Advocate I
If you just want to see the pics and don't care about the details - Colorado 2022 - Guardians of the Wilderness
We started out on Saturday, July 30th from Illinois and got into Colorado Springs around midnight that night. The following day we got up and headed over to Royal Gorge where my daughter and I did the zipline across the gorge, then the 3 of us (wife, daughter, myself) walked across the bridge and checked things out, the weather was nice and not too hot (yet).
From there we drove to Silverton and got a room at the Teller House as it was getting late/dark, after checking in we grabbed a bite to eat at the Avalanche Brewing Company since that was the only place still open. The following morning we got up and did some final provisioning of food, water, and anything small we might've forgotten before we headed for our favorite camp area; Bandora Mine. We stayed there for a couple of nights and most of the afternoons were met with monsoons. We had 2-3 deer come and visit us every afternoon to see what we were up to and the morning that we were packing up to leave an adolescent moose wandered by camp and headed up into the trees, so that was cool. What wasn't cool was that the morning we were leaving Silverton my truck started sounding like a VW Beetle under the hood with some chirping related to the turbo/exhaust. I had an issue earlier this year where 3 of the 4 factory turbo-to-downpipe studs just...fell out. I noticed a weird noise when accelerating and eventually discovered the problem. Wasn't too awful to fix, and unfortunately that wasn't the problem in Colorado. All studs and nuts accounted for. I will also add that before and after addressing the stud issue earlier this year I would momentarily smell diesel exhaust after startup but I assumed it was just because there was some carbon between the gasket that was preventing a full seal and once things heated up and expanded it stopped as I couldn't smell it anymore. Well, I'm rather certain the source of the exhaust wasn't from that. It was from 3 loose exhaust manifold nuts. :( They were slowly loosening over time until Silverton where it started chirping due to the exhaust leak. Ended up tightening up those nuts at our Bandora Mine campsite and problem solved. This problem was progressing so slowly that I didn't really catch any loss of power or exhaust braking ability until we were in Colorado where I felt like my exhaust brake wasn't as effective anymore. Anyway, after fixing the manifold nuts the engine was more responsive and the exhaust brake was working much better, so yay! Now, on with the story...
During our stay at Bandora Mine we drove up to Clear Lake for the views and so our daughter could recreate a picture she took the first time and she also wanted to try and take a dip in the lake this time as well, which she did for a very quick moment before hopping out because the water was super cold!
After packing up camp we headed back down the mountain to Silverton to refill the water tank in the trailer and get some pizza from Golden Block Brewery which was my daughter's favorite pizza place last time we were in Colorado. It was quite tasty but later in the trip we found an even better pizza place.
Once back on the road we headed to Ouray where we got a site at the night at Ouray Riverside Resort where we did some laundry, went into the Ouray Hot Springs, and then had a delicious dinner at Red Mountain Brewing.
The next day we were on the road again, this time we set up camp at Alta Lakes dispersed campground and got an amazing site with lake views. We spent a couple of nights there, hiked around the lower lakes, spent an afternoon in Telluride where we rented eBikes and rode out towards Bridal Veil Falls, got some tasty sandwiches and bakes goods from Baked in Telluride, and rode the gondolas over to Mountain Village where we walked around the amazing resort before hiding the gondola back to San Sophia where we got some great pics, and then rode it back down to Telluride.
Our next destination was Lake City, another place we had been before and wanted to get back to...mainly because of the food we had. This time we ended up staying a couple of nights at River Fork RV Park, again to do some laundry and be close to good food that we missed. As you can probably tell, this trip was less about extreme dispersed camping and overlanding and more about making sure our daughter (17) was able to have internet access for part of the trip and getting our fill of food from both places we have and haven't been. We were fully equipped to spend many days away from civilization but ended up adding in quite a bit of eating out and enjoying the small towns. While in Lake City we had dinner at one of our favorite places, the Packer Saloon & Cannibal Grill. Their grilled chicken "Sammy" is excellent and the cheesecake is quite tasty as well. The following day we did the southern portion of the Alpine Loop from Lake City to Cinnamon Pass (back in 2020 we did the northern route from Silverton to Lake City), got some great pics before retreating back into the truck to get out of the cold wind blowing through the pass. After heading back down to Lake City we decided to head over to the Silver Slice Pizza Co., which I believed opened up last summer, and had one of the best pizzas we've ever had (definite top 3). They were short staffed so the service was a bit slow but friendly, however it was totally worth it. The pizza was amazing and the crust was had a bit of butter and garlic with the sides folded over like mini calzones. IMO, they had the perfect ratio of crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings. On the 3rd day we packed up and headed over to Breakfast Hangout & Euphoria, a place that has 5 stars on Google (though not a whole lot of reviews). Everything was amazing and the 5 stars are well-earned. My wife had avocado eggs benedict and I had super oats. Absolutely top notch.
After leaving Lake City our goal was to head north to I-70 and make a stop in St. Elmo along the way, having never been there before we weren't sure what to expect but though it would be a neat ghost town to check out. We got there and the chipmunks and ground squirrels stole the attention, we sat there for probably 45 minutes feeding and hanging out with the cute critters before getting some stickers and souvenirs from the general store. We headed back down to the main highway and headed north to I-70 where we headed into East Vail for a quick yet very good dinner at Grill on the Gore. From there it was time to figure out where we were going to stop for the night. We were hoping for an open first-come first-served site at Gore Creek Campground but no such luck. I decided we should head east on I-70 and look for dispersed camping along Shrine Pass Rd where we did ending up finding a nice spot for the night.
The next morning we got up and headed into Denver where we went through Jurassic World: The Exhibition (which was cool but a bit cheesy for adults and older teens) and then went to see the latest Jurassic Park movie. Since it was still early in the day we decided to hit the road east towards home and try to get some good miles behind us. We stopped for dinner in the middle of Kansas at El Jalapeno Mexican Restaurant that had some excellent food (unexpectedly good considering we're from SoCal where Mexican food is hard to beat) and the continued on to Benneville, KS where we caught some Zzz's and then got home the following afternoon.
All told we were gone for 12 days and covered just under 3,000 miles. It was bittersweet being home, we were glad to be back but also missed being on the road so for this trip I'd say it was just the right amount of time for the 3 of us. My wife said today that she wished we were back in the mountains and I agreed, so I suspect within a few years we're likely to migrate west again (permanently, not for just a trip) but to someplace we've never lived before. Perhaps next summer we'll head to ID/WA to explore that area as a potential new home base.
We started out on Saturday, July 30th from Illinois and got into Colorado Springs around midnight that night. The following day we got up and headed over to Royal Gorge where my daughter and I did the zipline across the gorge, then the 3 of us (wife, daughter, myself) walked across the bridge and checked things out, the weather was nice and not too hot (yet).
From there we drove to Silverton and got a room at the Teller House as it was getting late/dark, after checking in we grabbed a bite to eat at the Avalanche Brewing Company since that was the only place still open. The following morning we got up and did some final provisioning of food, water, and anything small we might've forgotten before we headed for our favorite camp area; Bandora Mine. We stayed there for a couple of nights and most of the afternoons were met with monsoons. We had 2-3 deer come and visit us every afternoon to see what we were up to and the morning that we were packing up to leave an adolescent moose wandered by camp and headed up into the trees, so that was cool. What wasn't cool was that the morning we were leaving Silverton my truck started sounding like a VW Beetle under the hood with some chirping related to the turbo/exhaust. I had an issue earlier this year where 3 of the 4 factory turbo-to-downpipe studs just...fell out. I noticed a weird noise when accelerating and eventually discovered the problem. Wasn't too awful to fix, and unfortunately that wasn't the problem in Colorado. All studs and nuts accounted for. I will also add that before and after addressing the stud issue earlier this year I would momentarily smell diesel exhaust after startup but I assumed it was just because there was some carbon between the gasket that was preventing a full seal and once things heated up and expanded it stopped as I couldn't smell it anymore. Well, I'm rather certain the source of the exhaust wasn't from that. It was from 3 loose exhaust manifold nuts. :( They were slowly loosening over time until Silverton where it started chirping due to the exhaust leak. Ended up tightening up those nuts at our Bandora Mine campsite and problem solved. This problem was progressing so slowly that I didn't really catch any loss of power or exhaust braking ability until we were in Colorado where I felt like my exhaust brake wasn't as effective anymore. Anyway, after fixing the manifold nuts the engine was more responsive and the exhaust brake was working much better, so yay! Now, on with the story...
During our stay at Bandora Mine we drove up to Clear Lake for the views and so our daughter could recreate a picture she took the first time and she also wanted to try and take a dip in the lake this time as well, which she did for a very quick moment before hopping out because the water was super cold!
After packing up camp we headed back down the mountain to Silverton to refill the water tank in the trailer and get some pizza from Golden Block Brewery which was my daughter's favorite pizza place last time we were in Colorado. It was quite tasty but later in the trip we found an even better pizza place.
Once back on the road we headed to Ouray where we got a site at the night at Ouray Riverside Resort where we did some laundry, went into the Ouray Hot Springs, and then had a delicious dinner at Red Mountain Brewing.
The next day we were on the road again, this time we set up camp at Alta Lakes dispersed campground and got an amazing site with lake views. We spent a couple of nights there, hiked around the lower lakes, spent an afternoon in Telluride where we rented eBikes and rode out towards Bridal Veil Falls, got some tasty sandwiches and bakes goods from Baked in Telluride, and rode the gondolas over to Mountain Village where we walked around the amazing resort before hiding the gondola back to San Sophia where we got some great pics, and then rode it back down to Telluride.
Our next destination was Lake City, another place we had been before and wanted to get back to...mainly because of the food we had. This time we ended up staying a couple of nights at River Fork RV Park, again to do some laundry and be close to good food that we missed. As you can probably tell, this trip was less about extreme dispersed camping and overlanding and more about making sure our daughter (17) was able to have internet access for part of the trip and getting our fill of food from both places we have and haven't been. We were fully equipped to spend many days away from civilization but ended up adding in quite a bit of eating out and enjoying the small towns. While in Lake City we had dinner at one of our favorite places, the Packer Saloon & Cannibal Grill. Their grilled chicken "Sammy" is excellent and the cheesecake is quite tasty as well. The following day we did the southern portion of the Alpine Loop from Lake City to Cinnamon Pass (back in 2020 we did the northern route from Silverton to Lake City), got some great pics before retreating back into the truck to get out of the cold wind blowing through the pass. After heading back down to Lake City we decided to head over to the Silver Slice Pizza Co., which I believed opened up last summer, and had one of the best pizzas we've ever had (definite top 3). They were short staffed so the service was a bit slow but friendly, however it was totally worth it. The pizza was amazing and the crust was had a bit of butter and garlic with the sides folded over like mini calzones. IMO, they had the perfect ratio of crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings. On the 3rd day we packed up and headed over to Breakfast Hangout & Euphoria, a place that has 5 stars on Google (though not a whole lot of reviews). Everything was amazing and the 5 stars are well-earned. My wife had avocado eggs benedict and I had super oats. Absolutely top notch.
After leaving Lake City our goal was to head north to I-70 and make a stop in St. Elmo along the way, having never been there before we weren't sure what to expect but though it would be a neat ghost town to check out. We got there and the chipmunks and ground squirrels stole the attention, we sat there for probably 45 minutes feeding and hanging out with the cute critters before getting some stickers and souvenirs from the general store. We headed back down to the main highway and headed north to I-70 where we headed into East Vail for a quick yet very good dinner at Grill on the Gore. From there it was time to figure out where we were going to stop for the night. We were hoping for an open first-come first-served site at Gore Creek Campground but no such luck. I decided we should head east on I-70 and look for dispersed camping along Shrine Pass Rd where we did ending up finding a nice spot for the night.
The next morning we got up and headed into Denver where we went through Jurassic World: The Exhibition (which was cool but a bit cheesy for adults and older teens) and then went to see the latest Jurassic Park movie. Since it was still early in the day we decided to hit the road east towards home and try to get some good miles behind us. We stopped for dinner in the middle of Kansas at El Jalapeno Mexican Restaurant that had some excellent food (unexpectedly good considering we're from SoCal where Mexican food is hard to beat) and the continued on to Benneville, KS where we caught some Zzz's and then got home the following afternoon.
All told we were gone for 12 days and covered just under 3,000 miles. It was bittersweet being home, we were glad to be back but also missed being on the road so for this trip I'd say it was just the right amount of time for the 3 of us. My wife said today that she wished we were back in the mountains and I agreed, so I suspect within a few years we're likely to migrate west again (permanently, not for just a trip) but to someplace we've never lived before. Perhaps next summer we'll head to ID/WA to explore that area as a potential new home base.
