Quickie Getaway: Chatfield State Park

And I really mean a quickie. We arrived mid-afternoon … here for two nights … check out Saturday at noon.

Why such a short camping trip? Primarily because we couldn’t find a spot anywhere through the weekend. Father’s Day don’t you know! No matter, we’re here in the area for a couple of specific reasons and having the RV with us as a “mobile hotel” works out just fine regardless of the length of our stay.

We left home after Mui’s annual eye exam and drove the 55 miles or so to Chatfield State Park … in Littleton, Colorado … south of Denver.

This park and campground is very different from the one at Sylvan Lake.

For one thing, we’re not in the mountains … though I can see some of the peaks off in the distance.

For another … it’s hot, hot, hot … the temperature gauge was reading 96F when we arrived around 2:30p. Luckily, now at 7:30p, the angle of the sun is such that we have shade on the patio … and a light breeze. Without either, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy being outdoors.

And finally, we’re not dry camping. The campsites here are FHU .. full hook-ups. For those not familiar with the term, it means that we have electricity (50A), water, and sewer connections at our site. We’re especially grateful for the electricity since we have to run the A/C to be comfortable in this heat.

Once we settled into our site, we took off to do some shopping at Park Meadows … an open air shopping mall in nearby Lone Tree. Apparently, it is the largest shopping mall in Colorado. I got lucky and found a few things I was looking for. Mui not so much … though he did buy some shorts … an unexpected and welcome find.

Seeing as we were at Park Meadows, we decided to have dinner at PF Chang’s. We started off with our usual — the chicken lettuce wraps — but were disappointed that they are now serving them with a different sauce with a mustard base. Our wrap up, however, was delish … banana spring rolls served with a scoop of pineapple coconut ice cream … yum, yum!Read more