Summer 2020 in Colorado

When Covid hit, all our plans changed. States started shutting down and parks we had reservations for were no longer open. We knew we needed to get somewhere that we would be happy being stuck for an unforeseeable amount of time. Both of us love Colorado, and have friends there. We drove the 14 hours from where we were in Nevada to Colorado and hunkered down from May - August. Here is a short description of the places we stayed:

Our longest stay was for two months in South Fork, CO, at Peacock Meadows. The sites were great - they were long and diagonal so that we weren’t looking directly through our neighbors windows. Our reception was good, bathrooms were super clean, and there was an amazing breakfast restaurant just down the street that we walked to every weekend. It was difficult to get groceries and one off items, as the nearest grocery store that wasnt a gas station was about an hour away. We really needed to plan ahead. Some highlights include:

  • taking a weekend vacation to Ouray, CO (the town is nestled in the mountains and feels like you’d imagine Switzerland to be)

  • getting snowed on during a hike (in June!)

  • Ron getting his first drone

  • riding the motorcycle on the Silver Thread Scenic Byway

  • more hiking than we have ever done

  • shaving my head

After South Fork, we were ready to be closer to amenities. We ended up in Coaldale, CO for a month at Bighorn Park. We had driven past the previous year on our way to Alamosa, and thought being by the river would be really fun, plus when we tested our cell phones it seemed like there was reception. Coaldale was the perfect distance between Salida and Canon City, and the roads were windy and scenic. The bathrooms were clean and the camp hosts were so friendly. The sites were incredibly tight, and we ended up having almost no reception. Getting work done was a pretty big pain. Some highlights include:

  • having the most amazing sandwiches and pizza in Salida

  • hiking the continental divide

  • riding a train

  • spending the weekend in Aspen

We then drove about 30 minutes to our next destination - Canon City. We had stayed at that KOA previously, and no other parks in the area were offering month long stays, so we stayed for about a week. Highlights include:

  • pretty strong internet

  • visiting friends in Manitou Springs

  • watching the sun rise at the Royal Gorge

We had plans to have our friend Tyler come and visit, so he drove down to Colorado Springs and we stayed at Cheyenne Mountain State Park for a week. The sites are huge, there are a ton of hiking trails, and the bathrooms were spotless. We had almost no reception and wifi was non-existent, we were a long way from the bathroom, and both coming down from and going up the mountain was pretty tough on the RV. Highlights include:

  • taking Tyler to see Skyline Drive in Canon City and the Great Sand Dunes

  • getting an airbnb for a day and doing allllll the laundry

  • watching Spaghettiman

Our final stay in Colorado was in Walsenberg, CO, at Lathrop State Park. Due to wildfires in Colorado, the air was so smoggy that for the first few days we didnt even know you could see mountains from here. We spent most of our days indoors due to poor air quality. Walsenberg is a tiny town, but they had a Safeway and Tina’s Cafe. Our site was large and we felt pretty secluded, but once again we had no reception for me to do video calls. Highlights include:

  • riding the Highway of Legends

  • visiting the world’s first weed mall

  • our rv plug lighting on fire

  • Ron going out to the sand dunes at 1am to take pictures of the stars