As we pulled into the Colorado State Park called Island Acres it almost felt like we were coming home (at least to one of our homes). The Head Ranger, Steve, welcomed us like we were family and the Maintenance Supervisor, Robert, (once he remembered us) did likewise.
The park is a very scenic setting with 1,200 foot cliffs on three sides, four lakes, and the Colorado River running right along the whole thing. We are about 20 miles east of Grand Junction, CO and in what is considered the Colorado River Canyon. With the extreme beauty comes a few – let’s say not so desirable aspects of the location. The Colorado River canyon/valley being a main artery for all forms of traffic means that Interstate 70 runs right along side of the park and on the other side of the river is the ever busy train tracks (luckily there are no whistle stops along here). When the big 18 wheelers come hauling butt down the west slope of the Rockies and hit the rumble strips on the sharp corners it doesn’t matter where you are in the park – you hear it! It does quiet down at night though, if it didn’t we would have never come back. The pictures above give you an idea of our setting – that’s our rig with some of the different views of the park.
Our duties are very minimal with most days involving cleaning up a few campsites, picking up some trash, walking the lakes, helping and talking to the campers, and planning our next hike, ride, festival, or adventure. I think we only actually work a full day (4 hours!) on Sundays when everyone leaves. Other than that it’s pretty laid back.
One of the reasons we enjoy this area so much are the various festivals (small and large) that occur over the summer. It seems like there is at least one every weekend somewhere close. Once we arrived here it didn’t take long for the first festival to crank up. The Fat Tire (mountain biking) Festival started it off in the nearby town of Fruita with all the high-end bikes available for “demo rides” (I did a couple), vendors, music, and the ever present micro-brews. This was followed closely by the “Mike the Headless Chicken Festival” with it’s bed races, lawnmower races, vendors, music, and again, the ever present micro-brews. I could go on and on about the various festivals in the area but I think you get the idea. There are quite a number of wineries and breweries in the area complete with regular guided tasting tours whether on bikes, cars, or if you prefer, hay wagon rides. There is even something for those “Harley Dudes” who wish to go highbrow, stick out their skull ring encrusted pinkies and sample the fruit of the vine.
We have been treated to the daily show of a family of three Bald Eagles that reside in the park. The mated pair are currently raising a new brood and a yearling (that doesn’t go near the nest) that is still staying near mom & dad. It’s a comfort thing! We see them almost every day, fishing in the lakes and soaring around the face of the cliffs. Giving us those National Geographic picture moments on a regular basis. I have to admit we do love watching these guys. Oreo isn’t to enthused about something that large with BIG claws flying around here though. The campers keep their small dogs on a pretty tight rein when they’re here, the eagles have a different meaning for the term “doggie treat”.
As we got used to our surroundings we started making short forays out into the local area hiking and biking. From top left to bottom right you have a portion of the Little Book Cliffs, a view of the Grand Mesa (world’s largest flat top mountain), a trio of local Hoo-Doos, Coal Canyon, hiking up the Rim Trail of the Grand Mesa and last but not least Castle Peak near Aspen with an elevation of 14,265 ft. It’s hard not to fall in love with this place with scenery like this – and we have only scratched the surface.
Our next festival we attended was supposed to be the first annual “Cruise & Brews Festival” in Palisade, CO - just a short distance down the interstate from here. Something happened to the bike cruise part (a small detail like city permits or something like that) so the rides were canceled but the music and beer fest went on. Maybe next year. You can read more about the festival in our accompanying blog walkingthesticks.blogspot.com.
These are a couple of the guys we met while at the beer fest, talked a lot about beers, bikes, and blogs – it was a fun afternoon. The more we talked the more beer they gave me so I have to admit it turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon. As you can see – the working hours of a brewery representative at a beer fest can be rather enjoyable!
Within a couple of miles of our campground is the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Preserve. It’s on BLM land and has trails for hiking, biking and 4-wheelers of all sizes, so we go there quite often. Linda walks the hiking trails and looks for the horses as well as doing a bit of geocaching while I ride the mountain bike trails up to the back side of Mt Garfield. There are about 140 horses in the area with the stallions each having their little harems and are really protective of their mares. The first time I rode my bike up the canyon I ran into one of these groups with the stallion standing on a rock overlook almost like something from the Lion King – extremely proud stance with the wind whipping his mane and tail in the wind. Of course this was one of the times I did not have a camera or phone with me so he let me get real close and from the look in his eyes was daring me to come just a little bit closer. I rode on!
When we first came to Island Acres park I noticed a cottonwood log at one of the campsites. I absconded with it one afternoon and decided it needed a bit of embellishment. I spent a number of afternoons with the drill and the dremel tool carving in petroglyph replicas of the wildlife in the park. There are wild horses, eagles, beavers, snakes, bighorn sheep and even a few natives in the design. We gave it to the park and they now display it at the entrance station where people see it whenever they go to the park office.
As camp hosts we occasionally run into some unusual things, this one was a stuffed guardian of a campsite – it was large! The campers hauled this in a small car with all their camping equipment, food, clothing and a total of 5 people – sometimes when you see what people do, you just have to wonder why. It is cheap entertainment though and never fails to bring us a smile or two!
On one of our “off” days we took a drive up to Glenwood Springs for a day of biking and geocaching. As you get into the upper elevations the scenery changes again and you’re in Aspen groves with snow covered mountains in most directions. We were just north of Aspen about 30 miles in this picture riding a trail that extends for over 40 miles through the mountains. Loving every minute of it. It has taken a bit to get somewhat conditioned to the altitude here, our home park is at 4900 ft. and some of the hiking and biking we do are at 7,000 ft. and above. After coming from the Everglades which is a whole 3 ft. above sea level it took some determination and effort on our part to stick to our hobbies. It was and is well worth it.
The Wisdom of “Oreo”
Oreo - our 17 pound Tom Cat, who has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years, decided he likes being part of the Blog and will continue to provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.
Since my pride and I started full-time RVing over eight years ago, we have run into some rather interesting, unique, and/or odd things along the way. Some, my pride actively sought out, (why – I don’t know) others were just there. Some are considered pieces of “art” others are intended to represent the local human or animal culture - or way of life or business. Then there are those where the reasoning just isn’t sound (even for a dog!) and are just plain “odd”. All are intended to catch your eye and your interest.
Our very first oddity (over eight years ago) was a recommended stop by my (favorite) Uncle. I’ve learned not to trust him any more. The Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota was one of our first stops when we started the RV life and was quite the education for my pride members.
SPAM is the undisputed king of mystery meat. Made of pig parts and secret spices, cooked in its own cans and juices right on the assembly line, SPAM rolls out of its far-flung factories at a rate of 44,000 cans an hour.
Hormel, which makes SPAM, (and 3,000 other food-like products) is headquartered in Austin. I don’t know if they make any of my cat food, but from what I’ve seen it wouldn’t be much of a transition for them.
As my pride members walked into the museum they came face to face with a towering wall of SPAM, made of 3,390 cans of all flavors, which rose to the ceiling in the lobby. After that they walked into a small theater, its doors shaped like the face of a grinning pig, and watched a 15 minute SPAM video (you have got to be kidding – but I love them anyway). Then they walked down "SPAMburger Alley" - which from the ceiling is slung a SPAM patty 4800 times larger than life-size. To top it all off from some hidden corner of the museum, the Monty Python cast could be heard singing "SPAM" through a loudspeaker - over and over and over as a replica SPAM plant conveyor belt slowly moved hundreds of cans overhead in an endless loop. This is the stuff kitty nightmares are made of and I know that its true because my pride members learned it at the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota.
In all my travels with my pride I don’t believe we have covered any state as well as we have Texas. We have been in all of the towns and cities larger than 50,000 in population. Been from Brownsville to Amarillo and north. Been from Port Arthur to El Paso and from Texarkana to Big Bend as well as all the stuff in between. Which I believe is more than most, if not all, of my prides’ relatives who call Texas their home. With all that time in Texas it was inevitable that we would run into some rather odd and unique items (and Texas has a BUNCH of them!). As we made our way through Texas one year we stopped in the town of Odessa and in the downtown park we found “Jack Ben Rabbit”. This eight-foot tall rabbit was the idea of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce President to honor the “hare-brained” idea of having a jack rabbit roping contest to promote the local rodeo back in 1932. (Roping rodents! Really! – only in Texas could you consider this entertainment.) Cowgirl Grace Hendricks roped a rabbit from horseback in 5 seconds flat to win the first competition beating out all of the men -even a model (and good looking) feline can appreciate that feat. According to my pride members the contest went on for a few years and then was dropped until 1977 when it was revived and immediately a coast to coast outcry from all the rabbit lovers in the country went up and made the news. The contest went on but was delayed by the rabbit lovers who released all of the captive jackrabbits with screams of “freedom, freedom” – but the event went on as scheduled when the former prisoners returned at feeding time. The competition ended in 1978 when The Humane Society shut it down for good (then went home to a nice rabbit dinner).
Someone tried to steal the jackrabbit in 1997, so it's been bolted to the sidewalk ever since.
Where do humans get these ideas? Damn! They need more cats in their homes!
We found out that cats are terrorized in Mitchell, South Dakota. As my pride members were walking the streets one day, a number of years ago, they noticed this sign above Mooners Bar & Lounge. They just had to take a picture of it and bring it to me. I think it’s disgusting! But if you would like to experience a place like this the address is:
Mooners Bar Lounge
108 N Main St., Mitchell, SD 57301
Please don’t tell them that I sent you!
I will continue my take on all the interesting, unique and odd things my pride and I have run into in future blogs. I think it’s fairly safe to say it will be entertaining!
Oreo
As we continue our stay in western Colorado I have been asked a number of times why we like this place. With the scenery, dry moderate climate (in the summertime), fairly low population, festivals, wineries, breweries, outdoor activities, extremely fit people, low cost, mountain biking, hiking, lakes, rivers, rafting, mountains and numerous other attributes - I just don’t know! Maybe if we stay long enough we will figure it out.
With all the wineries, breweries, and as of late, legal pot shops - it is in fact a very happy place!
As we leave you, one last thought comes to mind - “We have seen better days, but then we have also seen much, much worse. We don’t have everything we want, but we have so much more than we need. We woke up this morning with some aches and pains – but we woke up! We are alive and doing fine!”
Enjoy your day! The alternative sucks!
As Always - Home Is Where We Park It
Lee & Linda
