Colorado

Tuesday:
Our first stop in CO was at the Cowdrey Lake State Wildlife Area. (40.83850  -106.31193) off CO 125 about 10 miles north of Walden.  It's a free camping area where you just pull next to the lake wherever you want.  We rely on Ted Houghtons GPS database to lead us to such places. Almost always, it's very accurate.
Campground database

It's a beautiful, cool, breezy day. The kids are back to school in both WY and CO so the pressure is off the camping areas; upcoming  Labor Day excepted. Tonight we have the entire lake to ourselves.
Identified two new ducks today. A Lesser Sculp and a Canvasback.

Wednesday:
We drove into Walden dumped the tanks, topped off the water and continued on CO 14 through the Poudre Canyon. We stopped at the Dutch George USFS campground which is right on the bank of the Poudre River. (40.69555  -105.44662). The High Park (Fort Collins) wildfire passed through this area this past June. There were a few burnt trees in sight but the most obvious sign of the fire was the six to ten inch layer of black mud that coated the river bank in places. The campground host, who was here during the fire, said there is a stream just upriver of the campground. During the first rain after the fire was put out, the water from the stream had the consistency and color of oil.

A layer of black mud mixed with burned wood

 The sand here is typically white.

A few burnt trees can be seen in the background.


Sunday:
We headed into Longmont today, not wanting to be on the roads on Labor Day. CO 14 along the river is a narrow, winding road. I can only imagine the traffic jam on Labor Day when hundreds of campers are heading home at the same time.
We'll be here visiting with the grandchildren, and their parents, until we meet up with a group of LD friends drifting slowly to the Balloon Fiesta.


Carol commented the other day, that traveling like we do is the most fun she's ever had.  That makes it unanimous. We're exploring the idea of selling the house in FL and moving to CO. That way, we'll be closer to Suzanne and family, and all of the places we enjoy the most.  We'll see.