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Took awhile to set up camp as Sasha used a new system to have the
camper be steady after it is off of the truck. Yes we took it off of the
truck, and I'm sure it will be fun getting it back on later.
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First View of Taylor Park on Friday
September 8 around 5 pm. We are hoping the clouds will go away
tomorrow but it looks like rain right now. |
| The Camp Host came up as we were setting up and stated that the
site cost $20 a night but it is much more beautiful views even
if the rest of the stuff is the same (both had electric, no
water or sewer at the site, beautiful views, picnic tables and
fire rings, pull-though sites) although this campground has 50
Amp service (which we can't use, it is for big RVs). This place
does not have showers (the other place had them but you had to
pay for the shower.) There is no dump station here, that is 5
miles away at the sewage treatment plant and the toilets are pit
ones not flush. So the four dollars extra cost must be for the
views - which are spectacular.
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Our Campground Site: Saturday We set up the outdoor shower and I turned on the heater
and water pump for Sasha's virgin shower. However, the water
kept coming out cold. Finally, Sasha tried the other knob, and
found that the hot and cold water labels had been switched.
Our View from the Site:
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Our Views, either directly from the camp
site or a little ways away from the site (like near the water
spout.) |
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Saturday Morning was nice, with blue
skies, but around 11 am it started clouding up. |
| Because the weather was kind
of icky, we decided to take a road trip to Tin Cup and the
surrounds. We first went to the Trading Post to change some
money. It seems that the National Forest Service (really
Recreation Resource Management company) does not take traveler's
checks BUT they do take Personal Checks. Well, I had left the
checkbook at home, thinking that no one would take personal
checks out here. Let's just say we were flabbergasted that they
would take personal checks. So we had to go to the Trading Post
to change the traveler's checks into cash. We got a few items
including a book on the history of the area.
We went back to camp, paid for tonight (we
decided to go night to night rather than paying for the week as
it was still cloudy and we wanted the flexibility to go if
needed.) We had lunch in the camper as it started to rain. After
it rained we went back to the trading post (heard that they have
great water so we filled up our many containers) and headed out
to Tin Cup. |
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Before we got to Tin Cup, we checked out
where we are supposed to dump the black and brown water, and
found we would have to pay to dump! What a pain! We are already
paying for the campsite, we should get the dumping for free. Oh
well, another thing that you learn on the road.
Anyway, here is the sign for Tin Cup, we
went along a dirt road to get to Tin Cup. We will have more
pictures on the way back. |
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We are going to Mirror Lake which is 3
miles past Tin Cup. The Guide said that passenger cars could go
on this road. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA said we, once we were on
it. You shall see. |
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This is the road to Mirror Lake. Actually it does not look
too bad because when it was bad, I could not take the picture.
But there were lots of rocks in the road and with tires that can
not go very low in PSI (lowest is 65 PSI), each bounce had some
serious jarring effect. After this ride, we decided not to go on
any more really off-road passes as the truck is too long and the
tires too strong. |
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On the way to Mirror Lake is the Taylor
River and its corresponding wetlands. |
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At Mirror Lake, we found someone to take
our picture. They had come up to the lake on one ATV (he was
driving, she was in the back.) I did not know that you could
have two people on an ATV, but it seemed to be the way to go.
The tires have lower pressure and you can go pretty far with
them.
The road behind us is Tin Cup Pass. The
road, if you can call it that, is very rough and narrow, meant
for Jeeps, ATVs and dirt bikes. We would not take the truck. |
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This is Mirror Lake. People were fishing
(you could only use non-motorized boats or just fish along the
edge.) |
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We headed back to Tin Cup and took a
couple of pictures of the town. People live here, I think year
round, but most of the houses were closed down for the season. |
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We decided to take another mountain road
called Pieplant Mill Road, after Tin Cup, so here are a few more
pictures. |
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We were shocked to see this RV on the
side of the road as this road was rough but obviously people
will go anywhere with their vehicles. |
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We did see some deer with this road trip.
I am sure they are a little bit jittery as it is hunting season
now. |
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Here are two peaks: Jenkins and Grizzly
Mountains in the distance. And Look, Blue Skies here. People are
camping where ever they are allowed, which is all over. Although
they do not have electricity, water or sewer, they seem to be
having fun out here and the weather seems to be cooperating. |
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We are not sure if this is from a
wildfire or logging. But we went out to this field and found us
some wood which we tried burning later this evening. The wood
was very wet, which we did not realize, so when Sasha went to
get the fire going, it took nearly a gallon of diesel to really
set the fire. But we did toasted marshmallows this evening. |
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Here is another picture of the mountains
before we head back to civilization. |
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We are back to civilization as there are
cows everywhere. They were on the side of the road, in the road
etc. There was one group of cows that was being moved along by a
bull, who shook its head at us, as though to warn us not to come
close.
This was not the bull, but as you can see, a
very close cow. |
After this ride we felt like we had really
exercised, and in a way we did. Trying to keep yourself steady on
bone-jarring roads is a little tough and yet we still managed to take
some good pictures. We are going to see what the weather brings for
tomorrow, but we saw clear skies when we were toasting the marshmallows,
so we went to bed thinking we would go hiking and biking.
Check out the Next Day, A Road Trip to Crested Butte.
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