Loghill Village

After a long day of driving yesterday, we took it easy today.

It was around 10:00a when we left the Cruiser to explore the park. The temperature had risen to 50F. The skies were blue and filled with sunshine. Perfect!

Ridgway SP is divided into roughly three sections. The Pa-Co-Chu-Puk Campground where we are staying is behind the Ridgway Reservoir Dam. The other two sections are on the far side of the dam from where we are.

We started off with a stroll along the River Walk Trail, which follows the Uncompahgre River Tailwater and goes around a couple of fishing ponds. Though the trail is a mere .2 miles long, we enjoyed the fall foliage colors adding to the beauty of the scenery ... accompanied by the sounds of trickling water. The only others nearby were anglers fly fishing, which meant that we had the narrow path to ourselves.

Though there is a seven mile one-way trail from our section of the park to the Dutch Charlie area, we next opted to drive there. The five-mile long reservoir, for which the park is named, is here. It was a shock to see the lower end of the reservoir completely dried out. We later learned at the Visitor Center that this is normal since water is released this time of the year for use by ranchers and farmers.

Leaving the car in one of the parking lots, we took a short hike on a goat-path-like trail through the forest to see the “Secret Spot.” I have no idea if we got that far as part of the trail was washed out and we had to turn back. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the hike as it gave us views of the reservoir from various vantage points. Again, we had the trail to ourselves ... which is always a nice thing ... even more so during a pandemic.

After checking out the two Dutch Charlie campgrounds — both electric only — we headed over to the Visitor Center to browse the exhibits. The park ranger on duty confirmed that the haze veiling our view of the Cimarron and San Juan Mountains was indeed smoke being carried down from the wildfires in Northern Colorado. Hopefully, the smoke will blow out of the area soon.

After a quick look-see around the Dallas Creek section of the park — the day use area — we returned to our site for lunch. The only tree on our site provided shade at the picnic table ... just long enough for us to have an al fresco meal. We then set up our new shade shelter and spent the rest of the day relaxing outdoors.

Our plan is to do a drive tomorrow. We know which drive we’ll be doing. How far we’ll get is TBD at the moment.Read more