East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park CO

Lat/Long:  40.32778, -105.57722

Location:  East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes, but not at all sites

Bathroom: 100 yard walk

WiFi:  Nope, not even a cell signal

Shower:  FREE!!!  Beware, the website says there are NO showers…

Reserve on web at: https://www.larimercamping.com/

Site:  A67

Yet, another great weekend spent away…from the grid.  This place is soothing to soul, for real.  This time we picked spots that were right next to each other as Cole and Ashley camped with us.  The spots are kinda out in the open, not as nice as A01 – but we turned the T@b around so we faced the door of their camper, so it’s ideal to say the least.  

Took a nice walk Saturday, walked all the way into the YMCA park – didn’t see any wildlife like we did last time.  But, when we got back we had a deer RIGHT by our campers.  Thank goodness all four puppies were tired, Ashley and I were able to get right next to it to get some pictures.

Coleman did a lot of little maintenance things that we needed help figuring out.  Fixed the track on our ceiling fan, taught us how and where our furnace was and checked our battery.  Which we learned is why we were blowing a fuse every time we hooked the thing up (it was pretty DEAD).  But, he’s a lifesaver as we are planning a big trip to the North Rim in September that will require dry camping…with use of the furnace as it gets SUPER cold there at night.  I swear we are always learning something new about this trailer with the help of our friends.  We sure love it to death. 

We plan to come back in a few weeks.  This time we couldn’t find sites next to each other (as Cole and Ashley will be coming up again too) which is a bummer, but I think we’ll be pretty close to each other which is great.  We have another trip after that in late August…at A01!!!  Woo-hoo!  ;)

Got some interesting neighbors Saturday night.  Oklahoma honeymooners (which we named “Two heart Palm Tree” based on their airbrushed license plates that you would get for 10 bucks at Myrtle Beach) is the story we decided to make up.  Their stay involved a pack of Budweiser, small tent and a charcoal starter.  They made for quite the people watching. 

This place is a best kept secret for sure.  People are nice, environment is GREAT, super quiet, super mellow – right up our alley.  If you are reading this—don’t share this spot with people we are trying to escape from!  ;) 

Happy Trails, see ya next time!

East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park CO

Lat/Long:  40.32778, -105.57722

Location:  East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes, but not at all sites

Bathroom: 100 yard walk

WiFi:  Nope, not even a cell signal

Shower:  FREE!!!  Beware, the website says there are NO showers…

Reserve on web at: https://www.larimercamping.com/

Site:  A01

What a fantastic last minute trip!  After getting a good itch to go camping during the fourth of July holiday, I was “site surfing” via the web and came upon this campground.  Any site is hit or miss and it’s always a little nerve wracking when they don’t display any pictures of the site…but – what a find this was!  This is by far our absolute favorite in campsites (minus epic spots like, Grand Teton’s).  But – this will definitely be our “go to” spot from here on out.  It’s about 50 minutes from the house, outside of the hustle of the town, isolated and QUIET.  The website said that there were no shower facilities at this campground, so we had planned to go to town at least once to shower…to our surprise, there are actually two buildings with showers in them.  Bonus…they are FREE!  Needless to say, we didn’t move our car after we un-hitched and we bathed daily. 

There are plenty to trails that surround the campground.  You can actually walk straight into RMNP from here.  Only bummer is no dogs on the national park trails—but Kayle and Chase had a lot of other options, so no worries. 

The view is breathtaking.  We are just west of the YMCA facility, but nestled up in a grand valley that faces the west side of the park.  Most of the campsites are pretty private with a fair amount of space.  A01 is definitely the top choice, but A64, 63, 62, 37, 36 and 35 are great spots too.  Not to say the other spots aren’t just as nice, but they are a little “on top of each other” or they just lack shade.  Beware if you’re a new RV owner…the spots are tight.  Real tight.  I had to inch my way back and forth into our spot, but the website wasn’t kidding when it said, “May have less then 22’ to maneuver.”  Also as a heads up, zero cell service and no wifi—and it’s actually pretty nice without it. 

Weather was so mild.  We were in sweatshirts all weekend, minus when we hiked.  It’s been perfect though – little bit of rain here and there, but all in all – perfect!

Yet again…the only T@b around.  Saw a few other interesting ones though – the “Waz-at” is one I’ve never seen before – kinda a retro tear drop too.  Lots of Coleman pop ups and other small trailers.  LOTS of tent sites, and lots of people in those tent sites.  It’s actually good to see so many active and happy families enjoying stuff like this.  We had quite the family next to us Friday and Saturday.  Party of 6 adults…in a tiny pop up camper.  Both cars from Kansas…and they seemed to NOT enjoy the great outdoors as we do.  Saturday afternoon they packed it in – left in the afternoon after some shouting, cursing, crying and loud banging.  Leader of the pack wore a “Three wolf moon shirt”…if you don’t know what I’m talking about you can take a gander at this: http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Wolf-Short-Sleeve/product-reviews/B002HJ377A.  To be polite I’ll just say, we did not miss them.  If we would have walked over there I’m sure I would have heard the ring leader shout, “THREE WOLF MOON, PACK UP!”  I hope they had a glorious breakfast on Sunday, because after watching their breakfast on Saturday I kinda felt for them….2 boxes of pop tarts and raw hot dogs on buns.  According to their sticker they had checked in on July 4^th…so it must have been a long 6 days for them. 

Happy trails!  We’ll be out again in a few weeks!  We’ve also scheduled a trip to the North Rim at the Grand Canyon in mid-September…..WOOHOO!