Glenwood canyon

It rained all last night. A cool misty morning this morning.

Glenwood canyon resort

Regardless of how a project looks when it’s done, we believe people generally have reasons for what they do. We don’t think people usually do things just so they’ll look stupid. Take this RV park; for example. There used to be a tent camping section up top, a trailer park at the mid level, and the camping loop down by the river. First they redid the top section several years ago so they could park some RVs up there and put in some park model cabins. Then they took out the trailer park on the mid level so they could put in some big rig sites. They got all the residents of the trailer park moved out. That took about a year because they gave them so much time to get relocated. Two of the trailers could be towed out. The rest got demolished onsite. During the next year, they knocked out any concrete and asphalt, bulldozed the space flat, marked out the sites, put in the utilities, and put in rocks and a few trees for landscaping. Now the big rig sites are open.

Utility hookups for RVs are always on the left side (at least in this country). They generally put them toward the rear of the motorhome, considering whether they mean for it to be a pull-in, back-in, or pull-through site. These are all back-in sites. They did put the hookups on the left of the coach, but then they put the electrical hookup at the rear wheel, the water hookup even with the front wheel, and the sewer hookup eighteen feet in front of that. It doesn’t matter how you align yourself in the site, it’s going to be a stretch to reach something. In our case, we don’t really have much leeway. We have to back all the way in or we’ll stick out the front of the site. The electrical hookup is in just the right place. We can reach the water spigot with one hose. The sewer hose.,.. no matter. We carry plenty.

Our challenge is to figure out what they were thinking when they laid this out, or what external forces conspired to wreck their plan.

Glenwood canyon resort

It’s on the side of a hill; entrance at the top, Colorado River at the bottom. On the other side of the river, the train track; a model train builder’s dream; train tracks winding along the river approaching a sheer cliff with tunnels.

A cool cloudy fifty degree day today with rain showers and a breeze blowing the pine siskins on and off the bird feeder like leaves in the fall. Just watched a news feature about the Independence Pass road finally opening today (instead of Memorial Day), amid thirty foot drifts while it snowed sideways on the reporter. There is such a common chant in Colorado about needing more rain in the summer and more snow in the winter. This has been a very good precipitation winter for Colorado.

Glenwood canyon resort

Here we get morning coffee and birds at the rear patio.

Glenwood Canyon Resort

It’s on the side of a hill; entrance at the top, Colorado River at the bottom. We’re parked on the mid level where the bigger rigs park. There is a lower level for camping too. What could be finer than pitching your tent next to the fire ring, then falling asleep to the background sound of the river gently flowing past your head.

Parting shot

One more Ridgway picture. Other streams are too fast and muddy to fish this time of year. This section of the Uncompahgre runs clear and clean. This water comes right from the bottom of the dam upstream. No messy snowmelt runoff here.

Glenwood springs

High country springtime weather. High thirties at night with a forty degree swing to daytime highs. Ridgway was our decompression from the stress of southern California. Mild weather. Minimal people. Knockout scenery. A soak at Orvis Hot Springs. A walk up to the yurt. Side by side massages. Another soak. It worked. We’re ready to go again.

Now we’re on to Glenwood Springs. We’ll do the Aspen Center for Physics job mostly remote from here even though we’re within fifty miles of them. I’ll probably drive in for a live exit conference on Friday.