Boondocking near Poncha Pass - Day 2: Fall Colors on Marshall Pass Road and within Rio Grande National Forest

 Pretty good day of riding in search of Fall Colors and finally achieving the summit of Marshall Pass after two unsuccessful attempt when there was still lots of snow on the road to the summit.

Turns out, Marshall Pass Road is quite easy and even Umarang, the URRV would have had no issues achieving the summit!  Dang snow.....

Not really much in the way of epic scenery from the pass summit so Yagi and I turned around and made our way down heading back the same way we came up.

Here's some of the Fall Colors I saw on the way down:

Mount Ouray

Rode back to the camp for another late lunch and then headed out to explore FR 876 which is inside the Rio Grande National Forest (I thought I was next to the San Isabel NF but apparently the Rio Grande NF has bits located here as well).  

Here's three pics from Aspens located next to my campsite:

Some more Fall Colors enroute to FR 876:

So, assuming you're not tired of Fall Colors pictures, here's the views along Forest Road 876, it was quite colorful and extended for over two miles I think.

Hope you liked the pics, tomorrow it'll be Scarlett's turn to go out to look for Fall Colors or views of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, we'll see how it works out.

Boondocking near Poncha Pass - Day 1

 I displaced from the Penrose BLM Common Use Area this morning, and drove the URRV to another BLM area just south of Poncha Pass, which itself is south of Poncha Springs, CO.

I've stayed in this area before, I think three times before if I recall correctly.  Each time, in a different spot within the dispersed camping area.  

This time was no different, after doing a recce via Yagi, I got the URRV situated in a spot I'd seen before but had not had a chance to camp in.  Great 4G signal, but a bit difficult in terms of finding an easy to level the URRV spot on.

It looked deceptively flat in parts but when I positioned the URRV, it would take some effort.  Finally got her in a good spot though I had to use four of the leveler blocks on the right side dually tires!  It's a slightly higher step up to the first rung of the entry steps but no big deal.  

When I checked in with Martha, she asked how the Fall Colors were looking in the area.  I sent her this iphone picture of an area at the edge of the campsite:

After a late lunch and setting up camp, I got on Yagi to see if I had any nearby neighbors and to check out the surrounding area for Fall Colors.

Found me a gate to part of the Rio Grande National Forest while wandering around, something to be explored sometime this week for sure.

Found no neighbors to my south and only one fifth wheel camper to the north, quite a bit away from me so it's all good in terms of isolation space.  Hopefully it'll stay that way through the rest of the week.

Here's a pic of Yagi with part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range behind her.  Or, as Martha says: "The Sangria de Cristo"!

I hope to finally summit Marshall Pass this trip, tried a couple of times but have been stopped by snow before.  I'm also hoping that Fall Colors will be in good display along the road to Marshall Pass; the sure are in the surrounding area of Poncha Pass and even spots within the BLM area as well.

Cañon City's Skyline Drive and Fall Colors on Phantom Canyon Road

First was a ride to Skyline Drive and it's scenic views.  The light was very flat at mid-morning but you get what you get:

Giving up on Skyline Drive till a different time on a different day, I started heading back to the campsite and elected to take Phantom Canyon Road to get to it instead of US50.  Once on Phantom Canyon, I decided to keep going to the canyon as it was still early in the afternoon; it would turn out to be a good decision, mostly.

 I really must remember that weekends can be fraught with danger and clueless cagers when planning rides on roads that have multiple blind curves, narrow lanes and lots of distracting scenery.

Regardless, I managed to not get hit so here we go:

The first fifteen miles or so were scenic in terms of rocky canyon walls:

After about mile marker 16, the leaves on the Aspen Trees had started turning yellow and it got progressively better the further north I went on this road.  I went across the county line and three miles into Teller County before turning around and posing Scarlett:

In spite of several idiots driving too fast on blind curves, I managed to make it back down Phantom Canyon Road with no incidents.  Rode Scarlett back to camp using the back way I'd planned on originally when turning off of US50 onto Phantom Canyon Rd.

As to yesterday's looking at several parcels of land, I'm sad to report nothing found that we liked.  The search will probably continue, we'll see.

Boondocking again in Penrose, CO

 Not even home a week and once again out boondocking!

Martha and I are planning on looking at some land for sale in the Cañon City area again, somewhere along the CO Hwy 9 corridor north of US50 and west of the city.

This time, just land, no structures to be sought but utilities like power/well/septic tank being big discriminators.  After recent experiences on public land and seeing site squatters and crowding idiots, we are thinking once again its time to explore the concept of private land.

I'll be joined by Martha soon as she can leave the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area and then we'll drive over to check out three candidates.

The road into Penrose BLM areas has really gotten pretty bad!  Rockier than I remember anyways.

Got to the campsite by Noon and was soon set up in my preferred spot:

Temperatures were in the low 70s mostly with a cool breeze blowing at times.  It's supposed to be in the high 70s tomorrow.  Spent the afternoon just relaxing, doing several police calls (have almost filled the five gallon bucket once) and doing some light riding with Yagi to see how many campers there area in the area.

Not too many campers once you leave the area I'm set up at, in fact, none!  The rough roads could be part of the issue and the fact its a weekday as well.  We'll see how things fill up as the weekend arrives.

The light show after the sun went down wasn't too shabby: