October 6 to October 19, 2022 – Palisades NFCG, South Fork, CO
After enduring a week of screaming children hell, we escaped to a small Forest Service campground that happened to still be open this late in the season. Most Forest Service campgrounds in Colorado close in early September just because. No real reason, just because. During September and most of October the weather is often quite pleasant. But alas, these dates are carved in stone, and must not be altered.
That’s why it is such a pleasure to find one that is still open. This one is an older campground as most of the sites are quite small. There are few sites suitable for big rigs. At this time of year the water is shut off and there are no other amenities. Just the way we like it. And there is this one site, a primo site, that just happened to be open. So we snagged it. This site is well away from the rest of the campground and is so quiet you can actually hear the Rio Grande River happily gurgling and splashing as it makes it way over the rocks on its southward journey to the Gulf of Mexico.
After we got set up we just had to snap a picture out the window. This is the Rio Grande right next to us.
And another view to show our isolated spot. No screaming kids, Yay!
The only drawbacks to Palisades is that there is no cell or internet service. But you know what? We did just fine for 13 days without it, well excepting forays to the brewery to pay bills and the visitor center to plan our next move. I generally check blogs I follow and the news first thing in the morning. But here, I catch up on magazine reading and just enjoy the view. And yes, it is a little chilly early in the AM.
One of the things I did was to cut and chop lots of firewood for the evening fires.
And we get to enjoy the fruits of my labors. I did my best to keep the bear box full of firewood.
EJ got caught up on assembling puzzles.
But lest you think it was all fun and games, tragedy did strike! Miss Mosey’s fresh water pump failed. This happened several times on our previous motorhome and we learned a lesson. We had a spare! Two actually. For without a working water system, life in Miss Mosey suddenly isn’t so carefree anymore. No water for the icemaker, no ice for the adult beverages, things could get ugly real fast!
So, out with the old,
and in with the new.
Occasionally we do have fits of responsibility and must do adult things. Like EJ paying bills while simultaneously enjoying a brew at Three Barrell Brewing in Del Norte, CO. My job was to keep her company.
Back at Miss Mosey, we attempt to plan our next move using the road atlas, but apparently someone is having none of that. She likes it right where we are..
She would be happy to sit and stare for hours. Here she is daring a ground squirrel to come closer. The squirrel (chipmunk, whatever) is sitting on the stump to the left. It was smart enough to not accept the challenge.
We also continued our quest to see all the yellow aspen we could. This involved EJ pointing me up various sketchy roads so we could get real close to the yellow.
As a bonus, we even got to see some wildlife.
Towards the end of our stay it started to get a little colder and we decided it would be a good idea to get a little lower and get back to somewhere with cell service and electricity so we could more easily keep warm and plan our next more. So back we go to San Luis SWA in Mosca, CO. But before we leave, one last look from our perfect campsite.
Obligatory cat picture follows:
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