Boondocking in the Hugo State Wildlife Area (SWA)

I left home around 1030 AM or so and drove east into Colorado's eastern prairies via the I-70 super slab, then at Limon, south on county roads to check out several State Wildlife Areas (SWAs) listed in the allstays.com app.

The southernmost one was the Karval SWA, near the really small town of Karval, CO.  Nice little site, with smooth dirt roads and some shelter structures along with a pit toilet building.  Nice location but no cell reception, zip, nada.  So I couldn't use it.

Next up, just a few miles away, was the southernmost site of the four belonging to the Hugo SWA.  Good cell reception was found at location South1 but it had no trees and was quite windy and exposed.  Nearby south locations were a bit more sheltered due to being lower but they had less optimal cell coverage.  It was still good, but only 1-2 bars.

Hugo SWA South1

Continuing north on the county road that spans the SWA, I came to the Hugo Middle SWA site.  The sites are a bit small for Uma but I could have shoehorned her in but decided, that while cellular signal was OK, I'd see what the North location would show.

Hugo SWA Middle

All the above sites had a loop at the end of their access dirt roads, very nice and considerate of Colorado State Wildlife department!  It made it easy to explore with a RV and trailer and not get stuck without being able to turn around.

The Hugo North SWA was just right.  Found a nice almost level spot near one of the ponds and settled in. 

Hugh SWA North

 My campsite in the Hugo North location.

 A copse of Cottonwood Trees I found in the Hugo Middle SWA

when I went riding after setting up camp.

 Several views of the campsite during the Golden Hour

Not much of a sunset for us here in the eastern plains, I had to make do with a copse of trees located near where I set up camp.

It's basically just rolling prairie and large widespread ranches in this part of Colorado.  Not a single mountain peak in sight! 

Since I had not set up the solar panels till close to 2PM, the panels didn't have a lot of time to bring the battery to full charge and power the charging of electronics and running the fridge in propane mode. 

So, I start the night with just 12.3V reading at the battery, should be enough to run the fridge through the night but it'll draw the house battery down.  Just as well I'll be replacing it soon as it fails completely.