gem of a park just 20 miles east of Cortez and only 15 miles from the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park (which we visited back in 2014, the year we got our current Dynamax Motorhome.)  Cost is $22 per night, but with the America the Beautiful Senior Pass it is only $11.  It sits at 7,600 feet, and the days run around 80 and the nights around 55 this time of year, and we have some good shade.  We even had short thunderstorms to help add to the attraction.  PERFECT!

As you can see, behind our campground is a large grassy area, just enough to get Indy off our backs for leaving that nice green lawn at Aunt Sandy and Uncle Arny's house.

 

To our left and to our right is thick brush, so you can't see your neighbors.  That motorhome shown next to the lawn is the camphost.  He has a black cat and a Siamese, so she kept a close eye on that motorhome when she was out back with me.

The park has 28 camping sites, eight of which are First come - First Serve (FF), and two sites which can accommodate horses and one of which can accommodate a group of up to 50 people.   Online reservations are available, but you have to be three days beyond the day you actually do the reservation.  I took the screen shot above on Wednesday, so the first day I could reserve is Sunday.  However, IF no one is in the site AND no one has it reserved (R) for the time you arrive, YOU can grab the spot.  Which means site # 18 above, if you arrived today, AND if no one else was in it, than you could have it until Sunday because Wednesday - Saturday each have an "X" in it, which means it is not reserved.  And each day beyond Sunday that it is not reserved will allow you to stay longer...or if you really want to stay, just reserve it yourself. The FF sites (sites: 1, 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, 20 & 23), if you get one, can be yours for up to 14 days, which is the limit.

We have had very good Verizon signal in the park, about 3 bars of 4g...but if you don't have cell coverage, there are the typical reservation tags on campsites.  If you came in on the 10th, and no one was in the site, you can have it until the morning of the 12th.

 

There are ample water outlets to fill your fresh water tank, or if tenting, fill water bottles.  You cannot use it as your own permanent water outlet, nor can you do dishes or bath at the outlet.  There is one large dumpster, and three or four pit toilets.  Below are some random pictures of different spots.

 

This one above is one of the few pull through spots.

At the end of loop "A" is the camphost.  He is a real nice guy, has South Dakota license plates, and made the rounds a few times each day.  Not selling firewood right now due to ban on campfires, but he does sell wood when there is no ban.  If you look close to his motorhome you can see his front end is up much higher than the rear just to get it leveled.  We deployed three of our yellow leveling ramps, which did the trick for us.  Most sites will need some leveling for the larger motorhomes, that is for sure, smaller ones may not need it.

Tomorrow we move on to South Fork...and I "THINK" we might be buying some gas for around $3.85 per gallon!

 

To the Coolness of Colorado

 

Our stay in Green River was HOT!  Without shade, the motorhome struggled to keep the inside to a reasonable cool feeling, and sitting out in the shade did not make it any better.  Let alone, our little Indy Girl was not happy about the patch of grass we camped next to...not happy one bit.  Perhaps another park nearby might have more shade...but it was only for two nights, and the nights cooled down around 1 am.  YUCK!

After getting gas at $4.85...(amazing how the nothing town of Salina Utah was down to $4.18!), we headed east on I-70 for 25 miles, then south on to US-191 towards Moab.

Quickly off in the distance you can see the northwest tip of Arches National Park.

The closer you get to Moab, the prettier it gets.  The only complaint that I have, and I have had it for years, is the ...

... Power Lines and Power Stations that interfere with the view.  If you look close above, there are power lines along the entire bottom of the pictures...you can certainly see them at the bottom left of the picture.

And this picture here has a train, and the power lines in front of this gorgeous mountain.

Here is the entrance to the park.  Been to Arches around a dozen times in my lifetime, it is a very eye-catching, interesting, scenic park.  Although we considered going again this time, we did not want to add the 3-4 hours more to our drive into Colorado, and it was just too HOT to stay at a park in Moab.  Marcia has been to Arches 3 different times...so we did not feel it was worth it again.   The first time I took Marcia there it was totally a surprise to her.  We had been married for less than a half of a year, did not have our first motorhome yet.  Came to visit my daughter in Salt Lake City, and on the way home I choose the road through Moab.  As we left the park, being there for a mere 3 hours, Marcia calls my mom...the conversation went something like this.

"Hey ma, you know what your son just did to me?"

[I gulp]  Mom says, "I can't imagine..."

"He just took me through Arches National Park!  It is so gorgeous!"  [I wipe my brow]

The views in and around Moab are breathtaking...I guess that is why the town is growing in population...up by 35% since 1990.

We did drive by one arch, Wilson Arch, which can be seen in the middle of the picture above, and more easily in the picture below.

Beyond that are even different rock formations.  We did not get a picture of the Hole in Wall, one of the 'many' Hole in the Wall landmarks in Utah, one of which is certainly Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall.

We arrived at our destination around 1:30 pm, Target Tree Campground, a San Juan National Forest campground.  It is about 20 miles east of Cortez, at 7,600 feet.  Yes, we have shade.  It is currently (5:00 pm Tuesday) at 79 degrees, and it will be down in the mid to lower 50's tonight.  That is pretty much the forecast for yesterday, today, tomorrow...etc.   More about the park in tomorrows blog.