En Route to Ridgway State Park...WOOOHOOO!!...September 8 - Day 13

(Kim's Perspective)

Today turned out to be very exciting to me.  If you recall, I was highly disappointed that we were going to miss Ridgway State Park and the whole surrounding area (Ouray, Telluride, Silverton).  Well, that all changed starting today!!!  Wooohoooo.  Here's how it went...

We slept in till 8 am and had a relaxing morning.  Bill went out on some of the BLM trails for a little while and I stayed at the camper and did a little mapping and weather forecasting.  Seeing that the weather wasn't going to be as frightful as the original forecast predicted, I talked to Mr. Sitt about their take on leaving Rifle Gap early (i.e. eating our already paid camping fee for the night) and heading to Ridgway.  He was game (Thanks, Man!!), so we figured on an afternoon departure since it was going to be a relatively short drive.  I had been wanting to go for a motorcycle ride to investigate a particular side road I was curious about, so when Bill got back from his solo adventure, we took off again for a short ride.  We stopped at the visitor center just to double check the weather forecast and confirm site availability at Ridgway.  We then jumped back on the bikes with me in the lead...about time I get to ride up front!  :)  The ride was right up my alley.  The paved, slightly twisty road turned into a well groomed gravel and dirt road that took us through some amazing scenery.  On the bikes, it's never convenient to take a lot of photos, so I didn't get too many since we were on a bit of a time crunch.  These will have to do.

Now that's a view!  :)

I could have ridden along for hours more - I was really enjoying myself, but again, we didn't have much time so we turned around after about 45 minutes and headed back the way we came.  I did, however, stop along the way to take a picture of this...

Why, yes, I CAN understand the K9 joy.

I want to be these people.  Let me get this straight - you have a log home in Colorado where you park your fifth wheel camper and your boat on your many acre spread with the killer view?  The only thing missing was motorcycles....which were probably in the garage.  <sigh> 

Bill and Shele were pretty much ready to go by the time we got back, so Bill and I tried to make quick work of loading the motorcycles onto the truck and getting the camper in traveling condition.  We were on the road in less than an hour and heading to Ridgway State Park.  :D

Lane....the forever faithful and trusty navigator.

As always, the journey is part of the adventure and there were plenty of cool things to see.  I took these three pictures before we left sight of the campground.  :)

The scenery never ceases to entertain me.

As fortune would have it, we dodged this storm by virtue of turning off of 70 in Grand Junction and heading south on 50 towards Montrose (and then on to 550 towards Ridgway).  By the way, I'm not spelling it wrong, it really doesn't have an "e" in it.

This storm however, we caught a bit of.  Not much though, just a few minutes of rain and then we drove out of it.

 After thousands of miles of driving, Mr. Sittinger took point for awhile....

....until we got into Montrose....and he realized that he didn't actually know where we were going.  :)  Ahhh, blind faith....I love that about them!!  I could never do that.  "Tell me where we're going or else!!"

Montrose was cool.  I could totally live there.  It's a modern cowboy town with a neat downtown area and all the modern amenities nearby.

Coolest ACE Hardware I've ever seen!

Look at those beautiful symbols....government recreation lands, how I love you so!

We want one of these at the compound....after the house is delivered.  LOL.

Navigating is exhausting...

After 3 or so hours, we finally arrived!!  In my sheer happiness that we made it to the area, I took a photo of every park sign we passed.  :)

 

Let me reiterate....this is the place that got my travel juices flowing when I spent countless hours researching and trip planning.  I REALLY wanted to be here....and now I was.  Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!!!

Having arrived at 4:30, we picked out our sites, set up...

Site 85 pretty much rocks.

...and then made use of the available day light and went for an evening stroll around the campground and the short trails around the loops.  We stopped by the camper services pavilion (basically, a laundry room with vending machines and a kiddie playground) and checked out some important posted notices.

Lions and Tigers and Bears - OH MY!

While perhaps not as exciting as spotting a bear or mountain lion, this little guy was too hard to pass up.

As we continued our jaunt, we found ourselves enjoying some pretty cool views.

A picture of a rainbow and a picture of a picture of a rainbow.  Does this create some kind of cosmic black hole?

We took some stupid selfies while we walked.  Bill, clearly, is not a fan of the selfie. 

At the end of the campground loop, we hopped onto the Sunset Ridge Trail...

clearly, not an epic hike or anything, but the views were surprising.  An excellent Effort to Reward Ratio.

 

We enjoyed the camaraderie with good friends...

WANT!

...and I took a moment to sit in solitude.

Does this rock make my butt look fat?

We followed the trail around as it intersected with another short trail and then popped out directly across from our campsite.  How handy.  :)

 

We ate leftovers for dinner and made plans for a day trip to Mesa Verde tomorrow.  The Sitts weren't interested in a long day of driving just to see the cliff dwellings, but in light of my quest to bag all the national parks before I die, it's gotta be done while we’re so close…or close enough (it's 2.5 hours away).  After we ate dinner, we settled in for the night and I worked on the blog and dumped pics from the camera while Bill chilled with his Kindle.  He has it so easy.  :)