Mammoth in Colorado Day 7

 Sunday 9/12/2021

We finally did something I've been planning to do ever since we started this RV thing--get up, drink a quick coffee, and head out to a wildlife area. We didn't make it there before sunrise, but it wasn't all that late. Other than the mule deer, which were all over the farmed fields on the road out of the park, we only saw a muskrat swimming in the Piedras. But that's better than nothing! Besides, I don't think I've ever seen a muskrat before. I didn't get a picture--right after I saw him and called Ed over, the varmint disappeared and didn't return. I don't think he saw or heard us--we were way far away, up on the bridge. I think he just went to bed.

After that, moving day.
Navajo Lake State Park to Trinidad Lake State Park
planned time: about 4 hours
Actual time: unknown -- I didn't write it down until after the "tank filling" episode
We left at 10:17 and arrived at our site at about 4:44 but a lot of that was wasted.
quick fillup in Alamosa

We started off going north and crossing the mountain ridge. It was really high and a little scary, but Ed and Mammoth took it easy. At the bottom we were puzzled to encounter a "chain area", which was apparently a pull off spot where people could put on their tire chains. Then on up and up and up. Over the top (I think) we went through a snow shed--a short, concrete structure for keeping impending avalanches from covering the road. 

Shortly after that we went through a tunnel--Wolf Creek Pass Tunnel at 10,800 feet--and then we were down, down, down in the plains.

Several little towns were scattered over the high plain, so I got ot the phone and started looking for a truck stop, for refueling. Soon I discovered that most of what were labeled truck stops on the map were not what I wold call suitable places for refueling a large truck, let alone a smallish motor home.

There was a big travel stop in Alamosa which actually had a couple of truck pumps over to the side. We gassed up quickly and were on the road.

 

 After the long valley, we had to make a jump over the mountains again to get to I-25, the major north-south highway between Denver and Santa Fe. Those mountains were challenging, too, but not as exciting. Just over the top Ed pulled off at a scenic overlook so we could walk and water the dogs. They weren't impressed with the scenery but the water was greatly appreciated.

Snow blocks?

And from there a boring drive down the Interstate to Trinidad and the Trinidad Lake State Park. Not so great. It was very, very crowded, and the interior roads narrow and not very well labeled.

The big unknown factor of this part of the trip was water. We knew that there were no water hookups at the campsites, but there were water take-on points marked here and there on the map. About four of them for about 60 campsites. We stopped at the first one and found that the faucet threads were so screwed up that if we'd tried to take on water we'd have spewed out more gallons than we put into the tanks.

So on the the next one, which was better. Except that it had a reducer installed at the outlet which made the water flow very very slowly. We waited and waited and waited, but our tank wasn't filling. At some point Ed tinkered with the various valves and contraptions in the utility compartment (is that what they call it, where you hook up input hoses and water hoses?), and then the water quit flowing in at all. I could tell by feeling the hose that no water was moving at all.

We wasted another ten minutes or so before I went and insisted to Ed that there was no water flowing, so he tinkered with the valves some more. Yahoo! Water began to flow into the tank. Once that happened, it only took five minutes.

All in all, we must have sat there with the engine idling for thirty minutes trying to fill up the darn fresh water tank. And even then the gauge only showed 2/3 full.

No matter, we now had our water and we went on to the site. It wasn't great. It was so very unlevel that our front tires were ten inches off the ground, higher on one side that the other. The surface was gravel; the picnic table new but had no cover--most of them don't--and there are grass burs all in the short, dry grasses of the camp ground.

But the worst thing was all the people and all the dogs. Here, at least, I didn't see a single dog off leash. But it was hard to get Molly to be quiet and do her walks without passing other people's dogs ever minute.  I actually cut up the hill across an empty campsite to get ot the playground, and from there to the day use area.

There were only a couple of groups in the day use area, so once I got her to leave the pink birthday cake fragments on the pavement alone, we had a good walk.