For this post, we spend more time in Denver having some fun and dealing with major issues before the first snow of 2023 rolls in. Then we head to southern Colorado to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park and finally, we make a stop in beautiful Pagosa Springs!
Denver is a pretty interesting city filled with a very diverse population. We found this place called Meow Wolf; that’s a unique name for an attraction for sure. They have locations in:
- Denver, CO
- Houston, TX
- Grapevine, TX
- Santa Fe, NM
- Las Vegas, NV
- Los Angeles, CA
This experience was one of a kind for sure! The Denver Meow Wolf is best explained as an immersible fantasy world with a combination of creative creatures, fantasy alien world with several eclectic interactive experience rooms! As you wander around, you’ll end up lost among the different levels. It was a lot of fun!
Every birthday in our family, the birthday boy or girl gets to pick where they want to have a birthday dinner. So, it was Aiden’s turn. Ever since he was little, this boy has loved Asian food! We ended up going to Chubby Cattle for Hotpot and Sushi and it did not disappoint! Great menu selections and a fun but laid back atmosphere made for a yummy and comfy dining experience.
We ended up staying in Littleton, CO at Chatfield State Park Campground. This is a nice State Park with a large reservoir where you can fish, boat, kayak, or paddle board. This park has abundant wildlife such as; deer, geese, white pelicans, and seagulls; yes! I said seagulls AND pelicans! I’ve personally never seen pelicans and gulls this far inland, but after reading up on them, it’s quite normal.
We also experienced the first snow in the Denver area for 2023. It snowed 6″ to 8″, we aren’t used to that kinda snow being from North Alabama. The snow sounded fun and all but we had a major problem that had to be addressed before the weather moved in. At this point in our travels, I started to see how unreliable the Ram 3500 was. This truck had plenty of power but the transmission, turbo, and exhaust manifold were the major downfalls of this truck. When we were traveling from South Dakota to Estes Park, the truck blew the turbo flange gasket and 2 of the exhaust manifold bolts broke in the cylinder head. I didn’t have time for it to sit in a shop for 2 weeks so I had to fix it while we were in Littleton. This is one of the times I missed having a garage and all of the right tools, but I had to get it fixed. After 2 days of working on the truck, I had it back together, the 2 broken bolts were fixed and the turbo wasn’t leaking anymore. We’re back on the road!
The snow melted off pretty quickly and the temps bounced back to the 60s just in time to hook the RV back up to move farther south to Alamosa, CO. The journey from Littleton to Alamosa was a good drive, the landscape changes drastically along with the elevation. Alamosa is a little town in southern Colorado, this is where the Great Sand Dunes National Park is located. This is an amazing site to see and explore. We thought about renting a sandboard but quickly realized how far and tall the dunes were! The sunsets here are amazing but the night skies are even better as it is also certified as an International Dark Sky Park by Dark Sky International. Once you have the chance to see the stars like that, you’ll never want to stargaze anywhere else!
Unfortunately, there was more bad news to be had while we were in Alamosa. Our RV has an extensive solar setup, the previous owner had it installed and sadly I hadn’t spent much time learning it and understanding what we had. What I didn’t know, was that we were running completely off the batteries for an extensive period of time and once the sun went down the batteries couldn’t charge, so for 2 consecutive nights we lost ALL power at 10:30 pm. We had nothing! And the temps dropped to 15 degrees both nights. Luckily, our power pedestal still had a 20 amp plug that worked; we ended up running an extension cord through a window so we were able to run a space heater, not ideal, but it worked! This wasn’t the first time this happened; what I did learn is that I have a component that was causing these issues. Since then, I’ve learned more about the system and I know what each component does.
After spending 5 days in Alamosa and dealing with the COLD nights, we headed to Pagosa Springs, CO. We use a platform called Harvest Host and Boondocker’s Welcome. These platforms are a mapped list of an array of people, businesses, wineries, and farms that have some extra space for RVers to spend a night or 2 and some have hookups for a nominal fee.
We parked our RV in the driveway of some super nice folks that were gracious to let us stay a few days as the area is GEORGIOUS. Pagosa Springs is known for its natural hot springs. There is a resort in town that has several hot spring pools but there are several of these small pools you can dip into for free right across the river from the resort. These hot springs are mineral pools that are super therapeutic and hot! If you find yourself in Pagosa Springs, you have to carve some time out to take a dip. There are also some really beautiful scenic drives just north of town that will take your breath away.
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