Centennial RV Park, Montrose, Colorado

Today we drove from Rifle State Park to Centennial RV Park in Montrose Colorado. We needed fuel we were down to close to a quarter tank and if you get below that the generator wont run which means we can not run the roof air while driving, so we really needed to fuel up somewhere, last fill up was August 27 on our way up to Estes Park,. Today we took on 82 gallons today, we can hold 125 gallons. Its a 150 gallon tank but can only get 125 into it due to the way the tank filler tubes are connected to the upper side of the tank. We had to drive into Grand Junction to get fuel which we really were not planning on doing, we were going to go around it to get to Montrose, but we needed fuel.

Just a comment about driving on I70 in Colorado West of I25, you really have to stay focused driving a motorhome on I70. Our previous driving in the mountains on 2 lane roads like we did to and from Estes Park I expected the driving to require more effort and of course the scenic byways such as 7, 72 and 119 make it all worthwhile. I70 being an interstate the traffic really moves along very fast but you need to ignore how fast they are going and drive within the limits of the motorhome. I70 also has a really steep climb up to the Eisenhower ( west bound) and Johnson (east bound) tunnels. Likewise they have steep down hills sections for several miles as you leave the tunnels. I70 has faster moving traffic with sweeping turns that are fun to power through in a car, but a motorhome doesnt quite power through sweeping turns quite the same. So you have to keep reminding yourself to drive totally different and slow down before the turns and avoid using your brakes. DONT TRY TO KEEP UP WITH THE TRAFFIC, drive within the limits of the vehicle. It is a spectacular drive, you find yourself driving through rugged canyons with I70 West lanes suspended above the I70 East bound lanes. I missed a lot of the scenery, the road really requires a lot of concentrated effort. It was still a spectacular drive, but didnt see nearly as much as I would have seen had I been driving a car. I am glad I did not tackle I70 west of I25 last year. I learned a lot last year and needed all the skills I learned last year to competently drive I70 this year. I am sure I would have done just fine last year, but it would have been much more stressful and I probably would have felt in over my head. Last years trip we had short segements of challenging uphills and downhills and I learned when to downshift going up steep hills and how to use the engine brake effectively going down steep hills.

I asked Debbie to take pictures as we drove and she took pictures of a lot of things I didnt see. I will post some of these pictures within the next few days.

I70 East of I25 is just the opposite, its straight as an arrow with not too many challenging mountain climbs and mile after mile of corn for hundreds of miles. You can find yourself losing concentration while driving I70 through Kansas for example. Not complaining about Kansas or all the corn at all, its just that there is a huge difference driving I70 west of I25. All those miles of corn in Kansas are impressive in their own unique way.

Finally a park with gravel roads and gravel sites and grassy area for your picnic table. We will stay here again.

The idea here is another RV pulls in next to you but pointing the other direction and pulls all the way forward. That way the RV units are not exactly side by side, they are offset and no one is looking at the side of another RV. Its a great idea.

The place is empty because technically it is closed but they let us stay longer since we got there before they closed.

Rifle Gap State Park Colorado

We left Estes Park at 10am Tuesday 9/28 on our way to Montrose, Colorado. We are going to stop along the way at Rifle Gap State Park in Rifle Colorado which is just West of Glenwood Springs. We arrived around 3:30pm. Rest Areas along I70 were few and far between and the few that we found were not setup for big motorhomes or big trucks. It would be nice if the state of Colorado posted this out on I70 and not when you get to the rest stop. We pulled over 3 times at a "rest stop" only to find that they were too small. We have traveled through a lot of states in the last 3 years and this is the first time we could not find a real rest stop. No wonder you see the truckers pulled off along the on ramps at several places along the way, there is just no place for them to stop other than the brake check areas.

West of the Eisenhower tunnel on I70, we saw a trucker about half way down the steep I70 downhill section with his brakes severely smoking. I hope he made it to the bottom. What a smell too, phew! Should have taken a picture of that but I was more concerned about getting around him and getting some distance between us. A lot of truckers were doing the same thing. I kind of expected the trucker to just stop in the right lane, it kind of looked like he was looking for a spot to pull off but there were not any in the immediate area. I am sure he was pretty anxious and had a lot of downhill to go.

Rifle Gap State Park is a relatively new park associated with a reservoir there, so like Chatfield, we see a lot of boats out and water skiing is still going on.

Pull throughs are simple, they run parallel to the road. This loop has all pull throughs.

Not many people here during the week this time of year. Temperature was around 85 during the day, 45 at nite.

Elk take over Estes Park Golf Course

Weather is cloudy and cold today, rain moved in around noon and it has been raining off and on all afternoon. Its been awhile since we had weather like this, Colorado Springs was the last time. Not complaining, actually suprised we have not had much rain while in Colorado.

So since its raining and we are going to the grocery store I didnt check to see if my Nikon D90 was in the car. We drive by the golf course on the way to the grocery store and there is a herd of about 25 elk in the part of the golf course we can see near hole 8. So now I find that the Nikon isnt in the car so I had to resort to the Canon SD550, it takes good pictures, it just doesnt have the same zoom and resolution of the Nikon.

Apparently the Elk taking over the golf course is an annual event because all the tee and green areas were fenced off to keep the Elk off of them. This is the Elk rut season

http://www.estes-park.com/go/elkbugling.html

Here are some pix, I have better ones from Moraine Park that I need to post.

Tee fenced off

Bull decides to rest too, its a lot of work herding 25 cows and calves

Spruce Lake RV site pictures

Here are some pictures of the 1st and 2nd site we stayed at Spruce Lake. We saw pretty much the same thing at Elk Meadow although at Elk Meadow the sites are longer and narrower so it feels tighter.

Mostly just dirt, no grass/weeds at all.

Site 49

Site 10 a better site with grass. The Bus is not as clean as it looks, it is very dusty and dirty, but the clearcoat finish still looks great along with the Turtle Wax Ice I used. Have not had a chance to wash Bus since we were in Colorado Springs.

View sitting along side of motorhome in the shade looking North. Ipod plugged into Bose

Rock Mountain National Park again

We decided to go back to RMNP for another week. The aspens here in RMNP are not showing their colors yet unless you get up to around the 9-10k elevation in the park. This time we are staying at Spruce Lake RV Park and like it better than Elk Meadows, there is more space between units, the sites are about 30 feet wide. However the sites are only about 40 feet deep so we just fit. Still a lot of dust and dirt here like at Elk Meadow however since this is a smaller park with shorter (in length) interior roads, people dont drive through here as fast as they do at Elk Meadow which helps keep the dust down.

Today we drove East on I70 from Breckenridge and through the Johnson Tunnel. The climb going east is steeper than going west, we slowed down to 37 mph just before the tunnel. Engine temperature was 208 all the way up at around 2200 rpms in 3rd gear. From I70 we went north onto the Central City Parkway to get to 72 and then 7 to get to Estes Park. I dont recommend using Central City Parkway to go north to get to Estes, I would use US6 to 119 then to 72 then to 7. Central City Parkway is a great 4 lane road but it just turns into a narrow 2 lane road that needs to be repaved and also dumps you into the middle of Central City then into the middle of Blackhawk, very small narrow roads geared towards the gamblers coming up their in cars, not really intended for RVs. You then get onto 119 at Blackhawk and head north to get to 72 and then 7 into Estes Park.

Aspens at entrance to Tiger Run in Breckenridge the day we left. Aspen color change is more dramatic at higher elevations right now

Two lane mountain road, from I70 we drove north on Central City Parkway then onto 72 and finally 7 to get to Estes Park. A little more work for the driver but a much more scenic route.

Only about 10 miles from here to Estes Park

Aspens on the way to Leadville

We went sight seeing to Leadville today and saw Aspen trees in a variety of colors. (Sorry about the formatting, I inserted larger pictures and the template is not adjusting for the larger pictures. to be fixed in a future release - I learned that phrase at the last place I worked at!)

Light green, yellow, gold are all Aspens

Aspens - quite a contrast

Breckenridge Colorado, Tiger Run

Today we drove south from Estes Park via Colorado 7, to Colorado 72, to Colorado 119 and then West on US6 to I70West driving through the Eisnehower Tunnel on I70 then to exit 203 driving through Frisco to arrive at Tiger Run RV Resort near Breckenridge. It was a very scenic drive driving in the mountains of Colorado on 2 lane roads.

Tiger Run RV Resort is a wonderfully landscaped and paved resort and of course expensive. Large lots, no dust, smooth roads, level sites, real grass for the dog, etc. Due to the high cost we usually dont stay at places like this but its off season now so our daily rate is $54 instead of $74. For our size motorhome, the only option is the back in sites so this is really not an over nite only kind of place to stay if you dont want to disconnect. The pull throughs are too short.

Our only complaint here is water pressure is a meager 36 psi and I estimate only about 2 gallons per minute, so we decided to fill our onboard water tank and then use our on board water pump which delivers 65 psi. Fortunately prior to starting our trip in June 2010, I had just changed out the original noisey oem water pump which was only 45 psi at 2.8 gallons per minute with a quieter Aquajet ES pump which is rated at 65 psi at 3.5 gallons per minute water pump.

There are a lot of people here in the general area of Dillon, Frisco and Breckenridge during the summer due to the weather and the variety of things to do. There are miles of paved bike lanes separated from the main road, Colorado 9, that runs from Frisco to Breckenridge. Dillion Reservoir is nearby and because this area is typically windy there are hundreds of sail boats that are docked here during the summer. Average size appears to be around 30 feet. Lots of sail boats out on the water during the weekend.

More later.

This is from when we were leaving and we were hooking up the car. You would also use this area to disconnect when you arrive.