6/22/13 Ridgway State Park, CO

We are still liking our camp hosting job here at Ridgway State Park.  There are two other camp host couples here up on the hill near us. We chit chat frequently.  All of us get along very well.  We’re all getting together tonight to eat dinner at one’s campsite, potluck style.  Biting gnats and no-see-ums are eating me up.  Thanks goodness we got Avon spray from cousin Dori.  If I’ll remember to use it when going out I’ll be okay.

There’s a Blue Jay bird house just outside our rig.  It’s the parks blue jay program to increase the blue jay population.  We see a male and female coming and going frequently.  Two weeks ago we could hear the chirps of little babies.  Now they are getting a bit louder.  I can’t wait to see them.  Norm said he saw them poke their heads out a few days ago.  Beautiful birds.

We are off duty Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Last week we took a drive up to Owl Creek Pass. There’s BLM land up there and we wanted to scout out future boondocking possibilities while unhitched from the RV.  What a nice scenic drive that was.  If you access the Pass from County 10 just outside of the town of Ridgway the road gets pretty rough and narrow.  Not good if for towing an RV.  But it goes on to highway 50 about 20 miles West of the town of Montrose.  That is the better way to take an RV up Owl Creek Pass if your pulling an RV.  The road is much wider, no switch backs and not as rough a road.  We found a nice area for dry camping near a stream.  There were a few folks camped up there, enjoying the cool mountain air I imagine.  We may go camp up there after our jobs are over in September.  A few miles away is a BLM campground (Silver Jack Campground).  For $14 a night you get no hook ups, same as the free camping area.

A few days ago we took a scenic drive on Last Dollar Road, the back country route to Telluride.  Boy, what a beautiful drive.  Open pastures blanketed with pretty yellow and purple wildflowers.  The mountains in the background with hues of purple.  Traffic in Telluride was crowded.  We found out they are having a blue grass festival this weekend.  Luckily Telluride has lots of free public parking and the town is so small you can walk everywhere.  They have a free gondola that takes you up to a small community called Mountain Village.  Very nice place to just walk around, lots of shopping and restaurants.  Reminds me of Whistler, Canada.  Right out of a  Norman Rockwell painting.  We ate dinner at Smugglers microbrewery and took the highway back home.

Several fires in Colorado already.  Two we could see from here on mountains in both directions.   Sure do wish we’d get some rain.


Norm celebrated his birthday this week and yesterday was our 33rd anniversary.  Cheers to 33 more!

A cabin on a back country road near Telluride.

See Bridal Veil Falls way back on the mountain, seen from the town of Telluride.

Looking back on the town of Telluride from the Gondola.

Pretty Blue birds here at Ridgway State Park.

6/9/13 Ridgway State Park, CO

It's pretty laid back here, no rigid schedule!  We've found a routine that works good for us (they pretty much just let us do how we feel is best).   We get out by 9 or so and take a quick drive around our loop in the golf cart just to check on things.  Then come home for breakfast. Then go out again about 11 or 12 to clean sites ( check out time is 12:00).  We shovel ashes out of fire pits, pick up trash, blow off the picnic table and concrete pad with a leaf blower, etc. It's easy.  Then we go around a few times during the day to check new campers in.  Also to check for violations such as dogs on leashes, no ropes tied to trees, no vehicles on the grass, can’t have more than 2 tents in one site.  I don’t like telling people they can’t do some things so I just radio the ranger on duty and he gets after them.  The easiest non-money job I ever had!  I am so glad to be doing something.  We have about 35 sites in our loop.  We have made a few friends with other volunteers. One couple has us (and about 8 others) over for dinner.  That was fun.  Got to know everyone a little better.  I work in the visitor center on Mondays and am able to meet a lot of the staff and rangers there. Everyone is real nice and up beat here.  Nice atmosphere.  I like working in the gift shop and visiting with staff, not so much the business end, selling licenses, permits, etc.  I’m tired of working in an office setting.  I want to do something different for a change. But it's just one day a week.  Norm has swim beach duty for a few hours every few weeks.  The landscaping around the beach area is absolutely beautiful.  There are a few trees with good shade to sit under.  He simply watches for rule breakers, no glass on the beach, no dogs, no tents, etc.  Norm takes this job very seriously.  I call him the camp host nazi.  I tell you, if we can’t enjoy what we’re doing then I’ll just move on down the road. 

The whole park was full Memorial Day weekend.  But everything went very well.  During the week there are few campers but weekends almost fill up.  I hear that July and August are busiest with campers coming and going constantly.  For some reason our loop is the busiest.  We may have 25+ campers and the loop next to us only has 3.  But I like being busy and just having something to do.  The camp host sites in other loops are not near as nice as ours.  We have a somewhat private patio area with a lot of trees.  The weather is getting hotter than I expected, with highs suppose to get in the 90’s next week.  The sun is very hot but if your in the shade it’s actually nice.  Unlike Texas where it’s hot no matter sun, shade or night time. 

We drove down to Ouray last week on our day off.  It’s much like it was when we visited there about 15 years ago when we vacationed with Norm’s mom, dad, brother & wife, their kids and ours.  That was a fun time.  We want to scout out cheap or free BLM campgrounds or dispersed camping for the future.  Places we can take our RV. 

The park has a staff picnic once a month.  We have our first one this Tuesday.  Should be fun.

Google is doing away with Google Reader on July 1!  Anyone have another reader they like?