Dry Camping in the Cold Springs US National Forest Campground

 Wednesday, Aug 25

Drove through the overcrowded cesspool that is the Denver Metro area, using US285 to reach the western portion of the C-470 "beltway" to get me to CO 93 and from there towards Golden, taking the Golden Gate Canyon Road into the mountains.

This route, offered by google maps, isn't for large vehicles such as the VRRV.  She really had a hard time maintaining speed on the uphill portions, and the twists and turns of this canyon road are not enjoyable in an RV!  Next time, I'll take CO 119, the Peak to Peak highway.

Anyways, made it to the campground just fine.  Had to change spots a couple of times due to some confusion within the rec.gov app and reality on the ground as cleared up by the area manager for the campground!

Ended up in a double wide site, with a tent camper on one side, and me on the other:

Temperatures were warm but nice in the shade.  Cooled off nicely towards evening, and it would get into the low 50's overnight!

Thursday, August 26

Relaxed most of the morning away under partly cloudy skies though I did do a small hike up a nearby hill.  There is a faint trail leading one up to the top of a rocky outcropping, with some pretty good views of the surrounding countryside.

After lunch I decided to move the VRRV back some in order to create some room for Martha's car.  She's joining me Friday evening and will be camping with me through Sunday morning.

So I detached the trailer and pulled it to the front of the site.  I then turned it and pushed it over the wooden border and into the weeds, out of the way.  I then backed up and re-leveled the VRRV with its tail end overhanding the rear wooden border of the parking area.

Right as I was finishing the above setup, it started to rain.  It then moved onto hail!  Luckily it was only pea-sized hail but it reminded me there's no such thing as a warm summer rain in Colorado!

After the rain/hail storm, I walked around checking for damage and pics:

No damage to the vehicles I am happy to report!

Later, around 4PM, I got geared up and took Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar rig down to the towns of Blackhawk and Central City.  Both are gambling towns here in Colorado, and a somewhat major tourist attraction of sorts for the gambling crowd.

Me?  I just pootled around on Scarlett, taking pics of picturesque vintage looking storefronts in Central City's downtown area.  It looks nice, but most of the shops looked empty.  All for show, gambling and casinos are the main event here.

Back at camp and after dinner, I walked up to the "Vista" trail head and up to the top of the same hill I hiked this morning.  The object was of course to catch the sunset from this view point.

I know, not much of a sunset, but it was OK.  Tomorrow, the small gathering of Uralisti at the nearby Pickle Gulch Group Campground is set to start.  The gathering is the reason I'm camping this close to the Denver Metro cesspool, usually my Colorado camping spots are further afield.