We started our travels on April 27, 2007, leaving Lafayette, CO and heading west on I-70 into the Colorado Rockies. Our destination was Dinosaur National Monument with stops in Glenwood Springs, Rifle & Fruita, CO. We spent our first two nights just outside of Glenwood Springs in an overpriced RV resort located between the freeway and the Colorado River.This would not be our normal pattern, but it worked for now. We had spent several hours looking for boondocking sites referenced on the BLM website. These must have been very secluded as we couldn’t find a single one!
The Glenwood area is popular for its beauty and it’s hot springs. We have spent time in the area before and still haven’t gotten to everything. This time we enjoyed the Glenwood Canyon Bike Path. It runs along the Colorado River for 14 miles. It was a really fun bike ride along a beautiful river. We highly recommend it. In fact, we would like to ride it again in different seasons.
Rifle Falls State Park, CO
After leaving Glenwood, we headed to Rifle Falls State Park. We had heard that this park was an oasis in Western Colorado. The route through the dry high desert made this difficult to believe. However, upon arrival we were suddenly in a small lush valley that contained a campground with a stream running right next to our site. The falls were very pretty and the birding was terrific. During the week, the park was almost deserted.
Our next stop was Fruita. We stayed in a CO state park next to the Colorado River. Fruita is becoming well known for its mountain bike trails. Our friend Ian joined us and he and Dan did a more difficult ride. I stuck to the beginner sections. There are several nice trails that wind alongside cliffs above the Colorado River. The reds of the rocks contrasting with the green of the river is spectacular. We also spent a day driving through Colorado National Monument. The orange and pink rock formations were astounding. The weather wasn’t great that day, so we just drove through. We would like to go back and do some hiking along the canyons and among the rock pinnacles.
After Fruita, we headed to Dinosaur National Monument. Dan and Ian were
Wildflowers in Dinosaur National Monument
there to work. They were monitoring the movement of the Quarry building for the Park Service. While they worked, I took bike rides and watched the birds in our campground. Once again we were camped next to a river, which made for great birding. We could sit in our campsite and watch Orioles, Flickers, and Kingbirds fly from tree to tree. I was laying on the picnic table soaking up the sun one day when something ran across my legs. I looked up and there was a chipmunk frozen next to my legs. I am not sure which one of us was more surprised. I took this as an indication that this campground was not well used, along with there being several nights that we had the Green River Campground all to ourselves. We were starting to appreciate traveling during the week. We also enjoyed hiking among the wildflowers in the Monument. We were in the desert, but there was a lot growing. We were only able to explore a small portion of the Monument. It is quite a bit bigger than I expected and qualifies as the quietest National Park/Monument we have ever visited. We were already discovering that a week in one place would never be enough. After our week was up, we headed out for our next destination, Yellowstone.
