Weekly Recap: Fort Morgan Week 1 (CO)

Sunday morning we woke up energized. After a great day in Albuquerque, we were ready to begin our drive up to our Fort Morgan campground. We packed up, dumped our tanks, and headed north. We took a winding route for a bit, but it paid off with great views and a deer sighting. Our destination was a Love's in Walsenburg, CO. We arrived without issue and parked the camper in one of their RV spots. We were leaving it for a bit to go see Great Sand Dunes National Park, just a short drive away. 

We unhitched and set off for the park. It's a pretty surreal sight, as the brown sand is piled high among these larger mountains. It seems to come from nowhere! We wandered for a bit, enjoying the sand and watching people snowboard down the dune. It was cold and we were hungry so we headed back to the Love's for dinner. 

When we arrived at Love's, we saw that one of the camper tires was flat. No big deal, we have a compressor! Bryn went to get sandwiches and refill the water bottles. Shawn took care of the tire and discovered the problem was much worse than we thought. There was a nail in the tire rapidly deflating it. We ended up putting our spare on the camper in the dark. Lucky for us, a man named AJ was getting gas and took pity on us. We have a small jack for this very reason, but it's so small it only just lifted the tire off the ground. AJ to the rescue, with his power tools and big jack. He had us back on the road in no time and gave us a tool to boot. Thanks, AJ!

After all the excitement, we drove to our sleeping spot: a Walmart in Falcon. It was bedtime by the time we arrived and set up. We were exhausted.

Monday morning we both woke up around 6:45 and got on the road. We drove to our Fort Morgan campground and set up for a whole MONTH stay. We are sad to be so far outside of Denver, but the prospect of staying in one place for 4 weeks is appealing. Percy especially is thrilled he won't have to go in his carrier for such a long time. After set up, we worked. For dinner we decided to go to a restaurant called The Mav next door. This is a hotel restaurant, but some of the best food in town. We had a delicious dinner and were happy to have such a good spot close to 'home'.

For the rest of the week, we took advantage of being settled to have a few quiet days to ourselves. We ate homecooked meals, got lots of sleep, cleaned and organized the trailer, and worked. 

A fresh, clean truck bed

Friday night we were super productive! We decided to do laundry and accomplish a few things. While our clothes were washing, we refilled our propane tanks and got groceries. We ate dinner at the adjacent Thai restaurant while our clothes were drying. Then we decided to check out some of the local bars. We went to Queen Lounge, a lively hotel bar that quickly filled up as we sat enjoying our drinks and watching the women's wrestling on the bar TVs. We switched to Club Tap for one last drink before heading home and had some... colorful interactions with the locals there. What an interesting experience.

Dream Lake

Saturday was an early morning! We were headed to Rock Mountain National Park to go hiking. It's about 3 hrs. away, so we needed to get going early. When we arrived, our intended trailhead parking lot was already full, so we pivoted to a lower lot that still had access to the trail we wanted. The trail was snow-packed, so we used our spikes. As we got hiking, Bryn quickly realized she was beginning to have an asthma episode--probably a combination of elevation, cold air, and 'working out' (hiking). We took it slow and enjoyed the winter scenery. We hiked from Glacier Gorge to Bear, Nymph, and Dream Lakes, all of which were frozen over. The views were spectacular! We were sad to miss the blue alpine water but still thought it was a beautiful hike. Bryn ended up with a disgusting sounding cough for the next 4 days. Worth it.

Bear Lake

After our hike, we took a scenic route out of the park, passing more gorgeous views and encountering a massive herd of deer. We went to Rock Cut Brewery to unwind and meet a friend of ours who was at the local Frozen Dead Guy Festival in Estes Park. It was fun catching up, and we made plans to meet up again while we're in Colorado.

It was time to begin our long drive home. We stopped at the Pourhouse in Loveland for dinner. Bryn was really struggling to breath so we didn't explore more and just went home. It was a rough night, but she was feeling much better Sunday. Time to get an inhaler again.