Day 20 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Dry camping again.  The biggest downside to this is that it usually it goes hand in hand with no showers.  It seems to me that campgrounds WITHOUT hookups SHOULD have bathhouses with showers, and campgrounds WITH hookups wouldn’t have to.  But it doesn’t usually work that way for some reason.  The upside is that you are usually in a beautiful campground and very close to nature.  So we can only stay here for 2-3 days.  My newest theory is that they don’t want people coming in to stay for two weeks.  If they run people off, more people get to experience it!

Let me start back at this morning.  Leadville was such an exciting stop for me because of my family connection, so I was a little sad to leave, but we went on to another family connection!  Brad thinks it’s funny, or odd, or fascinating that I have family connections all over the country.  His family roots are deep in AL, in a fairly small area of AL.  This is all foreign to him.  Uncle Keith, my mom’s little brother, lives in Empire, CO.  It was pretty much on our way to RMNP so we stopped in for a visit.  It had been about 5 years, so it was good to see him again.  We only stayed for an hour and a half because we did not have reservations at RMNP and needed to get on up there.

We scored another great campsite!  Back story . . . They are working on a major road in the park and have closed the “first come, first served” campground that is down that road.  Therefore, they made a loop in a different campground (that is normally reservation only and typically booked up because it is so awesome) the “first come” area and we got there first!  Or at least to our little site.  It was one of the last open RV sites.  It is a beautiful area.  Morraine Campground.  See photos!

We met our neighbors who are from the Netherlands.  They have been in the US for 4 weeks in a rented RV.  We saw mule deer just over our hill resting by the river.  We also saw the strangest little creatures that resemble prairie dogs.  We found out later that they are Wyoming ground squirrels.  We just hung out at our campsite tonight.  Good day.

Arriving RMNP