Zapata Falls Campground

Zapata Falls campground is a completely developed campground. Each site has a picnic table, fire ring and bear proof food storage locker. We pretty much had the place to our selves. There was a tent at the other end of the camp ground but we neither saw nor heard the occupants. Edit: This is now a very busy campground as it is well known and sites are hard to get.

After driving the RV loop we selected a level site with a view.





The only minus to most of the sites is no shade trees.

We had a spectacular view.

Here is a pic. of another site.

And another one.

And another. Amazingly enough, no occupants.

We enjoyed hiking the campground roads.

At night the campground was completely silent there was no road noise, no people noise, no bug noise. I was amazed at the silence.

Dog pics at Zapata Falls Campground

Our dogs love exploring the campgrounds looking for wildlife.

Blossom keeps a sharp eye out.

Can we go up here?

The wildlife has been under this stump!

Fall colors

After spending two nights at the Great Sand Dunes and one night at Zapata Falls it was time to head home. We decided to take the scenic route instead of the expressway to enjoy the fall colors.

We hit the fall colors at the perfect time. The mix of bright yellow, vibrant orange and greens was stunning.



This is the better picture of Blossom.

This one has the better colors since the sun is shining on more of the trees.




It was a wonderful trip. Were hoping to fit in one more before we have to winterize the RV. I was very pleased that the RV handled the high passes very well. In addition everything worked flawlessly. I'm very impressed with how much power our batteries provide as there are no hook ups at the Great Sand Dunes campground. There is nothing like waking up in a toasty warm RV.

Pingree Park Road Boondocking Roosevelt National Forest

We headed out Labor Day weekend on Saturday morning with no reservations. We've had such good luck finding sites that I wasn't worried. We considered leaving Fri. night but didn't want join the rush of people headed to the mountains to start their weekends.
Very quickly after entering the National Forest we found a great boondock site. There was a trail up the hill from the site.

And a firepit next to where we could park.

In 1959 a marker was placed in a rock.

We headed up the hill for a hike.

And looked back to see the RV.

Blossom enjoys exploring.

Sunshine does also.

Blossom says the critters went up these rocks.

I enjoyed the views.

Unfortunately the trail died out alot quicker than we thought it would so we headed back to the campsite to relax.

Next we explored along the road. The dogs enjoy running up the embankments.





The next day we did some some quick short hikes and then headed off down the road to explore more of the National Forest.

Tom Bennett Campground Roosevelt National Forest

Our map showed a campground ahead so we thought we would check it out. Tom Bennett Campground is a great little secluded campground way out in the woods.

We were very fortunate at Tom Bennett to score a riverside site that fit our 30 ft RV. No reservations are accepted so the place was only about half full, even on this popular camping weekend. The cost was only $11.

We set up the dogs in the shade.

It was a beautiful site. Surrounded by trees.



Leveling was pretty easy so we were lucky.

We fit in the site with just a few feet to spare.

There was a nice firepit with logs to sit on. We don't usually start a fire and we didn't in this case either as the firepit was a bit close to our RV.

We really enjoyed sitting by the river and eating our meals at the picnic table.

After setting up we decided to explore.

Just outside the campground Blossom spots a moose.



He was really big so we snapped our photos and kept going, hoping to not provoke him. The trail quickly entered a burn area.

It also died out so we turned around and went back.

The moose had moved to the opposite bank so we snapped another couple of photos and moved on quickly.



We then headed out to the road.

The views were pretty but the forest was pretty new so the trees were not tall.

Eventually we saw signs for the marked hiking trails.

We decided to try for Beaver Falls despite there not being any distances listed.
At first it was all up, up, up. Then it leveled off in a burn area.

It seemed to go on and on.

Apparently the forest burned in 1994.
After what seems to be a long distance we see no sign of the falls but decide to keep going.

The landscape changes to be very lush with flowers and alot of greenery.

Sunshine enjoys peering over the fallen logs, looking for wildlife.

We eventually hit a very boggy area with logs to keep out of the mud and muck. After heading to the next ridge we finally decided to turn around and head back, not having found the falls. It was nice to get back to the road.



Back at the camp site I take a photo of the tree tops while resting in my chair.

Max cools off his feet in the river. I did also. It was really cold.



The next day we explore along the main road looking for more boondock sites. Blossom loves to look for wildlife.

She takes a break to cool off in the stream.

After the walk I again take pictures of the tree tops from my chair. :-)

Max and the dogs relax.

We spent the day enjoying the beautiful scenery from our campsite. This is the view upstream from where we were.

Sunshine passes out with his chin on the water bowl. Blossom keeps an eye on the local ground squirrels.

There are some boondock sites nearby but not too many that accommodate RVs. Most are for tent campers. The river was very pretty and lots of folks parked on the road and set up their tents adjacent to it.