Poncha Springs, CO

 

As we so often do, we had a change in plans and ended up on BLM land near Poncha Springs. We had intended to go to Crested Butte but the weather didn’t cooperate and after a couple days of dreary, cool, drizzle we thought it best not to drive 7 miles on a dirt road to be wet, cold and muddy. After a couple planning sessions with Chuck, Carla and Debbie, we decided to head east on Hwy 50 out of Gunnison and over Monarch Pass towards Salida.

Jim was disappointed he couldn’t see either ocean. And we were both glad we didn’t hook up the car and tow it over the pass. It was quite a climb, starting from 7,700’ in Gunnison.

Plan A was to try and get a few spots along the Arkansas River near Salida. Traveling with three RVs makes it a bit more challenging to find suitable places, although we do like the company. As we suspected, there was no room for all of us at our original destination, so Jim and I took our car and Chuck and Carla took their Jeep to scout our some other areas while Debbie and Elliot stayed by the river with the rigs.

Chuck and Carla had no luck but Jim and I hit the jackpot so we went back to gather everyone up and caravan to our new location. We were all getting a bit irritable by the time we arrived, but are now happily sitting on a mesa at 8,300’ with grand views and nobody else in sight. And for the first time in weeks and weeks it is eerily quiet, with no highway noise.

Enjoying our valley view.

Although our neighbors crashed the party.

We are now hoping we’ll see some living wildlife, since we spotted a deer carcass and lots of bones on our walk last evening.

This may be our favorite Colorado place yet, although Ouray is pretty hard to beat.