Join us as we find and map great boondocking spots, go on hikes, off-road with our Toyota Tacoma and camp in our Fleet Four Wheel Camper. Let's explore and have awesome adventures!
The fourth part of our loop took us from Streamboat Springs, Colorado to the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.
The Colorado National Monument is spectacular!!!! We were mesmerized. This is a gem that you rarely hear much about. (National Monuments in general are under-appreciated.)
Courtesy Google Maps
[This is actually Vlog #3]
After another great breakfast at Freshies Restaurant in Steamboat Springs, we drove four hours to the Saddlehorn Campground in the Colorado National Monument.
We love this park. The views are incredible. The hikes are along straight edge cliffs (watch the kids here closely). We had a fantastic time.
The Saddlehorn Campground is nice. It's an older campground and has lots of un-level spots. The farthest loop ("B") is the nicest loop. You can reserve the sites on loop B. If a site is marked "open" on loop B, you can stay one night without a reservation. There are a few sites with great views. It's $20 bucks a night (standard rate). There is a fee to get in the park without a "America the Beautiful" pass / card. There are tables and fire grills. Water is available from a few spigots in the area. There are nice bathrooms with flush toilets. I thought I saw that the bathrooms were heated, as many national park managed bathroom tend to be. You can get large rigs up here. We saw 5th wheels and large buses in some sites. There are walk-in sites for traditionalists and youngins.
I believe we were in site 47, which was relatively flat (I did put a flat rock under one tire) and had a great view if you walked a few steps down towards the site table.
We toured the visitor's center that is within walking distance to the campground. We watched the informative geology movie. We walked from the campground to the nearby Window Rock overview site. WOW what a view!
The next morning, we ate our oatmeal, packed up and took the incredible scenic drive south through the park. The views are unbelievable. If you are a fan of the Grand Canyon, you will likely love this place too.
We then drove south to Orvis Hot Springs (commercial) near Ridgeway, Colorado where we soaked and read our books. We spent a restful night there. The next morning we drove over the million dollar highway to Durango. The aspens were in full color and spectacular.
We continued to Farmington, New Mexico and to our favorite Tequila's Restaurant there. This family Mexican restaurant is very pleasant with great food.
After a great meal we headed the rest of the way uneventfully home to Los Alamos. What a fun trip!
Our Saddlehorn Campground loop B sites. Colorado National Monument.
There's a Monkey!
Karen getting the shot.
A fifth wheel headed up to the campground.
The tunnel said 10' 4". We are taller than that and we had plenty of room. Weird.
Hard work to build the road up here.
They are not kidding. Watch those kiddos closely!!!
A great meal at Tequila's in Farmington, New Mexico.
In mid-March, we needed a getaway. So, even though the weather was still a little cold - we took off after work on a Thursday and headed to Bisti Wilderness. Since we got a late start, we stayed the first night at the Apache Nugget Travel Center and Casino on Highway 550 about 22 miles west of Cuba, New Mexico. They have parking for truckers and a big gravel lot perfect for rvers. It was quiet and the perfect stop for a quick overnight.
There are two ways to approach Bisti. One is via Farmington and other is the way we approached off of 550. We've driven the road to Chaco Canyon, so we knew our NV could make it, but the road is very rough washboard. What added to the fun, was the huge wind and dust storm that hit just as we left the main highway.
Here are the official directions from the BLM website. To reach the Bisti Access Parking Area, Drive NM 371 just under 36 miles south of Farmington (from the San Juan River crossing) or just under 45 miles north of Crownpoint, New Mexico (from the intersection of 371 and Navajo Service Route 9), and turn east on Road 7297 (a gravel road). Drive Road 7297 for approximately 2 miles to a T-intersection and turn left. Drive just under one mile to the Bisti Access Parking Area, which is just south of a broad wash on the east side of the road. There is another, smaller parking area ¼ mile further north. GPS location of main parking lot: 36.259337, -108.251550
First of two parking lots at Bisti De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area
We have camped and hiked many times at nearby Chaco Canyon. We'd heard about Bisti and even read Love Your RV's post about their stay at Bisti. Greg did some preliminary study of the awesome land features at Bisti, but we wished we had gotten GPS coordinates ahead of time. Nonetheless, we had an awesome experience hiking and exploring. Our goal was to see the petrified wood and the many hoodoos. We exceeded our goal!
Our first hoodoo
Although the weather was threatening rain and the wind was pretty strong, we were not to be deterred. I will say that this is probably not a place I would want to go hiking in the full heat of late July or August. We bundled up and headed out.
You get the feeling you are on a different planet at Bisti
The odd landscape has the most interesting shaped hoodoos. They appear to be sculpted
Dino - no monkeys were harmed in the making of this picture
Our goal for the day was to locate the petrified wood that litters the landscape. Greg knew the general location of the petrified wood from google maps. We have been to the Petrified Forest near Holbrook, Arizona and it is very impressive. But, nothing compares to hiking for several hours and "discovering" petrified wood in piles. Best petrified wood, we've ever seen. We didn't make it to the largest log, but we will track it down next time when we come prepared with the coordinates.
We discovered one of the big petrified wood piles
This delicate slice of petrified wood was so beautiful
We only explored a small fraction of the park and yet we saw so much. Come spring or fall, we will definitely go back and do more exploring. Our plan was to boondock there at Bisti. But, huge storm clouds were heading our way full of rain/snow. After our hike and a nice lunch in our camper, we drove the 2-1/2 hours to Pagosa Springs. Here is Greg's post about our stay in Pagosa.
Please remember that it is illegal to remove anything from this land. We need to leave it all in place so that other's may enjoy this incredible place in the future.
