A Beginner’s Guide to RVing in Colorado Part 2: Western Highlights

0:00You know, one of the few states in the country where I will legitimately say you could spend your life exploring the campgrounds in that state. Right. You draw Colorado, California. There's only a handful of states where I'd make that claim. Hi everyone, I'm Stephanie and I'm Jeremy. And we are the authors of the best selling where should we camp next series of guidebooks and camping journals? And of the brand new children's books, my first book of hiking and my first book of camping. This year we are celebrating the 12th anniversary of the RV Atlas podcast. Join us now as we cover the best campgrounds, the best RVs, the best food, and the best gear and gadgets to bring with you when you go. So pull up a chair and join us around the digital campfire. This is season 12 of the RV Atlas. Hello everybody and welcome to this week's episode of the RV Atlas. This week we are back with Carrie Cox from Travels with Birdie. And she is giving us a beginner's guide

1:02to RVing in Colorado, part two. Last week we did part one and she covered four of the Colorado board of tourism's eight regions. They split the state into eight regions. So last week, Carrie did the first four, roughly the eastern half of the state. We covered the pioneering planes, the canyons and planes, pikes peak wonders and Denver and cities of the Rockies. Today we're picking up with the other four regions, the Rockies playground, the Mystic San Luis Valley. If I said that correctly, mountains and maces and the Great West. So we are going to bring Carrie Cox back on the show. For each of these regions, we are going to talk about great things to do, great towns to visit. And of course, great campgrounds to park your RV. But before we dive into part two of this epic mini series, we have a sponsored message from our friends at Harvest Hosts. We love using our Harvest Hosts membership and make sure to renew it every single year

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3:04It's a win-win for hosts and for RV owners. Visit harvesthosts.com and use promo code RVAtlas20 to save 20% on your annual membership today. That's harvesthosts.com and promo code RVAtlas20 to save 20% today. Hello, Carrie Cox and welcome back to the RV Atlas for the umpteenth time. It's been so many great appearances over the years. I'm so excited to have you back for a beginner's guide to RVing in Colorado. Part two, how are we doing today? We're good, just frantically we bought a house for frantically trying to get that together and all those exciting life changes, a new home for birdie also. And your son just texted you and said that he's buying a house. So we just, we like to do life changes like 20 at all at once and then maybe we'll have a few, few settled years after that. Well, hope. Oh, I'm sure. And we're today we're going back to your happy place,

4:05not that you're home, your happy place. We're going back to Colorado, which is definitely your favorite state in the country for RVing bar none. So remind everybody where we, what we covered in the last episode and then tell everybody what we're covering in this episode in terms of these eight regions. Yeah, so people who aren't super familiar with Colorado might think we covered it all last week because we talked about Denver, we talked about Rocky Mountain National Park and we talked about Colorado Springs and then the Eastern Plains. So that might be the main things you've heard of in Colorado, but as I was looking at these other four regions that the Colorado tourism board laid out, I was like, oh, there's great stuff here, there's great stuff here, there's great stuff here. So every place that we have ahead is equally as interesting as the places we talked about last time. Yeah, and you did, I think we ended with Denver and cities of the Rockies and now we're starting with the Rockies playground. So it's two different regions according to

5:06the Denver board of tourism. Yeah, the Rockies go, you know, cut across the middle of the state and they're just seriously so wide that they take up a good portion of the Western half. I'd say kind of they start about in central Colorado and go west, they don't quite get to the Utah border, but they're a big chunk, there's a lot to see. So let's dive into the Rockies playground. So just give us a broad overview of this region and just always help everybody geographically and then we'll dive into travel highlights. So the Rockies playground from the Colorado tourism board, they describe this as North West Central Colorado. So basically you're pretty much just west of Rocky Mountain National Park, but a little more to the north. So you always, or not you, everyone, always hears of this region for the ski towns. We've got Aspen, Breckenridge, Bale, Winter Park. And so this seems like the winter plays,

6:08but really there's still stuff to do all year round because these cute mountain towns always have great weather in the summer. They're super controllable, lots of shops, galleries, restaurants, all of those things. And then of course, you're just endlessly surrounded by peaks. So with the last time I was in Colorado, we flew into Denver and then drove all the way to Grand Junction at night in the dark, which is its own weird experience driving through the Rockies in the dark. And you just see these gigantic massive hulking shadows, but we were like passing all of these towns and I think we stopped for gas and bail. And it is also kind of weird to think that, I think debatable, you could say summers the off season and in some of these towns, though of course these are beautiful towns of the summer, but probably even more bustling and expensive in the ski season, I would think. Yeah, we've priced, we've always thought about going out for Christmas some year and we've priced condos and hotels and it's so far just hasn't been in the budget and then we still have those kids who have left home and it's kind of been good for them to come home

7:09with the holidays, but some year we really would like to. Do winter there, just have to save up in advance. So we can go, my sons did tell me my older son who's gone skiing has told me that Russell and I are not allowed to try skiing. That is not in our future according to him. He's not allowed to tell you that. I mean, you can advise. Right, I'll agree with his assessment. I'll stick to the ski towns in the summer, I guess. Oh, I love a good ski town in the summer. So let's go through some of those. Like what are some of the major ski towns that we might want to check out on an RV trip in spring, summer or fall? Yeah, so that list that I just named, we have Aspenvale, Breckenridge, Frisco, Winter Park. You can really take your pick and what you're going to find in a lot of them is like really walkable area set up for the ski people. So there's restaurants and everything all right there, but then those ski lifts are sometimes still operating to take you up to see the views and those mountain sides have a lot of trails.

8:12So all of those towns are super cute. Of those, the ones I've been to, I've been to Breckenridge and we loved that. Frisco's super nice because it's right off the interstate and is a cute town and then Winter Park was smaller, in my opinion, but we haven't been out to Aspen and Vale yet. That's still on our list. And these are bougie expensive towns for the most part. I mean, these are worthy of the rich and famous go-to-play in the winter for sure. Yeah, so for sure. And if that's ski towns and bougie places aren't your thing, there's Leadville. We have been there. That is super fun. It's the highest incorporated city in North America. And the year we went to like the western side of the Rockies and didn't do Rocky Mountain National Park, we went over to Leadville for my kids to do a, what's that thing? My brain. That thing where you're in the fort, like in the trees and you're... Zip lining. They had a seriously cool zip line there. So we went over to Leadville and while the kids were zip lining,

9:14we went and explored the town and super cute, loved that town. And another town we haven't been to, that's in the region is Glenwood Spring. So this is as famous for the town itself as for the drive. The I-70 goes out there, this is pretty far west. And it's famous for the cantilevered sections that go over this river canyon. So we haven't, again, haven't seen that yet ourselves, but it sounds like a really cool drive. And the landscape starts to change, I think from the blues and greens of the high mountains and kind of gets a little more of that rugged redness, I think, in Glenwood Springs. That transition is breathtaking. Going from the Rockies and heading into Utah, I said it in the last podcast. It's like heading from one beautiful planet onto another beautiful planet. They're so different. And there is the subtle changes before all of a sudden it hits you at once. So what are some, there's dozens and dozens of attractions and adventures.

10:14We had a couple you wanted to recommend here before we talk about great campgrounds. Yeah, so the maroon bells are super famous for being just one of those iconic pictures of Colorado. Even if you don't know, they're called the maroon bells. If you see them, you might be like, oh, that looks familiar. I've seen that picture on like a puzzle. I've seen that picture as a background image somewhere. It's just this really cool looking set of mountain peaks that's become kind of iconic. And then in Glenwood Springs, this is one of many places where you can explore hot springs in Colorado. And in Glenwood Springs, they have a lot of them done up into really big resorts with pools with all different kinds of temperatures. And so not the supernatural where you're just hopping into a wild hot spring. This is a very resort experience. And there's lots of different options there. All right, now there are some epic campground options here and throughout Colorado. Give us a few of your favorites that you would recommend. Yeah, so I'll start with one that we stayed at, which is Tiger Run Resort.

11:16And in some areas of Colorado, you are not gonna find a lot of private campgrounds with hookups. You're gonna find some of those national forest ones and maybe some national park ones, I think some of the towns may be limit private campground development. But Tiger Run is one that exists near Breckenridge. People complain about the prices because this is one of those places that's easily $150 to $200 a night. But you are paying for location and for those hookups and having the modern campground amenities. Every piece of this was really beautifully manicured. And we covered it on a prior podcast. So you can find a whole full review of that. And if you go to the show notes and hear all about this beautiful resort outside of Breckenridge. And that was you that did that review, right? Yeah, so just everybody listening, if you want more information and you really wanna dive into planning a Colorado RV trip, go to the rvatlas.com, find these two blog posts.

12:16A beginner's guide to RVing in Colorado, part one and a beginner's guide to RVing in Colorado, part two. And then in each of those blog posts, we're gonna be linking to full campground reviews, other content carries created over the years, some content that Stephanie and I have created. So there's kind of a whole universe of Colorado content to dive in there as well. Okay, so on to our next great campground option. Yeah, so this one we drove by, but we haven't stayed at. It's the Prospector campground in White River National Forest. So right along I-70, when you turn to go south to Breckenridge, there's a lake called Lake Dylan. And this is a National Forest campground with sites all along the water. So super beauty, beautiful sites, no hookups, but you have that beauty and easy access to I-70 in the ski town. So even though you're close to everything, once you're on the other side of this lake, it looks like you're kind of remote and in nature, but you're still really close to everything. So definitely a strong national forest presence

13:16in Colorado, particularly in the Rocky Mountains. We know there's great state parks. We're gonna talk about more of those in a second. We know there's great national park campgrounds. It seems like KOA also does really have a strong presence throughout Colorado and you have one you recommend here. Yes, this one's on my own dream list. This is the Carbondale Crystal River KOA. And this is located right on the banks of the Crystal River. So it looks super picturesque with where you can walk out of your campsite and toss your fishing line right there into the river and see all the mountains around you. So that one is one I'm really wanting to get to. And when you do, you will take pictures and give us a full review here on the RV at once. Another state park that you want to mention, go ahead. Rifle gap, state park also looks beautiful. This one does have some full hookups. I think as we mentioned on the last episode, Colorado state parks really not get out of the ballpark with trying to get you large spacious sites and hookups. So not every site is gonna have hookups,

14:18but they do a pretty good job of having a generous amount of them at least with partial hookups. So this is another option with waterfront campsites on a large reservoir. So being on those reservoirs and waterways just opens up so much more you can do because there's a paddling, the fishing, sometimes swimming if the water's warm enough, but it really keeps you active there in the campground and you don't even have to venture out to do a lot. I have a whole book on camping in Colorado. And it's a thick book. I mean, it's a 300 page book filled with campground recommendations just in Colorado. And it's one of the few states in the country that can sustain that. You know, it's that one of the few states in the country where I will legitimately say you could spend your life exploring the campgrounds in that state. Right. You call Colorado California. There's only a handful of states where I'd make that claim. Okay. So we are gonna come back in a second. We're gonna move on to our next region. But before we do so, we have a sponsored message from our friends at Spacious Guys campgrounds.

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16:21for 10% off your next reservation with Spacious Guys campgrounds. To find out more, visit them at SpaciousGuysCampgrounds.com. Welcome back to the show everybody and welcome back to Carrie Cox from Travels With the Birdie, who is giving us an incredible two episode breakdown. A beginner's guide to RVing in Colorado. Now we're gonna move on to Region six on our map and I'm gonna check our map again here. Tell us what region we're going to and give us the geography of this region. So this is the Mystic San Luis Valley and we hope we're saying that right. We checked it before the podcast but if we're wrong, send the message to Jeremy. This is a beautiful, beautiful Jeremy. This is in Southwest Central Colorado. So it's kind of center of the state but a little more to the south and the west. And this area you start to get into the San Juan and Singra de Cristo Mountains. Now, as in Midwestern or who didn't grow up into the mountains, grow up in the mountains, the first times I was starting to research travel and trying to figure out

17:23well like, are these still the Rocky Mountains? Why did these at rounds have different names? So I never fully understand how different parts of different mountains get different names. But I do know I did see the Singra de Cristo Mountains in Tastin, Mexico. So we've been south of this area even though we haven't been to this area in Colorado. And this is an area known for the high altitude desert valley and the great sand dunes is, of course, the top draw in this area. And there's just kind of a quirky nature to this area. All right, great. Give us some great towns to visit in this area and then we'll talk a bit about Great Sand dunes National Park. Yeah, so again, I'm not as familiar with this one but these are the places that stood out to me when I looked up. But Crestone is a teeny tiny town. It's considered a spiritual hub. Looks like it kind of has a lot of the hippie, earthy vibe. Lots of artsy stuff to do. Alamosa is a popular spot if you are going to Great Sand dunes National Park because that is the largest town in the region. We'll have a few more campground choices there.

18:23And then San Luis is the state's oldest town known for its Hispanic culture. So it looks like kind of a beautiful area there. And we've got an entite, we've got another National Park to talk about. It's Colorado is not just Rocky Mountain National Park. I'll say it over and over again. Yeah, so you've got Great Sand dunes National Park home to the tallest dunes in North America. So not just America, or not just the United States, but North America. And so it's known for being spelled by any eye. Of course, taking my kids to Colorado several times and my older son has been to the Great Sand dunes. And I have not. And he said it was one of the coolest things he saw. He got to watch the sunrise there, I think. And a lot of popular thing to do there is sand sledding. So you rent sand, rent sleds, don't take your own. There's lots of places that rent them and have them specially covered in the wax that you need to go down the sand. But seasonally, like certain months of the year, you have to investigate. There's a creek that runs through the park and you can like do little rafting floats down it.

19:23And otherwise, it's just known for taking in the views even after dark. So during the day, of course, you can see the sand dunes, but after dark, it's a certified dark sky park. So you have amazing Scott Stargazing. And there is some old RV Atlas episodes, all about Great Sand dunes National Park with some great reviews and tips for visiting. Oh, yeah, we talked about the, we talked all about all those things you just mentioned. There's a group of great tips and tricks there for navigating Great Sand dunes National Park. And I think that was with Shelley, correct? Yeah, yeah. All right, awesome. Other attractions and adventures in that part of the state. So one of the neat things I saw was the UFO watch tower. I love a good breadside attraction. It's a festival and I like quirky things. And so this is kind of known for just being a fun quirky stop. And they, of course, claim they see UFOs out there as many areas with large deserts do. So that's a place where you can kind of explore that outer world alien element. And then there's the stations of the cross where they have some beautiful architecture, history,

20:27all of that comes together. Looks like a very picturesque spot for taking some pictures. And then other than that, lots of hot springs in the area and lots of unique wildlife opportunities. So even though with much of Colorado, you think of wildlife like bears and moose and the pronghorn, all of those different kind of animals. Well, in the San Luis Valley, you can see bat migrations and sandhill crane migrations. And so lots of people like to look online, find out when those are happening. And it's supposed to be pretty amazing wildlife viewing. And of course, it's a photographer's heaven as well. I mean, the entire state or much of the state is for sure. So great campgrounds. What are our campground options here? And the first one is the campground at Great Sandwich National Park, right? Yeah, so pinion flats campground has no hookups, but it does have that best access to Great Sandwich National Park. And of course, beautiful views. And that is also linked in the show notes to that review from Shelley.

21:27And then another one that looks pretty to me is the Woods and River RV Park. As its name says, it's located in spaces, spaces, shady sites along the headwaters of the Rio Grande River. So it looks like another pretty place. And I'm sure there's also lots of national forest, national park places, our national forest and open dispersing and being out in that way too. All right, let's move on to region number seven. Carry, take us to mountains and maces and get a situation situated. Where is this geographically? Right, so now we're heading to Southwest Colorado. And we're still gonna be in the Rocky Mountains for part of this, but then they're kinda start to break up and give way to scrub brush covered maces in Colorado's Southwest corner. So if you can think of Utah and Arizona and what you stereotypically think of with those states and the big red rocks, this part of Colorado starts to look like that once you get out of the Rocky Mountains. But there's still a lot of cool stuff to see in this part of the Rockies as well.

22:29And some really famous outdoor towns that you wanna make sure you visit. Give us a few of them. Yeah, so first of all my list is one. I think I've talked about many times on the podcast because every year I think I'm finally gonna make it there, but that is I say hooray for your a. So that's how you're supposed to remember how to say that. And so hopefully I got that one right. But this is called the Switzerland of America. And if you see pictures of Switzerland and see pictures of your a, you can really see why. It's one of those towns where the peaks just are preponderous all around your a. And then there's Durango and Silverton. And these towns are really known because of the train that connects them, which we'll talk about in a second. They're both great-based camps for the region. There's Telluride, which is of course a famous ski town. It has a lot of Victorian architecture. So it's kind of a cool town to walk around and have some Wild West history. Crested Butte, we tried to get to last summer. Again, we made it to Crested Butte, but we didn't make it out to actually see the wildflowers.

23:30So this plays us famous in the summertime because of the wildflower blooms. And you just have, again, the picturesque image of all of the wildflowers with the peaks in them. The town was so crowded when we got there and we had a lot of stuff going on. So we ended up circling back and left Crested Butte. And then we get there. It sounds like a Bob Dylan song. We made it all the way to Crested Butte. We didn't see the wildflowers. We couldn't park and we needed a place to stay for the night. And some cool stuff was meltin' down. I really, I got to go to Colorado sometime when I'm not working. That's coming next, so we next sometime. And then finally, a place you've been, but I haven't, which is Grand Junction. Yeah, Grand Junction, we did a big trip there with Good Housekeeping Magazine because Grand Junction had applied for a Family Travel Award. And we loved it. I mean, we didn't quite know what to expect, but it's sort of this border town. It's almost to the border of Utah. It's very close to Moab actually, but lots to do. It's a college town, great food, great drink, great craft beer, great craft coffee,

24:31independent bookstores, kind of a cool hip town. And we stayed at Camp Eddie. So just jumping ahead on the campground there, we really liked Camp Eddie. It was right in Grand Junction. It was on the Colorado River. There was tubing right there. It was a short walk away from an outdoor amphitheater where they had like really big concerts. So Grand Junctions, one of many places really in Colorado that just kind of flies a bit under the radar because of that huge shadow that Denver and the Rocky Mountain National Park kind of throws over everything. But if you want that kind of like dupe vacation where you're getting the mountain town vacation without the insanity of Denver, man, I take a look at Grand Junction because then you can also hop right over into Utah, which is what we did. We went to Arches right after. So yeah, this is a great area too. How about some attractions and adventures you would recommend? Yeah, so speaking of overlooked places, the black canyon of the Gunnison National Park is one of those national parks that doesn't get nearly as much press as some of Colorado's other national parks.

25:33But I've had several friends who have been there who were just really surprised, probably because they hadn't heard that much about it. They're just like, oh, there's this national park. It should go. But it is a canyon that is super, super deep, but super narrow. So it's a pretty different experience from seeing the Grand Canyon, but it is no less like awe-inspiring. And people who have seen it have described to me that it just kind of feels like the earth just suddenly drops there. And it just goes into this hole. And so very cool area. We were close to it last year when we stayed in Durango, but there were wildfires out there. So we, there are fires that burned down the canyon walls. It's kind of crazy that when the wildfire goes down there, there's not a lot they can do. So we didn't get to go over there, but I hope to you because I heard so many good things from friends. And now Mesa Verde National Park. It's not fair Colorado. It's not fair, okay? This New Jersey guy just feels like it is not fair. So tell us a little bit of Mesa Verde, yet another national park in Colorado.

26:33If mountain peaks and sand dunes and deep crevices aren't enough, it also has to have Mesa Verde National Park, which has these awesome cliff dwelling. So the ancestral cobblo people built these like over 700 years ago. And this is one of the best preserved places to see that. In Colorado Springs, there are there's a tourist attraction that has some cliff dwellings that are not all authentic or some that have been moved, some that have been replicated, where you can kind of get a sense of cliff dwellings. But to see the real ones, you need to venture to Western Colorado to Mesa Verde. And the number one thing you have to know is to book a tour in advance. Because there's some things you can see from the road, but you don't get the kind of access you get with a tour. And a tour guide really needs to tell you, this is one of those places where you want to hear the history, you want to know what's going on. And they can get you up close and personal instead of just looking out of valley to see these.

27:34Great tip. And how about some more railroad travel or railroad history? So the thing that always makes me salivate when I'm on social media and of course, my social media for you page knows that I like Colorado and feeds up lots and lots of videos of the Durango and Silverton narrow gauge railroad. And so Durango and Silverton are those mountain towns and this steam train runs along the Anomest River. And it's just like, look, so epic. You're going along the river. You have the deep canyon walls. You're honest steam train. So this is one of my dreams. We were going to go one time. And then we were investigating. We would have had to do the million dollar highway to get down to Durango. And we were like, yeah, I don't think we're ready for that yet. And then we talked about going around. But anyway, someday I'm going to make it to Durango and take that train. So it's definitely on my list someday. Another Bob Dylan song. Someday I'm going to make it to Durango and take that train.

28:34It is. And then the Colorado, by the way, I love that your feed is filled with Colorado stuff. Your algorithms working for you, girl. I like it. And then the Colorado National Monument, which is outside of Grand Junction, and some really gorgeous hiking in there again. And like I would say this whole area, sort of a destination dupe for Rocky Mountain National Park. I mean, there was some exquisite hiking, some gorgeous views. I think we went to a hike to a place called the Devil's Kitchen, which was super, super cool. So that's great. I have campgrounds. What are some campgrounds you'd recommend here? Yeah, so you mentioned camp Eddie. If you're going to the Grand Junction area, I highly recommend that. For URA, URA has a lot of great campgrounds. I've talked to people on the RV Atlas Facebook group, friends I know, and just so many good recommendations. The URA KOA is actually super well spoken of and is super accessible to town. And then there's an old podcast episode on the URA Riverside Resort.

29:36And so again, it's very similar, great access to town, great views. So those are popular spots. And then Ridgeway State Park is between URA and Montrose. And so this is a good spot if you want to go onto that black canyon of the Gunnison because it has nearly 300 sites. So it's a large one. I believe there's a lake there. I think I've looked at lots of pictures of this one. And very beautiful, again, like all of the state parks. And then if you want to be super close to Mesa Verde, there's a Mesa Verde RV Resort full service campground near the park entrance. So I feel like we have personally barely scratched the surface of Colorado. I know you've gone deep. And that's why you're our guest here for this two episode series. But just listening to everything you're recommending, I feel like, man, yeah. And we've been to Colorado multiple times where we've only been to Montana once. I've only been to Wyoming twice. But yet I feel like I covered more in those places where Colorado's just like, oh my God, can I get here in my lifetime?

30:38There's so, so much. Right. That's my quest. It is your quest. It is your vision quest. Right. And it is so nice just because again, living in Missouri, the one redeeming factor is that we are super close to driving to different parts of the nation. So Colorado, like Denver being a 12 hour drive. That's not bad care. And it's a drive across Kansas. So you can tune out and get across Kansas. No offense to Kansas, we've actually done some cool pull-offs there. But we appreciate it. You turn on the highway, you make your one turn and get across the state and start to get into all of the craziness of Colorado. And now you've got the Winnebago Class B van. The kids are often college. You're in prime Colorado, the prime Colorado period of your life. And no, I just have to wrestle, likes it. But he doesn't love it the way I do. And he thinks there's other places to explore. So we really need a whole lot of people.

31:38He's heard rumors. There are a few other places out there. Yeah. In fact, Dean's last three part episode, we need to listen to, because he, Russell, really wants to get up to the Great Lakes region. So that's definitely on our list. So we don't have to go to Colorado every summer. But guess what, there's a lot of other places to explore, but you can go through Colorado to get to some of them. Yeah. Have a Utah trip and then Colorado on the way there and the way back. Utah is on our list for when we're done teaching, because I don't like heat. So I don't want to go to Utah on the summer. So when we're done teaching, or I'm done teaching, Russell's already done teaching, but we can do those shoulder season trip to Utah. That's right. It's hot, but I will remind you it's dry heat, which is very different than Missouri summer heat. But yes, it is still hot. OK, let's move on to region number eight, the Great West, but before we do so, we have a sponsored message from our friends at Yogi Bears, Jelly Stone Park, Camp Resorts. Our family has been staying at Jelly Stone Park locations

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33:40It's Jelly Stone Park. To book your vacation today, visit JellyStonePark.com. And don't forget to tell Yogi Bear, the German Stephanie, said hello. Welcome back to the show, everybody. And welcome back to Carrie Cox from Travels with Birdie. And you want to make sure you are following her over on Instagram and Facebook to check out all her adventures and her great photos. Carrie, take us to the Great West. Give us a description of this region, and then let's dive into some great towns. Yes, so we are in the northwest corner of the state now, starting at Rocky Mountain National Park's Western Gates, and going all the way to the Utah border. So you're coming out of the Rocky Mountains again, like we just talked about in the last region, but you get to these open frontiers and lots of rivers, grand rivers in this area, still a lot of charming mountain towns, and then it kind of gets more sparse sleep, sparsely populated as you get closer and closer to that Western border. All right, let's talk great towns. What are some places we want to stop for food and drink and fun?

34:41Yes, so we've talked before in an episode about Rocky Mountain National Park and deciding whether to do a base camp on the western side or the eastern side, lots of good reasons for both. And so we have stayed on the western side, and we stayed in Grand B and visited Grand Lake and went into the park that way. And Grand Lake is just a really cool town. Like it has a nice sort of westerny feel I would say because all of the storefronts have wood, but there's this gorgeous lake there. And again, the mountain peaks it kind of reminded me of the Lake District in England. And in the summertime people go, they're swimming, they're paddling. There's a Grand Lake, lots of fun, lots of restaurants. Grand B is smaller a little farther out, but again, a nice base camp for that western side, which is good to go in if you want to see moose. If you haven't seen moose in Rocky Mountain National Park, you've got to go to the western side. That's the main area. Carrie, I was at the Lake District in England like 25 to 30 years ago.

35:43You just brought me back on that one. God, I'd love to go back there and rent a camper van. No, I remember your review so clearly. You did the Sun Outdoors Rocky Mountains, right? I'm jumping ahead a little bit here, but you really, you loved that campground, that resort style campground, right? Yeah, so we stayed at the Sun Outdoors Rocky Mountain. And it is about 20 minutes outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. So maybe not the best choice if you only have limited time in the park, but when we went, we didn't have park reservations. So that's one of the problems when you go to Rocky Mountain National Park, if you can't get those reservations. So we thought we'll go to the west side and see all the stuff outside of the park. And so we enjoyed Sun Outdoor Rocky Mountains because it really was a resort level campground. Like the pools were gorgeous. The sites were gorgeous. They have a fishing pond that's stocked. Like a little bowling alley, restaurants on site. Everything was just very, very nice there.

36:44So definitely earns a good review and is worth the 20 minutes. Maybe just not if you only have one day in Rocky Mountain National Park or whatever, but definitely worth it. Since I took a set of order here, why don't we just finish with the other campgrounds and then we'll go back to the attractions we wanted to talk about. So what were the other campgrounds you'd recommend in this region? Sure, so in Grand Lake, the number one recommended campground from a lot of RV Atlas listeners is Winding River Resort. And this is just outside the western entrance. So you're super close to hop into Rocky Mountain National Park. And what people love about this is that the sites are very natural. So where a sun outdoors Rocky Mountain is super manicured, not a lot of trees, very kind of wide open and exposed. Winding River is just very natural. Kind of lush. You see a lot of moose in the campground, which is awesome. People just love that. They have horses and stuff. I think there's a lot you can do in the resort there as far as horseback riding and in different activities. So a very cute campground and super easy access

37:47to Rocky Mountain National Park. And then the next one sounds quite dramatic. What is our last one here? I didn't look about to say this one. Gates of Lordor campground. I feel like I'm sitting at my husband's desk as we record this and I'm surrounded by all of his dungeons and dragons gear. And so this is a campground from within dungeons and dragons, the gates of Lordor. The gates of Lordor would be where he would go camping to do some dungeons and dragons. But this is actually remote, rustic camping with exceptional views and access to dinosaur national monument. So if you kind of want to get way out of way from people and explore that dinosaur natural mountain, mountain you may, you're really out kind of that old west kind of vibe. This is the place to go as long as you can live without hookups. And if you end up in another dimension, don't blame me. You could blame Gary for that. Right. There's some great options here. This is just like, there's just so much to explore in Colorado. What are some attractions and adventures for this great west region?

38:47Yeah, so we kind of talked about that dinosaur national monument that I just mentioned. There are 1,500 fossilized dinosaur remains along this Yampa River Canyon. So just the way the river went and all the stuff that happened with the earth, you need to go to the tour and not account on me to explain why these are there. But this is one of the best places to see dinosaur fossils out in nature. And so that's a good place. And then Rocky Mountain National Park's Kwananichi entrance, the western side of the park. As I mentioned, it's quieter. The eastern side is the one that's really bustling with longer lines to get into. And some of the well-known hikes, but the western side is quieter. You see the moose. Still just as beautiful. Still can get to all of the parks of the park. And then the other thing, as I mentioned in all those rivers. So Colorado does these gold metal trout waters. And so there's a lot of those up there fly fishing.

39:48Those rivers are also good for white water rafting, which we didn't mention probably nearly as much as we could have in all of our regions. There's lots of places for white water rafting. But boating, kayaking, there's also beautiful alpine lakes. And so whatever your speed is, if you want, just a beautiful open calm lake, you can find it. If you want to do class four rapids, you can find it. And then after you do those class four rapids, you can go to some hot springs and soak and chill out. Sounds so good. I am in need of hot springs right now. I'm not necessarily in need of a 16-mile hike, though we've certainly done our fair share of 16-mile hikes. What's the recommendation for hiking? Yeah, so we kept driving along this trail when we stayed in Granby and didn't realize like, it was an official trail, finally looked it up. And there's a 16-mile freezer to Granby trail connecting those towns and running through lots of beautiful scenery. Saw also a lot of national park campgrounds kind of out that way. And so again, if you can't get into Rocky Mountain National Park,

40:50there still are cool places to go, especially. This would be one that you can do on a bike because it's more of a flat open trail for biking, not strenuous mountain hiking. I just can't get enough of Colorado. And then what just blows my mind is that once you get this far west, you are close to Utah. All right, we are going to come back in a second to wrap up the show. I got like three more questions. I want to ask Kerry Cox about Colorado. But before we do so, we have a sponsored message from our friends at the original Equalizer Sway Control Hitch. For nearly 80 years, the original Equalizer Sway Control Hitch has offered the best protection for your journey. With four-point integrated Sway Control, excellent weight distribution, made in America quality, and an easy-to-use system, nothing provides a safer, better towing experience than the original Equalizer Sway Control Hitch. The Equalizer's four-point Sway Control allows for a more relaxing drive, because you won't be worried about Sway

41:52when encountering hazards on the road. The Equalizer's weight distribution keeps your truck and trailer level, which increases the longevity of your tow vehicle and reduces vehicle maintenance costs. The Equalizer also boasts an unmatched lifetime warranty and quality made in America construction that will last for years. We have towed with the Equalizer Sway Control Hitch for over 12 years on RV trips all over the United States and Canada. We love its ease of use and the safety it provides for our family when we hit the open road. To find out more about America's favorite hitch or to find your nearest dealer, visit EqualizerHitch.com. That's EqualizerHitch.com. And make sure you use code RVAtlasMay1 for 10% off at checkout. Welcome back to the show, everybody. And welcome back to Carrie Cox from Travels with Birdie. And Carrie Cox, thank you so much for this two-part mini-series. This beginner's guide to RVing in Colorado. Three more questions.

42:52A lot of people listening to this who have never been to Colorado. This was a lot of information, a lot to digest. A lifetime of travel opportunities. What would you recommend to somebody who has never been on an RV trip to Colorado and has a week, just generally speaking. You don't have to go day by day, but what should be the itinerary for your first big Colorado RV trip? I think Colorado Springs makes a good approach because it's a nice town, lots of campgrounds, lots of nature stuff to see and isn't quite as busy and is difficult to get into Rocky Mountain National Park. But then my other most favorite trip, of course, is Denver into Rocky Mountain National Park. Because you can stay in Denver, get all of the city and then head to Estes Park or even go on the other side to Granby Grand Lake and really explore Rocky Mountain National Park. Don't be too intimidated by the reservations. Just look up when they open, research that, figure it out, and it's worth it. There's a reason it's crowded. It's crowded because it is just packed full of gems.

43:54So as much as there's to see outside of those places for your first trip, you really can't be at Colorado Denver. And Colorado Springs and then Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park. Okay, following up. So say a lot of people in the RV Atlas audience have done that one week trip to Denver, have done Rocky Mountain National Park in Denver. But maybe this series of podcasts inspired them to go back for another second Colorado trip. Broadly speaking, what would you recommend for that second Colorado trip to somebody who has been to Rocky Mountain National Park? Then I think I would really pick UA because you have still that super cool mountain vibe. It's not connected to that national park in the same way. But it has cool towns, cool nature, so much to see. And you can super close to ride the train. You can do, I'm just making my own dream trip here. But I think getting really deeper into the mountains. The good thing, I forgot to mention with Denver and Colorado Springs is that you don't have to really

44:56go deep into the mountains to do those. So if you are an experience with mountain driving and you're a little bit nervous about that, what makes those good areas is you're not really going to be super tested on your mountain driving skills. You can easily access lots of stuff. Then if you go deeper into some of these places like UA, that's when you want to do a little research and know whether the roads are super good. But yeah, it looks like a super fun town lots to see. And so that's high on my dream list. I just haven't gotten that far west because there is a lot of mountains in between me and it. Last question. Your ultimate favorite Colorado campground. I think I know the answer, but okay. Well, well, of course, yeah, Malay State Park. That's what I thought. Yeah, and I can't explain it. I don't think the other, I may not be other people's because it is the lack of everything. Like it is, I think what makes me love it is that is where I get that most just natural campground experience.

45:57I don't have to leave that park. I don't have to do anything else. I just am happy there. It's beautiful. It's nice. It's calm. It's pleasant. And so I think that's what I just associated with my happy place. May not be anybody else's. But there's a lot of competition for amazing campgrounds in Colorado. I just haven't seen them all yet. That is, there is something to be said for that campground that is the place. When you show up and you're like, this is where I want to be. I'm not here because I want to drive somewhere else or drive 10 or 20 minutes away to go on a hike, but I actually am here because I want to be here. This is the place. This is my vacation. This is my rest and relaxation. Yeah, I famously cried last year when we went to a campground that wasn't this because there's a certain feeling that I associate with Colorado. It's a certain temperature, a certain humidity. And I'm a sensitive picky person. Like those are the things that are as much part of the experience for me as the views and as the towns, like there's just this feeling

46:59of being in the mountains. And we got to our campground and it was too hot and there weren't views and it was too open. And I was just like, this isn't Colorado. So we had to book a Mueller State Park, luck it, luck it into a last minute cancellation and made it and that's all I needed. I just needed two days. And yes, so that is my favorite. But I definitely am challenging myself to find more. Carrie Cox, thank you so much for these two episodes. I really, really love doing them with you. And I hope there are a great resource to people for planning Colorado RV trips for years to come. Yeah, we just need Colorado tourism board. If you want to sponsor me, I feel like I am the official Colorado hype girl. But I look like one of the other Colorado tourism board. I do think she's earned it. I think so. So I feel like I talk a lot about it. But there's just so much to say. It's a great state. So hopefully I've done it justice by trying to cover all of it. All right, thank you, Carrie. We'll see you at the campground in Colorado. All right, take care.

48:02Thank you so much for joining us for season 12 of the RV Atlas podcast. To find out more about the topics discussed on this show, head on over to the RV Atlas dot com. And to join the friendliest group of RVers, head over to the RV Atlas group on Facebook and make sure to follow us on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram at the RV Atlas. And if you enjoy our show, consider leaving us a review over on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows. And make sure you check out our best selling where should we camp next, guide books and camping journals wherever books are sold. And we will see you at the campground.

49:48And we'll see you at the campground.