Dry Camping @ Prospector Campground

We were on the road by mid-morning ... excited to test the Cruiser's new dry camping set up ... even if it was in a campground setting rather than out in the boonies somewhere.

Our destination was the Prospector Campground in the White River National Forest ... near Dillon Reservoir. A relatively straightforward 139-mile drive from home — about 3 hours or so — was easily accomplished

Since we'd driven I-70W to get to Carbondale a few weeks ago, we were familiar with the steep grades along the way ... especially the section coming out of the Eisenhower Tunnel, which is at 11,158 ft. Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt. In this case, it eased the stress that can accompany driving in mountainous terrain ... particularly because there was so much more traffic today than we encountered over the 4th of July holiday weekend.

Prospector Campground has only 3-4 sites with water views. They get booked up six months ahead of time. In fact, that's pretty much the case for all of the sites at all of the campgrounds in the area. So, for this late-planned trip, we ended up booking one of the few available sites in Loop E ... #81.

Though the site has a distinct hump in the center, it turned out to be surprisingly level when we backed-in. So much so that we did not have to deploy our leveling system. Great privacy all around and long enough to accommodate the toad. When you're dependent on solar panels to float your house batteries, you don't want shade trees. There are none at this site.

No hook-ups to connect meant that setting up camp was easy. We were settled into our site in no time. Summer days are long with plenty of daylight. Time to get out and play ... time to become familiar with the area.Read more