An attempt at a 4X4 road and time to move on.

 

We decided to take a 4X4 road out of Ouray to see the beautiful sights and for some reason Kim wanted to see the Tomboy mine up on Imogene pass. We have a 4X4 truck, it even has the Off-Road Package. We have big heavy lug tires. We should be good to go. We were only missing one thing…

Again the scenery was beautiful.

I love that shot.

Then we got to a bend in the road that concerned me. I decided to walk up and take a look.

Down was beautiful, but not a place I wanted to go.

There were a couple of memorials to Jeep club guys on this corner. I think that meant we needed to turn around. What I don’t have is a 100 inch wheel base. Mine is more like 152 inch. That means my truck can’t make sharp turns.

Turning around was no easy matter, but with Kim’s encouragement I made it and we returned to a campground to check out the scenery.

Here is a shot of the town of Ouray:

The Box Canyon from above:

We got back to our camp site at Ridgeway State Park. It is a nice park with excellent fishing right in the park. I was able to catch a few fish in the park, but was not able to land a large one that I know are there. 26$ per night is not bad with all of the amenities that they have there.

On Thursday, August 28, we moved on to Crawford State Park. It was an 83 mile drive with no big passes to climb. Here is a sculpture in downtown Montrose:

Our first impression of the park was not great. It is only $20 per night for water and electric, but the lake is about 30 feet down and kind of ugly. The good news is our site is facing the other way and has a nice view of the mountains. It will do for the holiday weekend. The place was empty, but we could see all sites were booked for the weekend. One problem is that we have no cell service at all. We can get free WIFI in the town of Crawford about 2 miles away.

I fixed dinner and then went fishing. This guy became an after dinner snack. He was quite good.

That night I caught 3 Crappie, 1 Large mouth Bass and this 12 inch rainbow trout. Not my kind of fishing, but still fun. Hot days are coming, so it is nice to be at 7000 feet. The nights are very cool. Around 50 degrees, perfect for sleeping. We have not run the heat or the AC once since we have been in the mountains of Colorado.