Seeing the USA in our RV

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The drive to Colorado’s western slopes at the start of Labor Day Weekend was scenic with valleys, meadows and mountains. Our visit with the Williams' included a wonderful daylong trip to see the wild mustangs of Northwestern Colorado, a farmer's market in Steamboat Springs, driving through the canyons and along the mountain ridges of Rocky Mountain National Park and fishing and camping at Wolford Lake. While it rained our first day, the weather was cool (middle 30's overnight and in the 70's during the day) and clear and sunny most of the time. The fellowship and sharing of memories of past SMART musters added to the marvelous culinary delights. We've noticed that every farm house has an RV trailer or motor-home and the outdoors life of hiking, biking and hunting is ever present. Colorado has great bike/hiking trails and the National Forests and state parks provide great Visitor Center information. The picturesque vacation homes cling to the hillsides which, unfortunately, are smudged with beetle killed trees. We again are impressed with the visitor friendly National Park Service staff and volunteers who share their knowledge and try to keep the hikers out of trouble. We get a chance to see the Florescent Fossil Beds NP and cross the Continental Divide, plus experiencing hairpin turns, at Hoosier Pass south of Breckenridge. Our overnight is at an RV park in Pueblo, gravel underfoot but full hookups and friendly host who put us in an open area so our satellite dish can bring in Saturday's college football lineup.
We started off on our next NPS quest Sunday morning and enjoyed Bent's Old Fort NPS, a way station and trading post on the Old Santa Fe Trail and New Mexico's Capulin Volcano National Monument, a volcanic cone from 60,000 years ago. We passed hundred's of cattle in feeding pens and the open spaces of the Pinon Canyon Military Maneuver Site, finding a KOA in Clayton.

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