July 29, 2017
Zac Brown Concert
Coors Field - Denver

Today Marilyn and I took Julie to the Zac Brown concert at Coors Field. Zac Brown, specifically his song Free, has been our motto for our Rv'ing adventure. It was a cloudy day which really helped keep the temps cool but the threat of rain gave us some concern. It only sprinkled a couple of times and turned out to be a great night.

We had great seats.....

The crowd on the ground had a great time....

I think they played every hit song we knew but the surprise was all the songs from other artists they performed, like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High", and several long hard rock sessions where they did songs by various groups like The Alman Brothers Band, Nirvana, and others. I didn't expect all the hard rock but they were amazing.

Here are a few brief video clips from the concert....

 

 

Hopefully the video clips uploaded and you can see and hear what a great band they are. Obviously, we had a great time and forged another life-long memory.

 

July 23, 2017
Chatfield State Park
Littleton, CO

The last 2 weeks have flown by and we really haven't done anything except visit with family and try out the restaurants we used to love to go to.

With our 2 week allotment for Cherry Creek expired (State Park rules) today we drove 24 miles to the southwest side of Denver. Chatfield State Park is another great Colorado State Park, and our favorite in the Denver Area.

The park is very well maintained and has great pull through sites with lots of room..... and a great view. Most sites have some trees, and all have a table and fire ring.

At Chatfield you get a great view of the foothills...

And of course the lake is very close....

The marina.....

and boat ramp and swim beach area....

We'll be here for the 2 week limit and then we'll move down to Colorado Springs. Again, we have no plans other than visiting family.....although next Saturday we do have tickets for the Zac Brown concert at Coors Field...that should be a lot of fun.... stay tuned.

July 9, 2017
Cherry Creek State Park
Aurora, CO

Today we packed up and headed down the mountain to Denver. We drove 50 miles east on I-70 and  then south on I-225 to Parker Rd. It was a short drive but the steep drop out of the mountains was exciting but we survived. The trip through Denver was busy and crowded. There were a lot of bumps in the road and somewhere along the way we lost one small inner hub cap....not so bad.

This is our second time to Cherry Creek and we will once again make the rounds of going to Chatfield State Park on the west side of town and also down to Cheyenne Mtn. State Park in Colorado Springs. As I said in a previous post there aren't many choices for nice, big rig parks in the Denver area.

The nice thing about Colorado State Parks is the large pull through sites with lots of space between sites...

We don't have anything special planned for this leg of the trip as we have been here many times before. The main item is visiting Julie and the kids and spending some good quality time.

With that, I probably won't be posting anything unless we do something of interest......

July 1, 2017
Central City KOA
Central City, CO

We drove east on I-70 today, about 157 miles. We went through beautiful Glenwood Canyon, over Vail Pass, and over the Continental Divide (Eisenhower Tunnel), and then down the steep slope from Silver Plume, to Idaho Springs, and then north on Central City Pkwy 7 miles to the KOA.

This is another nice KOA park with large concrete pull through sites.

Up the street and in the distance you can see snow capped mountains. The park is at 8,900 feet in elevation so hot temps shouldn't be an issue. In fact we'll be running the furnace at night. What a nice change from the low 100 degrees in southeast Utah.

Central City is just a mile or two down the road. It's an old mining town established in 1859 but more recently rejuvenated when the State of Colorado passed a law permitting gambling in 1991.

Here are a few facts about the town...

After we got the RV set up, Julie and Steven drove up from Denver to meet us and we went over to Central City for lunch and to tour the town (grown-up talk for "go gamble").

Here is a shot down main street.....

We'll be here for 8 days and then we move down into Denver for a month (2 State Parks again) and then down to Colorado Springs for another month. Due to some crazy Colorado State Park reservation limitations we'll be jumping back and forth between Denver and Colorado Springs, but basically we won't be leaving the area until October 2nd. That will give us plenty of time to visit with family and do some fun things.

June 30, 2017
Silt KOA
Silt, CO

We drove a short distance today, just 76 miles. It's strange, but there are very few decent, big rig, RV parks along I-70 so you have to stop where the parks are or drive longer distances than we typically drive. This stop sets us up for a 157 mile trip tomorrow over the mountains.

Silt KOA is your typical KOA park with gravel roads and sites. This one sits on the Colorado River and even has sites that back up to the river. This park is very nice for a KOA and they really take good care of it.

We have a nice, big pull through, that again allows us to keep the car hitched for a quick getaway tomorrow.

Silt is a very small town that sits at the base of the western foothills. Now we rest up for the big trip tomorrow.......

June 29, 2017
Junction West RV Park
Grand Junction, CO

Today we drove 114 miles east on I-70 to Grand Junction. Junction West RV Park is your typical park with basic facilities, gravel roads and sites, but nothing special. It will certainly work for our over night stay before moving on to crossing the Rocky Mountains.

Grand Junction is surrounded by some pretty mountain bluffs....

Nice big pull through that allows us to leave the car hitched....

Up the street....

As I said, this will work fine for an over night stay. Tomorrow we have another short hop over to Silt for one night and then the drive over the Continental Divide to Central City on Saturday.

June 26, 2017
Canyonlands National Park
Island in the Sky Region

Today we got up early again to beat the sun. We headed 31 miles northwest on Hwy 315 to Canyonlands National Park.

The park is divided into 3 regions, Island in the Sky, The Needles, and The Maze. The Maze is only accessible via jeep trails or hiking. Each region is accessed independently and the roads into each region are many miles apart. Today we decided to go to the Island in the Sky region as it is only 31 miles from Moab. The Needles region is 76 miles away.

We first hit the Visitor Center and, unlike Arches, both the Main Entrance to the Park and the Visitor Center were open at 8:30.

Canyonlands is a beautiful park with great roads and facilities. It is very accessible even for old folks who don't like to hike very far.

Now that we have hit all 5 of the Utah National Parks we would rate them as follows:

1) Bryce Canyon
2) Canyonlands
3) Capitol Reef
4) Zion
5) Arches

As I said, we tend to rate parks based on how easy it is to see all of the sites. Younger folks who like the hike would rate these parks much differently....to each his own ;>)

Well that's it we have officially completed the Utah Big 5, so I'm sure we'll be receiving our completion certificate any day now....(Knock, Knock, Knock)...hang on a minute there is someone at the door, it could be the Governor with our certificate..........................never mind, it was just some blond haired, blue eyed kid in a white shirt and tie handing out pamphlets ;>).....anyhow I'm sure our certificate is in the mail ;>)

Now on to Colorado.........