On The Road Again
August 7th: I arrived at a camping area that I had first visited back in ’04, just after I had retired. It’s easily accessible, yet peaceful, quiet and far from civilization. It’s bordered on the east by a public gravel road in good condition, but with absolute minimal traffic. It lies near the head of a high mountain valley at about 9000' altitide, so be prepared.
There are many scattered dry camping sites, sufficient for at least 10 large rigs, with excellent to fair solar exposure, and still more sites for small rigs with full solar to absolutely NO solar exposure. There is one vault toilet, clean and in good condition.
The camping area, itself, is served by a good packed gravel roadway paralleling the public road, and extending 0.6 mile through a mixture of open meadows and mature woodlands, bordered on the west by a vigorous mountain stream, Cebolla Creek. The meadows are filled with grasses and large areas of clover, while the woodlands are mostly blue spruce and narrow-leaf cottonwoods, with willow thickets along the stream. Although the entire camping area is very level, beyond the public road on the east, and the stream on the west, the land form changes abruptly to steep slopes with rugged rock outcroppings and sheer bluffs.
I chose a site next to the stream, with good solar exposure and backed by woodland.
And I had a gorgeous view from my doorstep.
And another view:
To the west beyond the stream, and also to the east of the public road are steep hillsides with rugged rock outcroppings and sheer bluffs.
Boy! I love this area!
East of the public road in early morning light:
Again looking eastward in the early morning light:
Looking westward across the creek and up at the rocks and bluffs.
Some of the flowers that I found blooming in the meadows are the Showy Daisy,
a bright yellow flower - research revealed its name to be Hawkweed or Scouler's Woolyweed.
Shrubby Cinquefoil,
Yarrow (surrounded by clover),
Indian Paintbrush,
and Scarlet Gilia.
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