Palmer Park Colorado Springs

We stopped for dinner in Palmer Park. This is one great advantage to the RV. You can pick where you dine.

Palmer Park is a huge park in the middle of the city, donated by the city's founder. You can drive to the top and get a great view. OK for our size RV (30 ft) but probably not for bigger. The roads are narrow and the turn around is not very big.

The dogs always enjoy exploring rocks.

One of the many parking lots along the road. We had dinner here.

This was the end of our first trip for the season. Most everything worked well and we brought along the stuff we needed (always a possibility of forgetting something important on the first trip of the season). The intermittent refrigerator outages have not been resolved. It works fine on electric (generator or shore power). When we turn it on to gas it is also fine. Sometimes when it turns itself off it does not relight. I have heard it trying and then it comes on but when on gas over night, in the morning it is not going and I have to turn it off and back on. We didn't have any food spoilage because the box stays cold enough but I would like to have it fixed so off to the repair place it will go.

The generator was a little rough sounding at start up and power down. I think I will have it serviced at the the same time.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument doesn't get great reviews on TripAdvisor. Unless you have nothing better to do like us, it isn't worth the time. The movie, displays and outside cards are highly redundant. Considering the number of fossils and species they tout in the movie they show very little in the visitor center.

Petrified Red Wood

 One of their claims to fame is the petrified red woods. However they also talk about how the site was descimated by tourists taking home samples prior to national monument status. It is likely why there isn't much to see today. Scientifically it is important as a site so I'm glad it is preserved.

Hanging out in the dog area since dogs aren't allowed anywhere except the parking lot, picnic or dog area. Not on the trails.

Sunshine says this is boring. Mom agreed.

More kayaking on the south side of 11 Mile State park

The south side of 11 Mile State Park is the prettiest.

11 Mile State Park Camping

After a full day of play we head over to the campground to get a site. Because it is mid week we don't need reservations and snag a nice electric site. There were many both electric and not with a water view.

We picked a level one with water view.

Always happy when we don't have to level.

Very nice campground with fairly wide spaces between the sites.

Thought this one was a little prettier because it was on the edge which makes it easier to walk the dogs. It probably would need some leveling.

11 Mile State Park - Playing

After a couple of days in the national forest we head for the more developed 11 Mile State Park. They have a small general store at the entrance where we refresh our milk and water supply. The reservoir is available for boating but no people swimming or wading. Dogs were not discussed so we let Blossom swim.

Blossom cools off.

She is an excellent swimmer

Sunshine scoffs at the idea.

Everyone enjoys the pretty trail.

There were big fish you could see from the rock.

More swimming.

Time to go for a kayak ride.

Blossom does well in the boat but prefers to explore the shore.

Boondocking in Pike National Forest

I looked up Blue Mountain Campground in Pike National Forest. It looked to be nice and had a hiking trail from it. When we got there we realized that we had boondocked on this dirt road before so continued on to our old site.

Dirt road to boondocking site. It was in better shape this time than last time so we made good time.

More dirt road to boondocking site. It was only a couple of miles.

Access road to our site. It is off the main road so pretty easy to reach.

Parked in our old site. It was still perfectly level.

The view was still pretty.

The dogs love the national forest.

A view up to the RV when taking the dogs around the site.

There is a fire ring on site.

Blossom enjoys searching for ground squirrels.

There were many opportunities on the site. I think the rain has eroded the base around many of the trees. Probably not great if the winds pick up and blow them over.

Dogs ranging for ground squirrels.

We had pretty views all around.

Brake master cylinder replaced again?

Earlier in the winter the brake light came on. A couple of years ago this happened and we had the master cylinder replaced. Then a year later it happened again, we took it back to the original shop and they replaced it again.

This time we went to a different shop. When they took it out they didn't think it was a 1 or 2 yr old master cylinder. Did we get ripped off by the first shop? Seems like it.

Hopefully it is fixed now.

Also found we developed a roof leak over the winter. Have to recaulk the roof places where the roof is cut through for vents and such. We have eternabond on the front cap, back cap and side seams so it can't be from there.