Friday, July 1, 2011

Exploring Vallecito and Traveling to Chama

June 30 - July 1

Thursday we decided to go explore Vallecito Reservoir, about 25 miles northeast of Durango. This is a fairly small lake, the reservoir has a maximum surface area of 2,720 acres. An additional 961 acres of lands are available for recreation. It is a beautiful setting in the middle of the mountains. They have had some wildfire damage to areas very near the park, but the area around the lake is still pristine and wooded.





It is special to me, because I remember as a child, going to Vallecito Resort (RV Park) to stay with my grandparents in their travel trailer. My grandparents were avid rv'ers in their retirement years, as members of Good Sams and their local chapter in the Lubbock area, the Prairie Dog Good Sams.

The Vallecito Resort is still there. We drove through it and noticed there were many older trailers that had been made into permanent residences, by having pitched roofs, porches, skirting and landscaping added around them.  The park felt small and cramped for the large rigs in it. The roads are hard to recognize as it seems trailers are just all over the place... not really in rows like most parks. A banner on the sign said "Under New Management". We hope it will get some more TLC.


We also drove around part of the lake, and found another RV park, Blue Spruce RV Park. We liked it much better. It was well organized, and the whole park it full of pines... But they don't seem to be in the way. The sites were large and well placed. We would definitely consider staying here sometime.

We did some more shopping, stopped at Tarpley RV in Durango to look at their parts department, and had some wonderful Low carb spaghetti for dinner!

July 1

Today we loaded up and headed to Sky Mountain RV Park in Chama, NM. We had a fairly easy drive, but noticed there were a TON of RVs on the road. I think we saw more RVs/trailers/5vers than any other vehicles! We stopped in Pagosa Springs for a quick bite. As we drove south, we could also see the smoke from the Las Conchas Fire near Los Alamos.


We almost missed our turn for the RV park, even with the GPS we overshot the entrance. Tony pulled over to a large shoulder quickly, and we were able to back up about 50 feet and pull in safely. 

I had originally reserved a pull-though site, but the RV park called two weeks ago and asked if we could move to a back-in site, to accommodate another guest wanting to stay a month. I told them they'd have to help us get parked, but OK. Well, Bill was great. He took over and parked us perfectly, in a very narrow, very short site. We never would have gotten it in there!

As Bill was parking us, right next door was a nice new Landmark Grand Canyon! They invited us to come by and visit... The Motorcoach next to them were friends, as well. Turns out they are from Grand Saline and Fate, both less than an hour from Terrell! We got settled in, then went to Chama to pick up our train tickets for tomorrow.


As we got to the station, we watched a steam engine moving around the railcars to prepare them for tomorrow. It was facinating to watch such a powerful engine working so slowly and precisely. After we picked up the tickets, we did a little shopping around the area, then went back to the park for dinner (leftover spaghetti).


After dinner, we joined our neighbors. We visited for about an hour until the evening air turned chilly and the mosquitos started getting determined. The Landmark is headed home tomorrow, so glad we got to visit and invite them to the Heartland Owners' Club, online forum and the Texas HOC rally. 

Before settling in and before it got dark, we went for a walk around the park. It looked entirely full, with mostly big rigs and 5vers. This is a great park, lots of really good spots surrounded by trees. Our site, though not perfect, has a great perk: It backs onto a large field, with a few really old cottonwood trees. There are also some very large old logs, that have been there a long time. In those logs, there is apparently a fox den! The fox has appeared, standing or sitting on the logs, observing the area. We are about 60 feet away, with barbed wire fence between us, so I guess the fox feels like we are not a threat. 

Now the pics are in!

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