From Golden Gate State Park Campground (Colorado) to Rifle Gap State Park (Utah)
Travel Dates: 7/22/2020 to 7/24/2020
Drive Time: 3 hours 25 minutes covering 183 miles (294 km)
Today would take me through my first narrow canyon and what an experience that was! At the beginning travel was as it had been through the mountain ranges so far, that was until I hit Glenwood Canyon. Here the canyon walls rose up high above me on either side and closed in around the highway allowing only railroad tracks, a river, and a small highway through it. This went on for mile after mile, or at least it seemed to as time just kept rolling by.
There was some construction going on and we had to merge onto the opposite sides lanes leading to one way traffic which did slow things down a bit, but I would venture it was still at least 5-10 minute driving to get through it all. Reaching the end, the walls tapered away and the valley opened up all around me making it feel in a way as though I entered a new world once again.
The final drive into Rifle Gap State Park was a gentle ride through the countryside with farms surrounding the road on both sides. Arriving at the campground, I was quickly checked in and backing into the first campsite in the loop at site #1. This campsite were awesome! A small section of pavement led to a level concrete parking pad surrounded by a wood lined gravel section. At the back was a small covered pavilion with a picnic table under it and a fire pit off to the side.
Situated on the high side of the loop, the view down to the lake and surrounded mountain was pretty good considering there was a large expanse of parking lot and grassy area between it and the lake. Directly in front of it was a campsite, but behind it was trees blocking the view of the lake anyway, so it didn’t detract from the view I had. In fact, looking out my driver side picture window, the view was just about as nice as could be hoped for.
After getting my campsite setup just before 1 pm, I decided to head down to the lake to see what the view from there would be. WOW! While the lake is really a reservoir, there is a section of grassy area that opens up to a large beachy area in front of the lake. Now, I think it should be noted that it was obviously a low rain season as most of that area would usually be under water, otherwise the grassy green area would extend further down towards the lake. Better for me, as it opened up where you could walk along it much more. Great for people who wanted to fish the lake as well. The water by the shore had the usual clear/brownish tinge to it, but further out into the lake the water turned to that beautiful turquoise blue. The wind had picked up a bit, so there were ripples all over the lake and lots of clouds above.
After enjoying a short look at the lake, I went back to the RV to eat and relax for a while. Later in the evening, I again walked down to the lake to see what it looked like in the evening as the sun was setting. This time the clouds had dissipated and bringing out the blue colors of the lake and the sky above. Also the wind had died off and the water now still and calm acted like a mirror reflecting the large mountain behind it. I was able to get an amazing panoramic photo showing this reflection and was glad I had gone back down to be able to not only see this with my eyes, but capture it to show to others so they might experience just a bit of what I was about to see and feel.
The following day I spent a bit of time walking through the marsh grass area to the left of the camping loop and then spent the rest of the day sitting outside and enjoying the mountain air and cool weather. That’s it. That’s all I did. Sometimes you just need to unplug and enjoy being surrounded by nature, so that’s exactly what I did. I sat outside and enjoyed nature.
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