Saturday, July 11
Rocky Mountain High

Saturday, July 11, 2015

We wake early and decide to drive on, as early morning is good both for spotting wildlife and taking photos with great lighting.

We stop briefly at a landmark called The Bishop’s Palace which is somebody’s whimsical idea of a castle. 

We decide to take a dirt road, #386, off 165 because it looks interesting.  It meanders along with a stream on one side and rocks on the other.  We see several signs of beaver, nice aspen groves, and a few boondocking spots (2 occupied, 1 empty).  

Back to the main highway, we see several flocks of wild turkeys.  This group had quite a few youngsters!  

We also spot a couple of deer along the way.  We are soon out of the mountains and traveling in a wide valley.  Lots of ranches and cattle and quite a variety of wildflowers.

 We pull over to have breakfast and plot our route in a little town called Westcliff which is having a Bluegrass Festival and is quite busy.  We find the Forest Service office there and a friendly ranger suggests some good boondocking (dispersed camping) spots along our planned route, more or less.

We travel alongside the Arkansas River for a while.  It is popular with rafters and we see a few preparing to ride.   We are thinking that water would be awfully chilly!  It was 49 degrees when we awoke this morning and has now climbed into the low 60’s.

At one stop, I walk along the river for a bit looking for photo ops.  I see what I think is a mink, beautiful dark brown fur, scurrying across some rocks and disappearing before I can even raise the camera.

We come to the town of Salida, where we get gas and stop at an Arts Festival going on in a park there.  Lots of painters, photographers, jewelers and other artists.  This lady made 3-dimensional animal art with fibers - unusual!  Next, we head back into the mountains, crossing Ponchas Pass at 9000’+ and 55 degrees.

We eventually found N414 Forest Road, a nicely graded dirt road, and followed it for about 10 miles to Luder Campground, part of Rio Grande National Forest. It is a small, primitive campground which has only 5 sites.  3 of them have adjacent enclosures for horses.  There is only one other family there, with four beautiful horses grazing away.  We decide to stop here for the day/night.  Greg scavenges for wood and cuts and splits some, then we have some sandwiches and head off for a walk.

Lots of chipmunks and squirrels, and one bright blue bird – perhaps an indigo bunting?  Or mountain blue bird?  The other sites fill up during the afternoon, but they are pleasantly spaced so we have no near neighbors.  Greg gets the fire going and we have a brief rain shower so eat dinner inside.  Then back outside, listening to birds call and the wind shushing through the tree tops.  Many aspen and tall pines.

I blog for the day, we have some wine and call it an early night.  No cell service again and we will need to find wi-fi soon to post and catch up on emails.   Stars again are gorgeous and plentiful!