Trip Report: Durango, CO

[Gone]

What a wonderful trip! We just completed a 10-night camping trip in
Colorado. 2 of those nights were spent in Chatfield State Park
southwest of Denver (visiting family) with the rest of the time spent
in Lightner Creek Campground in Durango, CO. The weather was great
(lows in the low 40's at night, highs in the low 80's during the day)
and there is so much to do in and around the area. We did Mesa Verde
National Park, the Durango/Silverton Narrow Gauge RR (beautiful ride,
but lots of soot!), tons of hiking in and around the San Juan National
Forest area, Ouray and the Million Dollar Highway, mine tours, panning
for gold, you name it!

I highly recommend the Lightner Creek campground. This was our first
'big trip' in our new 2000 Utah, so we didn't want to risk a State
Park with unknown amenities. We were _not_ disappointed. Lots of
shade and trees, although the sites are kinda small. But we were
surrounded by other pop-ups ONLY. The big rigs were placed in a
different area of the park. Very family friendly, and our site backed
right up to a large, babbling mountain stream that lulled us to sleep
each and every night and kept the kids happy and busy wading, throwing
rocks and such. The owners of the park are incredibly nice people,
very relaxed, but also very firm about keeping the peace during quiet
hours (10P-6A). The campground _made_ the vacation for us. It was
also nice to have a heated pool on the property....gave us something
to do when coming in for dinner. Woodall's gives Lightner 4
stars...for pop-uppers, I'd give it 5!

No problems with the camper, no sway, no issues towing up the 10,500+
foot mountain passes (although we did take it slow). And gas prices
were comparable to the Texas area (surprising for the mountains). I
had a new 99 Niagra owner to the left of me that ended up being from
the Dallas area as well, so we got a chance to compare pop-up tips.
And best of all: No stupid pop-up camper tricks this time around
(unlike our maiden voyage). I used the propane heater one night (we
needed it!), but it was very noisy. The next day, I purchased an
electric ceramic heater, very small, for $15 at a local Rite-Aid
store. We used it every night for the rest of trip and it kept us
toasty warm without using up my propane. I kept worrying about
running out of propane (used for cooking and the hot water heater).
But, as far as I can tell, we only used about a third of the tank
(based on weight). I ran the fridge on electric.

This kind of vacation makes it very hard to come back to work, but we
are very, very happy with our new pop-up! We now realize that, since
we save some money on the whole campground-vs-hotel room thing, we can
afford to do some of the other nice things. Next visit to Durango
(and there will be a next time, soon!) we'll take in a Jeep 4x4
rental/tour, river rafting and horseback riding.

Thanks again to this group for all the recommendations on things to
see and do in our new home on wheels!

-Mike
00 Utah
98 Dodge Ram

[DLaugh6451]

Chatfield State Park is a great place to stay when in Denver. I go there each
September for a lectureship and have used their facility twice for that and
once for a vacation. The security is really great as they constantly have
patrol cars in the park and there are only two ways to get in and out. The
showers are clean, nice laundry place. However, we did not have a water hook
up. Sure beats the motel rates and eating in the camper saves considerable
money. We did have to get propane last September since it snowed and we had to
use a little more heat. We found a place about five miles away that filled our
bottle. Easy access, but quite a ways from downtown if you have interest
there. Don L.

[Gone]

I agree with all you've listed about Chatfield. I was surprised to
discover that NONE of the campsites have water hookups, although most
have electric (it was easy enough to fill the tank with fresh water
from their hose at the dump station...the potable water, not the
clean-up water, of course!). There also wasn't much in the way of
shaded spots, although most sites had trees (just not necessarily
shading the level site). A big plus was that all the sites I saw had
semi-circular pull through spaces, so you had a lot of room. I
_really_ liked the security of the place. I bet I saw the patrol car
go past my site about 10-12 times over a 5 hour timeframe.

Our first choice for camping a bit closer to downtown was Cherry Creek
state park, but it was booked for the weekend. Chatfield was actually
very close to our relatives (they live in the Highlands development),
and very close to restaurants, etc. But, secluded enough from the
main drag that we had little highway noise to worry about. Plus, it's
dark enough that we got some great views of the night sky from there.
We'd stay there again! Ditto on all you said about cost savings....we
never really thought about that when purchasing the pop-up, but now
see a TON of benefit of taking our own mobile hotel room with us.

I'm attaching a picture of our campsite in case anyone wants to see
what the place looks like.

-Mike

[Jim and Linda King]

Mike,
Thanks for your trip report! It sounds like you had a perfect camping trip; the
campground sounds very nice!

Glad you didn't have any more "stupid popup tricks"!

Linda King
Fleetville, PA
'93 Chevy Suburban
'99 Coleman Bayside

[mc]

Thanks for the trip report. We did Durango about five years ago
pre-popup. Have been thinking hard about a Durango popup
camping vacation this summer.

A tip on the Durango and Silverton: The ash and soot are not so
bad the further back you are from the engines.

Thanks for the report and reference for Lightner Creek.

mc
97 Grand Caravan
98 Jeep Wrangler
96 Starcraft Stardust

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