Goza's Wanderings and Wonderings: Rocky Mountain National Park in the Snow

ALocation: Boyd Lake State Park (El. 5,100 ft); Loveland, Colorado

(click pictures to enlarge)
(all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia 929 cell phone)

This is the first Colorado State Park for me. In fact I haven't been in any state park in a while and I miss them. Colorado is kind of screwy with their campground reservation system in that you can't make a reservation sooner than 3 days in the future. Since I didn't know I would be here that far in advance, I called ahead and they assured me they had vacancies so I just showed up without a reservation which is rare for me. The campground was only about 25% full but they still wouldn't let me pay for more than 2 nights at a time. My plan is to stay 5 nights so I have to go back to the office 3 times. When I asked why, they said their computer system wasn't tied in with walk-in campers so they were concerned about double booking the same campsite. I've stayed in a lot of state parks across the country and this is the first time for this nonsense. Oh well, I have a nice campsite that is level and 50 amp power to keep me warm. It is open and not cramped or crowded. The sites are paved, small, half circles which are OK for small bumper-pull trailers or motorhomes but for fifth-wheels like Liberty, I had to "straighten" the curve out so I could drop Freedoms tailgate without hitting Liberty.

Campsite 111

It has been raining off and on since I got here. The weather forecast is for snow tonight and more rain through Thursday. I plan to leave on Friday. I stopped here so I could explore the Rocky Mountain National Park located about 30 miles west of here. Accuweather said it snowed up there last night and will continue to do so through tonight. The forecasted temperature in the mountains was predicted to be 34 today. I knew there wasn't going to be a clear day so I headed up there today in a drizzling rain which turned to snow as I entered the park. The roads were wet but not frozen and I kept a close eye on the outside temperature. I turned around when it suddenly dropped to 30 and the roads started getting slushy. Just like I was lucky enough to catch Wolf Creek Pass in the snow, I was able to see this National Park in its winter cover. It was good.