We have some Austin friends who like to camp in one place at a time for longer stretches. This is their summer routine. Imagine our glee when they said they’d be near us this time! Since we were behind on our own trip planning for the year, we accepted their invitation to join them.
Mountains are funny geography when you are in a car, but are even funnier when you are in or towing a large vehicle like an RV. If we left home in just the Jeep and drove to Granby, the drive time is 1:40 but adding the time to go get the RV from storage and backtrack to get to the roads we can use is 3:30. There just isn’t a more direct route from storage to Granby.
Day 1 – driving and setting up
We got to this gi-nor-mous RV Resort about 30 minutes after our friends. Everyone was a bit frazzled from the long mountain drives and the intense-for-a-Monday traffic.
About a minute after we popped over to their site to say hi, my homemade kombucha exploded from the altitude, sending pink juice and bits of pomegranate all over me, a bunch of stuff, and our friends’ patio. It sounded like a gun shot. And I’m glad I was wearing sunglasses as the lid hit me in the face. At least it was funny.
Day 2 – all the wind
Our second day was so windy, that we didn’t even leave the RV.
Day 3 – Grand Lake
Exploring in the small town of Grand Lake was fun. We stopped in a store devoted entirely to mushrooms; it’s lovely. For lunch, I had my first ever rainbow trout (so good!). We spent the evening with our friends, and when the sun set and it turned chilly, we all headed inside. I even went to bed early.
Day 4 – exploring and drinking
On our way in to Granby, we drove through the town of Hot Sulphur Springs. It was on our ToDo list, and we were not impressed. However, we try to give everything (and everyone) two chances. We decided to head over and drive to the resort itself. And on our way out we saw a bald eagle fishing in the lake on the RV resort property! He must have gotten too close to a small bird nest because then we saw three birds chase him away. So, we drove back over to check out the Hot Sulphur Springs Resort & Spa. It’s a hard pass for us. Our friend asked, “but how about the spa?” I told her spa was a funny word. At least we found a pretty view while Jeepin’ Around the area.
Later, we all quickly hit the weekly not-farmers market as the weather turned ominous and then grabbed some dinner.
But the two of us were not done for the night. We headed to the resort bar. We learned a lot about the property and even the corporation. And the F&B manager was pouring free drinks for me so I was sure to get a taste of all the fun cocktails. I’ll drink my way through the menu for the rest of our time here!
Day 5 – Winter Park with friends
We got an early (for us) text from our friend asking if we’d like to go to breakfast with two other friends we all have in common (they moved to Colorado a few years before we did) and then to Winter Park. We jumped up and got ready in a flash. Breakfast from the local ranch restaurant was divine.
The drive over was easy, parking was not. But we ended up in the cute village. After getting wristbands, we headed up the mountain. I was not happy with the gondola ride and its shakes and wiggles. But I powered through.
After that, the group wanted to ride the alpine slide. I would *love* to ride the alpine slide, but it takes a scary-for-me ski lift to get there. He assured me he didn’t even want to do it; he’s quite kind. We hung out in the village, I drank beer and petted dogs, and we just enjoyed the people watching. The cool part about our friends is that no one cared about my phobia. Love them!
After a long day of adventuring, we all headed to our own retreats.
Day 6 – a new friend
Ace Hardware in this town is a “Country Ace” store. It’s adorable and has two resident cats (who are also part of their marketing). We even ran into our camping friends while there. OH and I found the ever-so-elusive 2-gallon Ziplock bags there!
At a whiskey tasting by Breckenridge distillery (where I bought a bottle of Rum Cask whiskey), we made a couple of new friends.
Day 7 – Shiner
We found the pool to be utter chaos, but with Shiner on draft, we “persevered” through it. We also bumped into one of our new friends who invited us to a Power Hour. There, we met her friends, most of whom live near us. We played a new-to-us drinking game. After we cooked and ate our dinner, we rounded the night out with a fire with our camping buddies.
Day 8 – fireworks
Grand Lake is a cute tourist town nearby and it was totally nuts for the 3rd. We did some Jeepin’ Around and found a tiny cookie trailer that was too cute (and yummy!) to pass up. We saw another bald eagle (or maybe the same one) fishing from the lake.
That night, we watched the Granby fireworks from a hillside. For some of the fireworks, we were looking kind of down on them. Others were at eye level to us. We were also super impressed with the tiny “napalm” ones.
Day 9 – what the hail?
We also went to “Margarita Maddness” (where the price goes up every 30 minutes) but people were so rude over it, that the F&B manager had to lock it down to serving one-per-person at a time. It sucks when a few jackasses ruin the fun for everyone else. By this time, the staff were growing weary of the jerks. Who could blame them?
Day 10 – water
With the holiday behind us, we drove over to Monarch Lake and took a short hike to a lovely picnic spot. Then, we drove over to the other side of town into Rocky Mountain National Park to take a slightly longer hike to some waterfalls. We rounded out the afternoon watching very young sailors navigate tiny boats in the cove by the marina.
Day 11 – Jeepin’ Around
After an errand, we drove up a mountain road off the main highway in Winter Park. Next, we drove a few miles down and crossed over the same highway to drive around Snow Mountain Ranch. It was a great drive!
Day 12 – #DuckDuckJeep
We hit the local drive in for burgers and ducked a couple of Jeeps. One had the driver in it, so she gave us a duck and told us about Rollins Pass. We also picked up some firewood for the night, and then rounded the evening out with our camping friends, a good fire, some rum cask whiskey, and a lot of laughs.
Day 13 – Rollins Pass
We wasted no time heading over to Rollins Pass. Well, we did stop for the best bagels ever at the local shop (where the dough is shipped in from New York!).
After gassing, up we spent about 2.5 hours Jeepin’ up the mountain and another 1.5 coming back down. (Google Maps is obviously using the mileage to estimate the time and is not using the times of the people who have done it.)
We saw tons of wildflowers, quite a bit of snow, and two alpine lakes (one still had ice!). We also met some Czechs on motorbikes who loved the Czech name of our Jeep!
There were two events going on, too. One was a bike race that starts in Fort Collins, follows a lot of the Continental Divide Trail, and ends in Trinidad. It’s a self-sufficient race, so there are zero support teams. The guy who told us about it was walking his bike because he had ridden 175 miles the previous day!
We stopped at a pub for a late lunch and to decompress; we met some amazing locals, including a guy who builds high-end custom log cabin homes in the Winter Park area.
Day 14 – Kugg
We just had to return to Debbie’s for lunch…and then we learned why the burgers are so good. It’s also owned by the same ranch as the really good breakfast we had.
Next, we headed to the Winter Park ArtAffair. It was a pretty good little show. We popped into Hideaway Park brewery for a quick break from the sun. I have to come back in cooler weather so I can enjoy more than just a taster of their chocolate Ember. Woah was it good!
For our evening, we headed up to the resort’s main bar, where we ran into the local crew and played a new-to-us game: Kugg. It’s a Viking lawn game and it was a lot of fun.
Day 15 – 🙁
After a relaxing morning, we went for lunch. It was not good in too many ways. 🙁
When we came back, I crashed kinda hard. I ended up taking a 5-hour nap. So much for any kind of sleep schedule. 🙁
After waking up at 9pm, I went to finish a load of laundry and our little off grid machine finally broke. I’m quite sad because it’s been great to have. We were both skeptical of the purchase because of the kind of listing on Amazon. Then when we first got it, three of the parts broke within the first five uses. Still, it soldiered on for the rest of that season and the first third of this one. 🙁
We already have “the original” off-grid washer in our Amazon shopping list. That model has been around for a very long time. I wanted one in college, but just couldn’t afford it. If I had had it for all the years I had to pay to wash, I’d have paid for it over and over again. 🙁 Update: It came in and it’s not good. There is no way to spin the clothes at all, so everything is way to heavy to hang up. We are returning it.
Day 16 – the invisible art trail
Winter Park has art installations along their portion of the Fraser river trail. Instead of sculpture, these are prints of wall art. They are printed on a special UV paper and mounted along the trail.
The art is advertised, but the art section of the trail is nearly impossible to find, there is no parking, and the bus route that would service this trail only runs in the winter. They have a few kinks to work out.
Day 17 – Georgetown
We took a drive down to Georgetown for lunch. We had great food and a superb view at Cabin Creek Brewing.
We then drove the Guanella Pass above the tree line and up to 12,500′. It’s always a pretty drive and a great view.
Day 18 – RMNP west
Breakfast at the Fat Cat Cafe was amazing. We bought a cool piece of art, too!
We spent the afternoon driving through the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw a ton of elk, (some people getting way too close to the elk), quite a few chipmunks, and some gorgeous views.
Day 19 – trying to chill
We’d have liked to relax. We tried to go to the pool and hot tubs. But there are zero adult-only spaces on this massive property (not even the two bars). We got some water time, but it was too many feral kids coupled with a very windy day, so it wasn’t relaxing at all. That evening, the bar was the same. All our new friends were working on the full weekend. I did get a nice gift of a new beer to try from the F&B manager. 🙂 That was sweet!
Day 20 – Jeepin’ in the Wind
Another windy day, but we found more trails through forest land and near a 4×4 rental place. It was amazing to see so many people camping in the former (because it burned) forest.
Later in the day, we got a text from our friend. His wife got rear ended and he needed a ride to her. There is a tiny bit of visible damage to their truck. The driver at fault will probably need a new radiator; he for-sure needs a new bumper. He also needs to learn to give his name and phone number when he causes an accident. Luckily, the Sheriff was there by the time we got there, so all the i’s were dotted and t’s crossed.
Day 21 – some r&r
We already went back to the Fat Cat. It’s all buffet on the weekends and it was good. All the usual things were there, plus options for vegetarians and gluten-free. She made Scotch Eggs that were fabulous. There were also about 20 types of pastries.
We spent yet another WINDY afternoon and gorgeous evening having digital fun. I worked on some videos and graphics while he gamed. We also ordered a few things we want to arrive while we are between trips. (Oh, and our friend just got a game we both have. It’s not a new game or anything, so that’s an odd coinkydink.)
Day 22 – movie day
What a relaxing morning. We puttered about the rig doing chores here and there. We heard from our friends that there is only minor damage to their truck! And our new friend who now works here gave us a couple of days of her schedule so we can go support her and her new gig.
E really wanted to see Indiana Jones. I’d prefer the Barbie movie (go watch the video about the set; it’s incredible!), but it’s not at the little theater up here, yet. Wow was this a “crappy little” “reglear” “the-a-ter”! It opened 10 minutes before the show, which isn’t nearly enough time for people to get a drink/popcorn and find a seat. The screen rooms layout is funky, so everyone has to walk in front of every one else. They don’t pay people well enough, so they can’t serve food (besides popcorn) right now because they can’t keep a staff. The local commercials were horrendous. There weren’t any previews. The uber-dark theater had stairs (even to the ADA seats. WTF?), so the couple that was late had to use their “phooone as a flashlight to get to [a] seat” but the railing in front of us was a glass wall, so it was reflecting like crazy. Alamo Drafthouse this was NOT! Also, the movie is 2.5 hours long. He liked it, but I thought it was about as ridiculous as the aliens one.
We came back to the rig, and while I was cooking dinner, we found some water in a very weird spot. ::sigh:: These kinds of things are never fun to find. We cleaned it up and waited for the drop to reappear so we could find the source.
And he found a new game on a Steam sale: Prison Architect. He was having so much fun that I got it, too. I’m already a little addicted to it. 🙂
Day 23 – the leak
We think the leak was just a loose fitting. He took apart the cabinet (which had been reassembled in a shoddy fashion after the sink fell out of the counter), found what we think is the source, and repaired it. Now, we are just living with all that stuff all over the place so we can see if the fix worked.
While we waited for drips to reappear, we headed up to the pool bar to hang out with our new friend. She’s been bartending 5 days now and you’d never know she was new. Hopefully, we’ll get to see her one last time before we leave.
The leak seems to have stopped! yay!
We made a little fire (with sage!) and enjoyed the evening air. There was a Starlink satellite launch from California, but it was way too cloudy to see it.
Day 24 – a baby and the repair
I watch some YouTubers who homestead. One has an enormous garden and she does a lot of cooking and canning. I’ve learned a lot from her about cooking. She turned me on to a Dutch Baby. I made one for us for breakfast this morning and we are hooked. YUM! I can’t believe how good it turned out in an RV oven!
Next up, we had to repair the cabinet where the leak was. After a trip to the store, he took on this task alone while I did other chores. We normally work together a little more, but there just isn’t room in an RV cabinet/hallway for more than one person. I’m quite relieved that our time between trips can now be used for daytime prep (shop and make freezer meals for the next-and-bigger trip) and nighttime fun (drinks/dinners with friends).
And to celebrate National Hot Dog Day (third Wednesday in July), we did!
We rounded out the evening with a good campfire with our friends. Later, a big storm blew in, so we fell asleep to the sounds of rain and wind hitting the motorhome.
Day 25 – our last full day
Not really. At about 2pm, we were greeted by a staff member wondering why we hadn’t yet left. He was escorting another camper with a popup to our spot. Turns out, we only reserved through Thursday, but didn’t put that on our calendar. We were in no condition to leave, so we added another night.
We wanted a last visit with our new friend, so we hit the afternoon slump at the bar. Next up, one last dinner at Sagebrush in Grand Lake. Dinner with our friends was great, but (we were all too full and) they were too tired for one more campfire. So, he and I went back to the little bar and closed it down. Good thing, too, since we ran into more friends to say goodbye to. One couple lives in the Denver area, so we hope to see them again soon.
Day 26 – checking out
Our checkout morning was uneventful. And, though it was a Friday, traffic was only a little busier than on most weekdays. Twice, we even timed the one-lane-for-construction stops in our favor. We got the rig put to bed, and grabbed a late lunch.
By the end of the evening, I had nearly all our laundry done. I even tested our new off grid washer. We’re going to return it. It’s made with much better parts than the one that broke, so I wish it had worked out. Without a spin option, we might as well be washing clothes in a bucket. Water gets everywhere and the clothes are too heavy to hang up.