Snow, Cows, Vultures, Cats & a Big Foot

Mancos, CO
Boondocking


We had a couple of nice warm days when we were first in Mancos.  Then the temps dropped and the snow started.  I have to admit, it was kind of nice. 

The snow came and went over the next couple of days.  Since the next few days warmed up we decided to head out and boondock on some National Forest land we checked out ahead of time.  We wanted to make sure we could drive the rig up the dirt road without getting stuck in any mud. (been there, done that!  see our hysterical post from New Mexico) HERE.

 

The dirt road 316, right off Rt 160 has many great boondocking sites.  Most level, very easy to get to.  Not steep or rutted roads.  Plenty of places to turn around a big rig.

 

 

We had a great level spot with plenty of privacy.  I'll bet when the trees and shrubs are leafed out it's even prettier.  What a great spot!

 

Front yard with our own firepit.

 

View out the back.

It was still cold so we decided to take a road trip to Telluride and pass by Delores where we would love to do some fishing on the Delores River.  Still too cold though with the water running fast and the fish not biting.  I tried anyway.

Almost at Telluride.  The drive was pretty but we're glad we did the drive ahead of time.  We wouldn't have wanted to tow the trailer up this road in the snow.

Small ski town of Telluride.

Cute town.  We drove around a bit, had some coffee to get warmed up and then headed back down.  We'll be spending more time here later in the summer when the snow is gone.

 

 

There were some pretty sights on the way back.  There was this section of a frozen waterfall we didn't notice on the way up.  I loved it.  It looked like frozen ice angels to me.

There were elk everywhere.  They were also enjoying the lower elevations where the grass was beginning to grow.

 



During a drive through Mancos we passed a cattle drive. 

Another day we took a drive around Cortez to investigate the town.  While we were geocaching, we came upon one that was hidden in/near/on this giant steer (also listed in Roadside Attractions). It's as tall as the building.  We weren't able to find it though.

 

 We found another interesting roadside attraction called Creations from Mufflers.



Parlez vous Francais?

SO many cute and funny sculptures across the front of this guys property.

Really hard to get good pictures of them from my iPhone. The place was huge.

Later we went to a movie in town and saw The Huntsmen.  It was really good. It played at a cute little theatre that only showed 2 movies.  It wasn't crowded either.

Then it was time to visit the local brewery. Main Street Brewery was a few doors down from the movie theatre.

A small flight to sample for Steve and an Italian soda for me.  With a small dab of whip cream!

And one more fumy sculpture.  The Belt Salvage sits upon a salvage company so they have a lot of parts to work with.

 

A stop at the local Visitor's Center to get some maps.

 

More sculptures.  The colors were pretty, but it was kind of creepy looking.

 

Trees and flowers are blooming all over.  This Kwanzan Cherry tree was gorgeous.  Seems as we go up in elevation here in Colorado, we are in eternal Spring.  Our allergies are going nuts!

 

 

What a day.  Back home in time for a wonderful sunset and fire.

 

 

           Beautiful fire.                               Hurley enjoying his "stick".

On one of our last days we took a drive to the top of the mountain we were camped at.  A nice, muddy, dirt 4x4 road.  I drove.  Steve covered his eyes ;-)  We were in search of a high elevation geocache.  Since it's covered in snow most of the year, it was exciting to be able to find it.  And we did!

It was also the perfect place for us to place our Big Foot "geo-coin".  It's one of our coolest.  Since it's so big we needed to find a large cache to be able to fit it in.  This happened to be a large ammo box.  I wonder how long it will take for someone else to find it?  UPDATE: "Alpine Adventurers" found it a few weeks later and said they would bring it back to Alaska where they live and hide him there.  Perfect, right? 

We hung hiked around a bit and watched the sun go down.  Wow it's cold up here!

Hurley agrees!  He's nice and warm.

I wonder if they have anything going on for Cinco de Mayo in the little town of Mancos?

Yep!

Steve had the Cinco de Mayo sampler, I had my favorite, Carne Asada.  All of it was great!

A rough and tough ol' cowboy.

Rangeland in Mancos.

 

Loved our time in Mancos.  Moving on to Durango next!