Peak One and Pine Cone Campgrounds, Frisco, Colorado – June 6 through June 17
It’s a good thing we decided to stay up on the mountain rather than take our chances at Copper Mountain resort. We played outside until late afternoon before pulling up camp and making tracks. We weren’t too worried as Copper was only 9 miles away.
But, it turns out our information was wrong and they now have no camping signs posted on all the parking lots. This is why it’s good to have a couple of potential over night spots in mind when you’re done traveling for the day.
We had remembered staying at a National Forest Service campground near Frisco several years ago when we were traveling in the Roadtrek (turns out it was June of 2009). Frisco was only another 9 miles or so away, plus there are 2 NFS campgrounds adjacent to each other. Surely we can find a spot for Big Guy!
Since remembering the Pine Cone Campground as basically a parking lot on Lake Dillon, we decided to give Peak One a try. We found a nice pull through space and settled in. Frank hadn’t even had a chance to level the coach before the campground hosts showed up wanting money. Since there are 79 camping sites here and there’s only about 6 of us in the whole campground we were kinda obvious. But the good news was that the camping fee was reduced by half because we have the National Park “geezer pass” and since we towed the Element into the campground they waived the extra vehicle charge. Had we driven it into the campground separately they would have nipped us for an extra $5. We signed up for 3 days, thinking that would be plenty of time to see everything we wanted to see. Ha!
Later in the evening Dave and Jan, the camp hosts from our loop, came over and introduced themselves. They told us that the campground had only been open a week and the water still had not been cleared for use. It seems they had a late snow that kept everything closed. They gave us some good pointers on Frisco, where to dump and get water, and said that we could only stay there for 6 days as they were booked solid for Fathers Day weekend which was also the big BBQ contest weekend. They were a pleasure to talk to and we appreciated their help. The weather is perfect and welcomed since there are no hookups. Forecast is highs in the 70’s and getting down to the high 30’/low 40’s. We may even have to close the windows for the night.
The next day we wandered into downtown Frisco and stopped in at Footes Rest for lunch. They had one of these bean bag games and EJ proceeded to clean my clock.
This is the second time we’ve played this game on the trip. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now.
We wandered on over to the visitor center where they loaded us up with information and maps. They recommended we tour the Frisco Museum, which we did. As you walk in the door, you are faced with a great model railroad setup complete with scale buildings and mountains.
Out in back of the Museum are a number of restored cabins and houses that depict life back in the early beginnings of Frisco and some old mining equipment.
EJ taking advantage of one of the displays. The fellow with her has been there a mite too long as he’s just about washed out.
In years past Frank, and EJ too, had spent quite a bit of time skiing at Keystone, Breckenridge and A-Basin. It seemed like a good idea to go revisit them and see what they look like in the summer. Breckenridge is set up to handle high dollar tourists, Keystone was kind of sad with no snow and empty condos, but A-Basin was still open on one more weekend for skiing. EJ and I briefly considered it until we found out only the Black Diamond slopes were still open. We gave those up years ago. Here are some pictures of the slopes at Arapahoe Basin.
Since we were this far up in the mountains, we may as well go on over Loveland Pass. We started out in t-shirts and quickly wished we had our woolies on. The wind was howling at 35mph or better. IT WAS COLD!!
On the way back to Frisco we decided to use the Eisenhower Tunnel where Interstate 70 goes through the mountain.
One thing you quickly find out is that a lot of these mountain towns have lots of activities to attract visitors. Bicycle races, foot races, cooking contests, outhouse races and the list goes on. In Frisco we had seen several posters promoting a show of daring and danger defying “Kayaks Under Lights” at 10 Mile Creek which was flowing pretty good due to the snow melt. That sounded pretty exciting so we checked it out.
Here’s some of the kayaking daredevils.
They spent about as much time upside down as they did right side up. (Of course the right side up pictures are kinda’ boring)
Naturally a good crowd showed up to see the acrobatics.
Oh yeah! The lights! This extravaganza was advertised as being under the “lights”. Well, one big issue with this is that it doesn’t get dark until about 9:30 here. Also EJ and I were concerned because we had driven by this site several times earlier in the day and there seemed to be no advanced preparation for the event. Then we found out why. Here’s Frank standing next to the extensive lighting system used to illuminate the kayakers.
That’s right there’s two, count’em, two work lights illuminating all the activities. However they were set up on the bridge so I guess you could say the event was “under the lights”.
Which is a nice segue into nights here in the mountains. The air is clear and the temperatures are perfect. A sweatshirt, and pair shorts and loafers and you’re all set. Oh yeah. And some adult beverages.
The campground has only been open for a few weeks and the water hasn’t yet approved for drinking by the Health Dept. So we are having to haul in water from about 2 miles away. This is my Rube Goldberg setup for getting the water container higher than the inlet on Big Guy. As you can guess by now, we have re-uped for 3 more days.
Father’s Day weekend is approaching so it’s time for us to move along as there is no longer room in the campground for us. So we pack up and move a whole half mile to the next campground, Pine Cone. It is right on Lake Dillon, which was really low when we got there. We took the #1 spot and had fantastic views. It was interesting to watch the lake rise everyday as the snow melt began to fill it back up.
Wildlife sightings are occurring around our site and we are having to take extra measures to protect our food from becoming some critters meal. We were constantly on the lookout for these little fellows. They will steal you blind in a heart beat!
We were a little worried about our next anticipated destination, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Research indicated that snagging a camp site was going to be a difficult proposition at best. One of the campgrounds we were interested in had a 30 foot limit on RV’s. We needed to find out how firm they were about that. So we decided to drive over there one day to check it out.
Along the way we saw more mountains, snow and Elk were every where!
We must have checked out a half dozen campgrounds and even some boondocking sites. But as it turns out, the campground we were worried about, Timber Creek in the RMNP, said they would welcome us with open arms and said not to worry about the length restriction. We’ll find a spot for ya’. It seems that since the bark beetles have decimated the lodge pole pines and most have been cut down, the sites in the campground are more open.
Back in Frisco the next day, EJ had heard about the Dillon Farmer’s Market. Dillon is the next small town over, about 6 miles from Frisco. There wasn’t a whole lot of produce for sale, but there was sure a lot of other stuff.
Then there was the big happening in Frisco that was the the reason for us getting kicked out of the Peak One Campground. The B-B-Q contest in Frisco. What a mass of humanity! While we enjoyed the atmosphere we were really disappointed in how expensive the food and drinks were and by how small the food portions were. It was fun and pretty much a ripoff. But the setting was beautiful
One day, Frank started getting cabin fever and needed a road trip. He told EJ about this wonderful place he had read about where we could see 1400 year old Bristlecone Pine trees. We asked our camp host about it and he said “Sure, your car will make it up there”. That was all the encouragement Frank needed. Of course EJ, being the navigator, wanted to know exactly where we were going so she could navigate. Well it wasn’t quite that straightforward. The directions were nebulous, at best. But Hey! This is an adventure, right?
We’re pretty sure we’re on the right forest service road because every now and then we see a sign pointing towards Windy Ridge. We’re out in the middle of nowhere and up pops this unique looking house.
The Forest Service road goes on and on. We’re crossing creeks with the Element and when we pass a pick up truck unloading his 4 wheel drive ATVs, Frank begins to get worried. But the Element keeps chugging along, up the side of the mountain. Finally we reach a point where the Element says “I give!”, and we stop. By our best estimate, we’re half a mile from our goal.
It’s still all uphill, but we get to see some neat looking ruins along the way.
And EJ spots something neither one of us can figure out. (A concrete ant hill?)
An old miner’s cabin.
And finally, proof that we have reached our destination. The Element has scaled a mountain (well almost), we’ve hiked a mile in very thin air (queue the gasping and wheezing) and we’ve reached our goal.
As part of our hike we had to cross a creek. There are two methods for crossing a creek on foot. One is slowly and methodically, carefully choosing every step.
The other is to run really, really fast and flap your arms like wings and maybe your feet won’t touch the water.
And how are the cat’s doing you asked. Pretty darn well. We think they like the cooler weather and tend to huddle up for napping.
It’s been a great 12 days in Frisco, especially since we only intended to stay for 3 days. It’s that “Linger longer effect” again. But if we’re ever going to get to the northwest, we best be moving along.
