Part 2 of 3; Story begins in Part 1
Wednesday, August 23
East Fork Dispersed Camping Area (continued)
When I got up in the morning I could smell wood smoke. Apparently the wind shifted and the wildfire smoke was drifting this way. I'd thought I'd spend two days in this area, but the situation had changed. I had breakfast, broke camp, and headed back to the highway.
Rio Grande National Forest
I turned north on US-160 and drove up and over Wolf Creek Pass. In looking at the map I'd seen a road I'd not explored that took off east of the highway to Big Meadows Reservoir. There was a USFS campground there, but the road continued on and perhaps there was dispersed camping up there that way.
Big Meadows
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| Big Meadows Reservoir |
The campground was situated up the slope beside the lake. There were sites with views, but they were generally close together and well populated. I took a couple photos and headed back to the highway. I was asked later if there might have been dispersed camping farther along the road. At the time I thought the sign was all inclusive, but don't really know. If you're interested the District Ranger could tell you.
Eastern San Juans
A few years ago I'd driven up the Conejos River Valley from CO-17. I'd camped in the official dispersed camping area, then continued on to Platoro, then up and over and down Park Creek Road, FS-380. I seemed to recall there were campsites along there. I thought I'd go up that road and around the summits, but skip the Conejos River road as it was miles of miserable washboard. Instead I'd go out by following the Alamosa River which would be new to me.
With this in mind I found and followed Park Creek Road. Sure enough there were camping spots along the river, most of which were occupied. I did find one that was available, but there was a lot of ATV traffic kicking up dust along the road. I kept going and from looking at the satellite maps before my trip knew there were meadows along the river farther up that might provide camping.
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| Black-tipped Ragwort and Fireweed |
One of those meadows was hosting what looked like a jamboree. I passed another that looked promising and backtracked to check it out. There was one large trailer but the double-track appeared to follow the river and I saw no campers there. When I started up the track I found the reason why. The area was blocked off for landscape rehabilitation purposes. Oh, well, onward and upward.
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| Black-tipped Ragwort, AKA Roadside Senecio, and some stinkweed, too |
I checked out a few side roads, but most were pretty gnarly. Another looked sort of OK, but on closer examination the potential campsite was covered in cow patties. Yuck. Another had neither a view or creek access. Since it was still early due to my quick exit from the fire zone, I kept going. When I reached the top there was an interesting spot with a fabulous view, however a chilly wind was kicking up and the site was exposed. I kept going with a Plan B in mind.
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| View from the top |
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| A better photo of a Cop Car Moth |
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| Big Red Mountain |
On my earlier trip I'd stopped in a small primitive campground near the Stunner mine site to have lunch. That would be my fallback option.
Stunner Campground
It's good to have a Plan B. As I pulled into the campground I was the only one there. It has a half dozen nice sites with picnic tables and a metal fire rings. There is one vault toilet. It was only around 2pm, but I found a pretty site that was level for the camper and could catch some sun if the clouds would cooperate. I took the site rather than drive until I'd exhausted my options and myself.
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| My campsite with a view of the meadow and valley |
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| Alamosa River as seen from my campsite |
Stunner is named for the mining camp near here established in 1892. According to signage 400 miners, gamblers, and camp followers came to this spot, but many quickly moved on. There is supposed to be remnants of the camp around, but I didn't see any.
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| I was fascinated by the intense blue of this little Gentian |
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| An "artistic" shot of a little paintbrush |
I had a pleasant afternoon. One jeep came in with two older couples who had a picnic for an hour across the way. A forest ranger came by to check on the little wetland there have, which I know as I was out looking for flowers to photograph so was able to speak to them briefly. I'd actually had a lazy day, so after dinner I walked the half mile access road back to the "main" road and took a picture of an old cabin there at the junction. Though not in good shape it is much too new to be part of the old mining camp. It was a nice quiet night.
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| Old cabin—perhaps a defunct forest guard station |
Thursday, August 24
Stunner Campground (continued)
No need to rush out of camp this morning and no reason to stay, either. After breakfast I wandered around and took a couple dozen photo of the birds—none of which were worth saving. Got a good photo of a chipmunk, however, as he charged along the road right at me, until he saw me.
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| Chipmunk suddenly realized I'm standing here. |
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| A beautiful morning in the Alamosa River valley |
Here is a spherical panorama of the area:
I'd drive down the Alamosa River Road, FS-250, and see what was there. The map showed a campground situated along the river near the end of the national forest which I'd check out. But most likely I would proceed back to the highway south of Alamosa and head to my favorite northern New Mexico camping spot on the Rio de los Piños River. That would be a very nice conclusion to my trip.
Alamosa River Road
It was a very pleasant drive on a gravel road in good condition. The river was on my right as I drove through the aspen. I kept my eyes peeled in case there were any turn offs to dispersed campsites along the river, but didn't see any. I found one site on the mountain side by a tiny creek, but it wasn't level.
Just before I got to Jasper. I saw a pond right next to the road. I pulled over to see if there were any dragonflies and sure enough I quickly spotted some flying by. I parked and tried my luck.
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| Alpine dragonfly pond |
I enjoyed about 45 minutes of walking around two sides of the pond trying my hand at capturing whatever critters I could with my camera. The first image here is not very good, but I'm posting it as a reminder to always check my settings before shooting. I had a golden opportunity with a usually fast moving darner hovering still in front of me and my shutter speed was too low. He never cooperated again. I heard at least two Pika calling from the talus on the far side of the pond, but never saw them.
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| Paddle-tailed Darner at too slow of a shudder speed |
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| Northern Bluet damselfly |
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| A terrible pest, but pretty |
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| Northern Bluets in tandem |
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| A Northern Spreadwing—my first |
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| Enormous dragonfly... or perhaps a juvenile Broad-tailed Hummingbird |
Alamosa Campground
Jasper is simply a long strip of private land which extends a mile or so farther downstream where folks have built cabins and summer homes. I saw no businesses. There is a last section of the national forest before more private and state land. The Alamosa Campground sits at the bottom of the forest land and is a very pleasant, free campground on the river. There are a half dozen sites, three on the river itself, and one vault toilet. Two of the river sites seemed to be long-term campers; 4 the other sites were open. I found a spot to rest and have a picnic lunch.
Continuing down FS-250 one quickly leaves the pines and conifers for a drier area of piñon and juniper. The road skirts Terrace Reservoir before being directed into a parallel valley. At that point I changed over to FS-255 which would take me south and east to Capulin over dry and dusty gravel roads though desert like terrain. From there it was a straight shot east to La Jara and US-285.
Conejos County
One of the eBooks I'd brought along turned out to be a short novella rather than a full-length novel, so I wanted more reading material. Once I was back on the grid I tried to use my phone as a hot-spot to access the online library. For some reason this just didn't work. Rats! A couple miles south on the highway is a USFS office I stopped there to see if they had WiFi. They had guest WiFi, but it wasn't working. The young man working there provided directions so I could go back about a mile to the county library to use their WiFi. I did and asked the librarian if a traveler could use their WiFi. She wrote out the password for me. I was able to return the books others where waiting for and check out a hold that was ready for me. Excellent.
I filled up the truck at an unattended, credit card only gas station in Antonito, CO. It also seemed to be the only gas in the village and offered only regular grade. Fortunately it was at a good price.
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