Boondocking in Rabbit Valley, CO - Day 2: Knowles Overlook

 Wednesday, September 23

Two rides to the same place, one before mid-morning and one in the late afternoon.

The destination was the Knowles Overlook Campground, another place that I'd missed before due to lack of signage.  Now there is signage and maps....go figure, now it's not hard to miss.

First though, I went east on the Kokopelli Trail which spans a large portion of the McInnis Conservation Area, of which Rabbit Valley is a part.  The trail was pretty easy with Yagi, it would have been a bit less enjoyable on Fiona as there were a few rocky spots along the way.

Pretty soon, I arrived at a nice overlook just before the trail seemed to end:

See the railroad tunnel opening?

I made my way back, past the campsite and the other campsites, most of which were empty as campers had left.  I made my way to the McDonald Creek Trailhead area, and soon I was approaching Castle Rock which is past the Castle Rock Picnic Area.

Things get really interesting at times as there's long stretches of deep sand which Yagi handled but there were a few dabs at times on my part to keep things upright!  

At Castle Rock.  I've been here before, I recalled, still worth a stop for pics:

About one more mile and lots of sand, I got to the Knowles Overlook Campground area.  The first two camping spots were pretty rocky and rough, even if my URRV could make the road to the campground, it wouldn't be able to use these spots.

The view from campsite #2

The sun was not quite overhead yet, it was around 11AM by this point.  So the centerpiece formations visible from the overlook were backlit and hard to photograph.  I resolved to return after 4PM today to see if the lighting would be better then.

Approaching Castle Rock

Some layered rocks as previous post, but this time

with the sun lighting them up

Got back to camp, had lunch and just relaxed and did some minor chores inside the URRV, read my book in the shade and just enjoyed a warm day with nice breezes until 4PM.

Gearing up again and riding Yagi once more, I returned to Knowles Overlook.  

The light was "mo better".

This formation reminded me of the Seven Sailors rocks

at the Valley of the Gods in southern Utah

As you can surmise from the above pic, I didn't stop at the same spots next to Castle Rock for pics as the spots I'd used before were in shadows.

I think you'll agree the afternoon lighting, pretty much Golden Hour quality, lit up the rock formations much better than what the morning offered.

I returned to camp, got Fiona ready to go and catch the sunset on top of the mesa where the High North Campground is located across the highway.  Unfortunately, I didn't leave enough time for travel, got UDF'ed along the way, and so got to the top AFTER the sun had set.

It wasn't much of a sunset anyways, so no big deal.  Hopefully tomorrow's sunset will be better.