Boyd and St. Vrain State Parks

 

Leaving State Forest on Wednesday morning, I went east on CO 14 towards Fort Collins. This road is known as the “Cache la Poudre-North Park” Scenic Byway. It runs alongside one of America’s few federally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, luckily named Cache la Poudre otherwise the byway name would make no sense. The river has been a favorite of whitewater thrill seekers for decades. I asked a local fisherman about the river’s name. He said it was French, that the trappers would bury their powder and liquor alongside the river in a “cache” for future use. Or maybe he was just yanking my chain.

Below are some photos of the river. The third one shows one of the launch points and the fourth is the beach and river right behind it:

 

The road ends in Fort Collins, home to the second best college football team in Colorado. I headed south for a few miles and stopped at Boyd Lake State Park to take photos.

Boyd is for boaters. It is the watersports capital of Northern Colorado. It also has a 148 campsites with electricity, beaches, a marina, and trails galore. There is a pavilion at the beach that has restrooms, a first aid station, and a food concession. Pretty nice place.

Below are photos of the boat ramp, the marina, and a campsite:

 

15 miles south finds us at St. Vrain State Park. If Boyd was for boaters, St. Vrain is for birders. This park is right off Interstate 25 about 20 minutes north of Denver. There are several large ponds that are stocked with warm water game fish and attract many different bird species. There are 87 sites here, half with just electricity and half with full hookups. There are some trees in the former, but none in the latter which is a new addition.

Here are some photos of a pond and a shaded campsite:

 

My campsite was #21, which is set off by itself and has a peninsula all it’s own. A Ranger told me it’s one of the most popular spots. I agree. Here it is in all it’s glory:

The path to the peninsula is right behind my Element:

Sunrise Wednesday morning from my site:

 

Cooking over a campfire is fun. The mixture of all the different aromas from other campers cooking can be very droolworthy. I was smelling steaks to left and burgers to right so I did chicken. Nice white chicken meat, with sides of vegetables and pasta. Man, everyone was jealous:

Regards,

Greg

State Forest State Park…

 

in Colorado State of Colorado. Reminds me of Arte Moreno’s decision to change the Angel’s name to “The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim”. Which literally means “The The Angels Angels of Anaheim”.

I left Stagecoach on Sunday morning heading to State Forest. The first step was to cross the continental divide at Rabbit Ears Pass on US 40. I saw a nice view of Stagecoach Lake and what I guess could be mistaken for rabbit ears. Then the Rockies finally came into view:

 

I arrived at camp around 10:00am. My campsite wasn’t vacant yet, so I started with the campsite photos. State Forest has three main camping areas. Coming from the west on CO 14 and turning off at CO 41, you first reach North Michigan, which is set on both sides of the lake. About 4 miles further up the dirt road you find Bockman. Ranger Lakes is about 5 miles farther east on CO 14, and is the only campground with hookups.

After taking photos at Bockman and the west side of North Michigan, I headed back to my site and set up camp. There were ominous clouds coming in from the west, so I set up for rain. That means my screen house as well as the fly on the tent. I am glad I did. The thunder started around 2:00pm, followed by the rainstorm that lasted for five hours.

The photos below show the view out of the screen house just before the storm, followed by wetness:

 

Monday morning dawned sunny and cool. Perfect!. As my gear was drying, I walked around my campsite and took some photos:

 

North Michigan is the only campground directly on the water. Bockman seemed mainly populated by OHV enthusiasts (Off Highway Vehicles) and had a nearby stream. At Ranger Lakes, the lakes are about 1/2 mile away. I saw many anglers at North Michigan pulling in quite a few fish. Below is an early morning float tuber, some shoreline fishing, and a photo of people fishing near the rental cabins across from my campsite:

 

Monday afternoon I finished the photos at North Michigan and drove to Ranger Lakes Campground. The first two photos are from Bockman, the next three are from Ranger Lakes:

 

Did you notice all the dead pine trees in most of these photos? The Pine Bark Beetle is destroying many of the forests in Colorado. In the photo above at Ranger Lakes, you can clearly see the tree stumps and the dead pines in the background.The Ranger I spoke to said that the beetles are actually native here and don’t usually cause much damage, but they were set off by the prolonged drought that Colorado suffered from. She said the only thing that would kill them is 3 consecutive days of 40 degrees below zero. Since that ain’t gonna happen, she estimates it might take up to 50 years for the forests to return. This is happening state-wide, she said. They have removed 10’s of thousands of dead trees from this State Park alone. You hear the bulldozers at work and see piles of trees like in the photo below:

 

But the chipmunks don’t seem to mind too much. They were scampering all around my campsite. They were feasting on the wildflowers and grass shoots, but occasionally they got an attitude and yelled at me, like in the second photo below:

 

I have a long drive on Wednesday, stopping at Boyd State Park on my way to my campsite at St. Vrain. Stay tuned.

Regards,

Greg

Three State Parks, Bambi, and Bikers

 

While I was writing my last blog post on Wednesday at Vega State Park, I was letting my laundry dry. Since there were no trees at my site, I had to make do:

Nothing like having your undies flapping in the breeze to garner strange looks from fellow campers. There was, however,  a beautiful sunset that evening that took the attention away from me:

 

I talked to one of the Rangers as I was leaving Vega on Thursday morning and they mentioned that Rifle Falls was flowing strong right now. It was out of my way, but they mentioned that there was a shortcut I could take. Where have I heard that before? I am game for anything and had plenty of water and dry food, so why not give it a go. The shortcut starts off as CO 330 and then quickly turns into unpaved Forest Service roads. There were plenty of does and fawns leaping about as I was driving by and I managed to snap a photo of what I believe is the real Bambi. She even posed for me:

 

After about 15 miles of dirt roads, I finally reached the town of Silt, CO. In spite of it’s name, it is a pastoral farming area and I had a few words with Mister Ed and two of his buddies (Ed is the one in the middle):

 

Rifle Falls is in, oddly enough, Rifle Falls State Park. Armed with my trusty Colorado State Parks annual day pass, I ventured forth on my quest for the holy grail, err, waterfall.

The Park is considered one of the gem’s in the system. It is small at only 20 campsites, but the waterfall is a triple and there are dark caves in the limestone behind it. One being a 90 foot room that holds buried treasure and is haunted by pirate ghosts. Or maybe it’s miners and gold. Either way I found nothing, but did take some photos. Below is the waterfall and a typical cool, shady campsite:

 

I continued on to Yampa River State Park, about 100 miles North via CO13. The Park is really several Parks, extending along the entire Yampa Valley. Most are primitive campgrounds with river access sites. Yampa River is extremely popular for people wanting to raft, canoe, or kayak. There is one developed campground called Headquarters. That is where I stopped to take some photos. Below is the river and a campsite. About half had shade shelters:

 

Leaving Yampa, I headed East on US 40 through Steamboat Springs and wound up at Stagecoach State Park. It is a good sized campground with 92 campsites and a 3 mile long lake. They say the fishing is good here for warm water species and I noticed plenty of people on boats pulling other people around until they fell. Here are some photos of the lake, beach, and my campsite:

 

Around 5:00pm Thursday, I heard the roar of two motorcycles entering the campground. Turns out they were Canadians! Yippee! They are on a trip following the continental divide from the Canadian border to Panama. Jamie is from Victoria and Harold from Edmonton. We ended up talking around the campfire for a few hours, mostly me reminiscing about growing up in Vancouver and all the places we knew in common. Good people. I told them to keep in touch and let me know they made it back safely. In the photos below, Jamie is on the right and Harold the left. Which looks scarier, with or without the helmets:

 

I will be leaving here on Sunday morning for the 90 mile drive to State Forest State Park. Someone must have been drinking to come up with a name like that. Ta Ta for now.

Regards,

Greg