Autumn Wanderings in the San Juans - Ridway State Park and Woods Lake

I am way behind on blog updates, it's been a busy fall!  We spent two weeks in September camping in one of our favorite areas, the gorgeous San Juan Mountains in south western Colorado.  I will share a few posts over the next few days of photos from our trip and then I will get back to updates on the cargo trailer.

We stayed in our big trailer, Petunia (which would end up being her final outing but more on that later), at Ridgway State Park.  This was our site in the campground above the Uncompahgre River:

Rob brought his portable smoker so he tortured the campground with the delectable smell of smoked meats while we enjoyed some evening cocktails.

We went into the tiny town of Sawpit Colorado and picked up some lunch from the Sawpit Mercantile and had a picnic and a nice walk at Down Valley Park along the San Miguel River.

Afterwards we decided to go explore a road that looked interesting on the map and discovered an amazing alpine lake, Woods Lake.  There is a beautiful trail that follows the lake shore and then climbs into lovely aspen forests which were just beginning to change to their golden splendor.

We have floors, we have storage!

Back to the project!  We finished laying the flooring.  When I ordered the rubber floor from Home Depot I wasn't paying attention and purchased one roll short.  Before ordering another roll to cover the rear ramp, which is also the back wall of the trailer, we decided to go to our local Home Depot and see if there was any other material we might prefer to use.

The rubber coin flooring and a sneak peak of my shelf project.

We found a TrafficMaster vinyl residential flooring that had a really great look as an "accent wall" behind the bed when the ramp is up.  They had it in stock in a large roll that they cut for you.

It has a thick foam cushioned backing and a tough urethane wear layer but is still lightweight and you can cut it with a pair of shears.  The wood pattern has a good amount of texture which helps keep the floor from being slippery.  We used a generous amount of the double sided flooring tape and installed an aluminum stair edging to keep it in place and protect the edges from wear.

Next up is my project for some storage in the front "V".  We were thinking of building a cabinet across the entire front section.  Here are some examples sourced from the internet of what others have built:

I love this one!  Photo from Google Image search

Photo from Google Image Search

Photo from Google Image Search.  The off center placement of this one helped me come up with ours.

These are all really great uses of the front part of the trailer but they are also in trailers that are quite a bit larger in width, height and length than ours.  When our bed is deployed we only have a few feet from the foot to the front of trailer.  We need to keep the side door entry clear and have some room for a dog bed for Phoebe (the other furfaces have invaded our bed) and a place to keep the pups food and water bowls.  That last photo with the offset counter top gave me the idea that if we had a unit that was fitted to the right side of the V, it would give us some area behind the left side for storage, food bowls as well as some hooks to hang jackets and stash a broom.

We happed to find a vintage built-in corner shelf that someone was selling at the flea market for $20.  It was all pine, so it was sturdy but light.  The dimensions seemed pretty close if we cut off the top portion so we decided to try it out.

I completely forgot to photograph the shelf before we started our modifications.  So here it is with the top section removed, painted and some wood trim installed which I stained the same color as our ammo boxes.

I added the wider trim to help keep things from sliding off and the thinner braid for visual interest.

The top section we had to cut off.

Extra floor space behind the left side.

I used antiquing glaze on the wood trim.

Wall hooks and a faux cow skull from Hobby Lobby that had perfect colors.

 I used some of the fabric I had left over from making the window shades and made curtains for the lower two shelves.  This gave me a chance to use more of my awesome deer skull fabric and also allows us to cram a bunch of gear in the lower two shelves while keeping it out of sight.  I also added a little Talavera tile to the front center of the shelf because why not?

Shelf curtains are hung, and we have a great spot to keep the dog bowls.

Installed! Rob screwed it to the wall along the back and right side. 

Camping on the Rio Grande River

Labor Day weekend we took a break from working on our CTC (Cargo Trailer Conversion) and took Petunia to River Hill campground near Creede.  We had camped in the area a few years ago and scoped out River Hill and 30 Mile which are both forest service campgrounds along the Rio Grande River below the Rio Grande Reservoir.  At the time River Hill was still closed for clean up from a wildfire in 2013.

This area is near the headwaters of the Rio Grande where it joyfully flows out of the snow capped San Juan Mountains swift, ice cold and crystal clear before it ends its journey 1900 miles downstream slow moving and lazy into the Gulf of Mexico.

The mighty Rio Grande River starts on the slopes of the Rio Grande Pyramid (13,821 feet above sea level) in the distance.

June 5th 2013 the West Fork Complex forest fire was started by lightening and would ultimately burn 109,615 acres in the Weminuche Wilderness, the San Juan and the Rio Grande National Forests.  The fire spread into the steep canyon below the Rio Grande Reservoir but the campgrounds were not lost.  In 2016 after several years of clean up River Hill was reopened to campers.

In July we reserved a perfect spot right next to the river for our September trip.

Petunia in River Hill Campground

The canyon walls behind us are untouched by fire.  Across the river, the charred trees stand as silent sentinels of a ghost forest.

Even though it's only September 1st, autumn has returned to the high country, the oaks and aspens were beginning to change and nights were brisk, in the mid to low 40's.

The pups required some blankets to snuggle in.

Some of the humans also required blanket snuggles.

Mollie is a world class blanket snuggler.

We decided to drive to the Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest body of water in Colorado to check out the water level which I heard was at a historic low.  It was shocking.  We drove down and let the dogs run on the lake bottom which is normally under 20 feet of water.

The bridge we are on should be over water.

The Gunnison River is just a little strand.  It gives you an idea of what the valley looked like before the dam.  We headed back to our campground, the sun was out and it was time for cocktails by the river.

I am trying to keep Phoebe out of my bourbon

The new solar panels and solar generator soaking up some rays.

This is such a gorgeous area, the night skies are amazingly dark and the view of the Milky Way is incredible.  We even came across a heard of Bighorn Sheep crossing the road above the campground.

We will definitely be returning to this amazing little spot, maybe next time in the CTC!