Chatfield State Park

After driving through a heavy rainstorm we arrived at Chatfield to clearing skies.

A rainbow peeks out at the horizon.

The trails were wet and only a little muddy in spots.

It was cool and pleasant but the mosquitoes were out.

Blossom wants to get wet no matter how stinky the water.

Chatfield has a swim beach.

A view out to the water.

Some seagulls at the beach.

There isn't really sand at the swim beach. It is more like small gravel.

The wildlife.

Chatfield was built in the early 70s so all the structures have a 60's-70's look to them. Very retro.

Once we got everyone covered in mosquito spray we had a very pleasant walk on the Chatfield trials. We use Aroma Paws Repellant for both the dogs and us. Works great and is non-toxic.
Aroma Paws

Chatfield is in the Denver metro area and a day trip for us. We have only used the RV for day trips recently and a couple of times. It is really nice! Everything is at our finger tips from snacks to a change of clothes. I'm so spoiled by having my own bathroom available also. On this particular trip I wore shorts but after we started walking and found the trail to have alot of close grass and plants along with hungry mosquitoes we doubled back to the RV and I put on long pants. I had not packed those for this trip, they were just left over in the cabinet from our last trip. We also did not anticipate the bugs so having our stash of repellant available was handy. Since we went at dinner time we fed the dogs while there from our on-board stash of canned food. And we have some canned stuff that we can eat in emergencies although I did grab some food as we went out the door.

Unfortunately on our way home the check engine light came on and then went off a minute later. So we have to take it to the shop so they can pull the codes to see what is going on.

Barr Lake State Park

The next day we all went to Barr Lake State Park. The water was very low so no kayaking.

Low water. Not sure why because most water bodies near us are filled this year.

Flat trail around the lake. You can only go part way with dogs because of the nature sanctuary.

Very pretty area with boardwalk out to viewing platform.

Deer with large rack. It didn't move a muscle. I'm not 100% sure it wasn't stuffed and put there as a prop.

Sunshine collapses in the grass. It wasn't very hot. He had a drink of water. It think he just wanted to.

After a short but and not spectacular visit we headed back to the RV. I was reflecting on how little wildlife we had seen. Not too many birds. There were tons of people in full birding outfits that must have cost a fortune. I commented to my husband that the low point of my walk was stepping on a snake as I had many close calls before but had never actually stepped on a snake until this walk. Just as I finished the sentence a bug flew into the back of my throat where I couldn't cough him up no matter how hard I tried but I could still feel him there. My husband commented, I guess you just got a lower point in your day. :-) After much coughing and hacking on my part he offered to call the officials over and report me for eating the wildlife because I couldn't get it up to spit it out. So that was our Barr Lake State Park outing.

Edited to add: The staff at this park is super nice. Very informative when asked questions. The nature center is worth a visit.

Chatfield State Park

My dog, husband and RV went Kayaking at Chatfield State Park. The proof is above. I had wanted to go but the outing didn't get going until the heat of the day and I wasn't too keen on being out in the sun during the hottest part. Hopefully as it gets cooler we will head back to Chatfield soon.

Jackson Lake State Park

I would love to give Jackson Lake State Park a high review. It has so many things going for it. However, poor state park management ruins it. First the good. It is very pretty. There are many, many camping sites. I would not want to be there high season as it would be way too crowded. We headed out on a post Labor Day weekend and found that almost all of the lakeside electric sites were taken. There were a few open but we bypassed them to stay in the non-electrified, almost empty campground. We always prefer less people.

We came late and got a site with no immediate neighbors.

 A path from our site lead down to a pretty beach.

Sunshine and Blossom sniff the pretty beach with a path right from our site.

Max got his kayak out on the water even though it was late.

Our fire pit and view of the water.

 The sky at night was stunning. We had no moon and the stars were great. The campground lights at the bathrooms however were very poorly done. They weren't directional and aimed down. They sprayed light in all directions. But the sky was stunning anyways because there are no cities nearby.

View of us from the campground road.

Really nice trail to the visitors center.

On the way to the visitor center an annoying ankle biting dog tried to bite Blossom. At first Blossom turned away but when the dog came at her flank she gave a very appropriate air snap. The owner apologized but had no voice control over his off leash dog.

Really nice because it was half in shade which we all appreciated.

Beach area near the marina.

Kayaking the next day.

The next day a truck showed up next to us with a boat trailer. Ok, no big deal. Then a boat docked at the beach with kids. No big deal. Then the truck was joined by a SUV with a couple with an unleashed pit bull who immediately ran up and got in a fight with my on-leash dog. I tried to get them to call her back but they had no voice control. After they apologized they continued to let her run around unleashed. She tried approaching us again but I yelled at her and she turned away. This happened again. I think she wasn't particularity aggressive but since they had no voice control she should not have been off leash. Needless to say we packed up and moved to the other end of the campground.

View back toward camper from our second site.

The dogs love to explore beach areas.

Beach area from second site.

View out to the water. You can see how green it is from algae.

Path to beach from second site.

We had a nice tree at the second site.

Nice beach walking area.

Blossom braves the yucky green water.

Our picnic table from the second site.

We had a very good time at this beautiful campground. It is very, very buggy. Lots of flies and gnats. You don't want to open your mouth when they are around. They are thick and you can hear the buzzing when they swarm around your head.  However we understand water = bugs.

The part I didn't like is they charge $20 for electric or $16 for non-electric with $7/day fee if you don't have the state park pass which we do. But they don't clean the sites, beach or pick up the old tags. I picked up dog poop around our site so we wouldn't step in it. They answer your questions much in the way a teenager would answer your questions if they thought you were stupid. They don't enforce the on-leash dog rule. They don't keep large groups from parking at camp sites and using them as day use sites. Overall the management team of this park gets a big thumbs down.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this is apparently duck hunting season. Across the lake there was alot of noisy shooting from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Pretty much woke everyone up and was a topic of complaining conversation amongst all the campers.