Sunday, May 22, 2016

Lory State Park

On the way home we decided to stop at Lory State Park for a quick walk with the dogs. It is a day use park bordering Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins.
 We started from the parking lot on the self guided nature trail.

The trails had good signage that told you whether you were doing the hard version or the easy version. We picked the easy version
Blossom pointing toward the hard version.
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 The sun was setting but there was just enough light to get some pictures.

 Blossom is very happy to be out of the RV and on a hike.
 View back toward the reservoir.
 Sunshine is also happy to be out and about.
It was a pretty hike.
We were there close to closing time so we had to make it quick. Very pretty area from what we saw and we would definitely go back. However at peak time it might be too crowded to enjoy. So maybe a weekday?

We get to see the reservoir as we drove out.
Deer were all along the road out.
The sun has set.
This ended our first trip of the season which ended with no place to stay so we came home. This is the first time this has happened to us. Normally we can always find something in the national forest. And I think one of the handicap sites at Curt Gowdy was open but it was down a spur with no turn around so we didn't investigate it. Perhaps if we had we would have camped there.

But we accomplished our mission of testing out the RV. All mechanicals (both house and chassis) were good. However two of the tire pressure system batteries appear to be dead so we will replace all 6. And there was a mildewy smell in the RV when we got it from the storage lot. It was toward the front. But an inspection in all cabinets and along the ceiling yielded no sign of leaks. But while driving we notices stains down both sides of the windshield pillars and the center pillar. Drat! Another leak. It is being fixed as I type this. Unfortunately we were only checking ceilings and cabinets throughout the winter so this got by us. We think the culprit is the front top lights along the cap of the RV.

1st day out - Happy Jack Trailhead

We decided to pull the RV out of storage this weekend. With all the work going into putting everything back that was removed for the winter we got a late start. Wyoming was painting the lines on the road. Unfortunately a cone jumped in front of us and damaged our right front bumper and slightly bent a body corner. Thankfully we had some eternabond to patch it all up and continued on. To do this we stopped at the Wyoming visitor center on the CO/I25 border. Very nice visitor center! Well worth a stop for anyone headed that way.

Eventually we got to Curt Gowdy State Park. They  had a campground full sign out. So during a quick breeze around to see what was what, we were shocked to see how very crowded it was. The day use areas were pretty full, lots of people everywhere. Very different from when we had been here before. I looked on-line and it still showed they had lots of first come first serve but the lady at the booth seemed to indicate it had all gone reservation except 5 sites. So we will have to do a bit of investigation if we decide to come again.

We continued on to the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, thinking we could boondock. But alas it was closed.

We continued on to Happy Jack Trailhead. 

Happy Jack Trailhead
Signs indicated there were two campgrounds down this road. But alas they were closed. I think we understand why when looking at the trailhead area. Very muddy with patches of snow. I think we have come out too early in the season.



After a brief dinner for us and the dogs we continued on.

The question was, should we go back east on 80 to try Vedauwoo Campground or take 287 home from Laramie Wyoming. We decided to take 287. Good thing we didn't try Vedauwoo because in checking this morning it was also closed.
287 toward home