September 12
We planned to leave the Amphitheater by 8:30 and sure enough we were ready to roll on time. Patrick, our campground host lingered around us, still infatuated and intrigued by our capabilities of hooking up our toads and getting ready to roll. Our destination today was somewhere around Chimney Rock. We were hoping to find a campground that had water and sun. The last few days at the Amphitheater have been nice but if we needed water we had to fill jugs and then transfer the water to our holding tanks. Also, partly due the shadiness of our campsites and the cloudy, rainy weather for the past four days our solar panels could never fully charge the batteries.
In order to reach Chimney Rock we would have to drive the San Juan Skyway scenic byway with a stop in Durango and Pagosa Springs. This is an infamous scenic byway with three passes to cross all at 11,000 feet more ending around Durango. Its about 75 miles long. ...very long winding, steep miles....but the payoff are the breath taking views. There aren’t many RV friendly pull offs so no pictures were taken this time. Fortunately we were traveling early in the morning and so our 35-45 mph slug up the hills didn’t hold up much traffic. We arrived in Durango to shop for groceries and have lunch..and noticed how much warmer it was. Ahhhhh!
We continued on through Pagosa Springs towards Chimney Rock and found a lovely little Forest Service campground called Ute right off the highway. It looks as if this campground was much larger at one time but has been down sized. The sites are OK for smaller RVs but larger Class A would have a much more difficult time getting in. There was water, which was a bonus, although I had to use my old jug routine and fill and transfer via a funnel. I figure my two three gallon jugs are good for one hot shower. Not bad. True to the weather pattern, it started to rain just as I was getting ready to cook dinner on the Bar-B Que. I’m so glad I’m not tent camping this trip!
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