Camper Travels

This was a last-minute excursion – and second visit – to this location. There was snow in the forecast for the coming week, so we wanted to get away for a day to enjoy the beautiful fall weather before it turned.

The previous campsite at Chatfield we stayed at was in the A Loop, and pretty decent. This time we stayed in the D Loop and liked the state park even more. Lots of mature pine trees around most of the sites in our loop, and we had a perfect spot that was adjacent to a closed section. So we had some isolation from others even though there were a fair amount of other campers around. 

We ventured on a walking path near our loop that provided great views of the mountains, reservoir, and open space throughout the park. As an added bonus, we found an old wagon and cabin that was relocated from another property in the county a couple of decades ago. The cabin is believed to be one of the oldest structures in the Denver area, if not in the entire state of Colorado.

For the D Loop, however, the toilets and showers were not close to our pad, so the walk to the bathrooms, when needed, was a bit of a trek. If you don't have toilet facilities in your camper, keep this in mind if staying in that camping loop.

It was great impromptu getaway that provided some fantastic scenery and fresh air this late in the season.

The third trip in our camper was our favorite so far. We drove north from Denver and found a great state park near Loveland – Boyd Lake State Park.

This was more urban than our Chatfield experience, as you could see the adjoining neighborhoods on the east and west sides of the park. But the park itself was extremely clean and well-cared for. There were an abundance of trees next to each campsite on the northern end of the sites, but we noticed fewer trees around the sites to the southern end.

There are fantastic trails near the campsites that take you around the lake and open spaces within the park. We enjoyed a nice walk on a beautiful fall afternoon, taking pictures and soaking in the warm fall weather. The leaves were just starting to change color, so there were great green and gold backgrounds everywhere you looked.

The drive home was a bit eventful, as the winds really picked up Sunday morning, even worse than our experience at Jackson Lake a couple of weeks prior. After some white knuckle driving on the Interstate for a few miles, we opted to take a secondary highway back home. This turned out much better and resulted in much less swaying of the vehicle during the drive. We might have to look into adding some sway bars to the hookup to assist with windy conditions on future excursions.

The second trip in our camper saw us traveling a bit farther out from our home base. We chose Jackson Lake State Park (near Orchard/Weldona) in northeastern Colorado as we could take the Interstate the majority of the way to/from our storage lot.

We were able to secure a campsite near the water, or so we thought. Given the drought in the area this year, the lake was considerably lower than expected so the distance between our site and the actual water was about 200 yards. In a normal year, the water would have been about 20-30 yards away from the site we were at. It was a little bit buggy, too, even though the water had receded significantly.

The pictures on the camping reservation site weren't up to date, and showed large trees next to our site location. We were extremely disappointed to find those trees no longer existed when we pulled in to park our camper. The bathroom/shower facilities were generally clean, but one day the women's toilets were overrun with bugs. Like, end-of-times covered in bugs.

To make matters worse, the smoke from the horrible forest fires in the Colorado mountains were traveling through our part of the state. This made the entire area seem like we were right next to a raging campfire. In fact, the smoke was so bad on the second day, we stayed inside the camper for a good portion of the afternoon. Also on the second day (and night), the winds were extremely strong and shook everything around us. 

Given the low water level, bugs, the smoke, strong winds, and washboard road in and out of the park, this wasn't our best camping trip. But we still enjoyed spending time inside our camper and reflecting on the work we put into making it possible to get out in the Colorado outdoors.

This was the maiden voyage of our renovated camper so we could test everything. We didn't stray too far from our home base, just in case there were any significant issues we needed to contend with. Fortunately, everything worked as expected and we were able to enjoy our first trip.

To make things even better, our good friends Jerry and Jennifer (and their newly-purchased Jayco Hummingbird camper) were camping at the same location that weekend so we got to hang out with them, too. We also had mutual friends Jeff and Michelle come down from Fort Collins to spend time with all four of us and enjoy the late Colorado summer.

The campsite at Chatfield was pretty decent, with all hookups available at the site. The toilets and showers were reasonably close to our pad, so the walk to the bathrooms, when needed, wasn't too bad. We were able to secure a spot on the very outside loop of our section, backing up to a nice open space.

The reservoir is very popular on weekends, so expect some boat and jet ski noise throughout the day. There are great hiking and bike trails within the park, and great views of the Rocky Mountain front range.

Overall, this was a successful and enjoyable trip that made us want to get back out and enjoy our new toy very soon.