Pinball Point- Colorado River

April 26, 2013

Bill had some meetings in Eagle County on a Friday afternoon. I rode with him so we could do a quick one night camping trip afterwards. The FIRST trip of the 2013 season! After his meetings we headed North along the Colorado River Road from Dotsero. There are a few little primitive BLM campgrounds along the river between Dotsero and Bond. We stopped at the first one, Lyons Gulch, but after seeing a dead cow in the water in the river, decided we would head elsewhere since it smelled and our dog would be tempted by it all night. Plus it was right next to the road and there seemed to be more traffic than we anticipated.

We went about 15 miles more north on the Colorado River Road (follows the CO River), to Pinball Point. The road goes from being paved to gravel a few miles after Lyons Gulch, you pass some big ranches and small little settlements. Pinball Point has river access, a large gravel parking area (good for parking your vehicles if you put in or take out your raft here), a vault toilet and one camping site. Luckily, no one was there so we checked it out and decided to stay. The site has a picnic table, a very impressive fire ring (I will go into that later) and a few decent spots to pitch a tent. Its elevated enough above the river that we really didnt worry about the water rising and taking over camp, but still low enough to here the ambient river noise at night.

Pinball Point Campsite

The Impressive Fire Ring

We set up our tent, fished a bit and heated our dinner on our stove. Then as the sun was going down we made a fire, since it was supposed to get down into the low 30s that night. The fire ring looked almost brand new. It was very deep, double layered and had good air circulation but also was well insulated from the wind. Probably one of the most impressive fire rings I have seen in a campsite and to think we were on BLM land. Take note all national park, state park and forest service campgrounds!!! It did get quite chilly that night, but once we were in the tent I was cozy in my new Big Agnes sleeping bag that Bill got me. The only thing that was a negative was that the train tracks are right across the river along a cliff face which amplifies the sound of the passing trains all night! Oh well!

The next day we did a little cleaning of the trash we found around the site since there was quite a bit of it. Come on fellow campers, don't leave your trash around a campsite! We all go camping to enjoy the beauty and peace of nature, I don't want to know what type of beer you were drinking! After packing up camp, we headed further north along the road, we passed some nice vistas, another campground (Catamount), and the town of Burns. We took a short detour to check out the base of King Mountain, seems like a cool spot to explore some other time. Once we hit 131 we headed north to Steamboat.

Near Goblin Valley Utah

April 30th 2012
We drove to Goblin Valley, Utah which is about 4 hours from Rifle (6.5 from Steamboat). There is a neat primitive spot in a canyon near the Wildhorse trailhead that we visited last April with some friends.
We set up the large tent (flying diamond 8) since we were staying for 5 nights. The spot is pretty secluded, although there are about 4 sites along the canyon. We had a couple camp near us the first night and then didn't see anyone else until the last night.  The weather was nice for the first few days. Nice for the desert-- overcast and warm with a few welcome rain drops every now and then. The last few days were hot, unbearably sunny and windy!

Our campsite

Our campsite as seen from above

Camp Fire

There is tons to explore right from camp including hiking up the rocky protrusions on either side of the canyon. We did go on a day hike to Crack Canyon (the trailhead was about 2 miles from our camp) which was pretty cool and not too technical of a hike.

Crack Canyon

There isn't much wildlife except chipmunks, lizards, crows and mice. One guy saw a scorpion one night when he moved a rock but no others were spotted (thank goodness). We did not see any snakes either!
More friends showed up later in the week to join us. The last night a troop of boy scouts showed up to camp down the canyon. They were a rowdy bunch of 8 to 12 year old boys. Good thing we decided to backpack to camp in a small valley up on a mesa above the canyon. We had labeled the valley "the thunderdome" when we found it last year and we had been talking about camping up there all year. It was a full moon that night (the super moon) so it was perfect. We set up camp and wached the sunset from the edge of the mesa and the moon rise from the other side. We made a fire and since it was our last night we stayed up pretty late.

Our Campsite the last night

We woke up early, broke camp and hiked back down to our campsite in the canyon. We passed the boy scouts on our way down. We packed up camp and headed home. I decided that 4 days in the desert was about all I could handle next time. We were sandy, wind burnt and exhausted. We stopped in grand junction for some fast food and ice cream on the way home!

State Bridge, CO

May 25th 2012
We ventured to State Bridge, CO which is about 45 mins south of Steamboat for a small music festival at a little stage along the Colorado River. The festival was a charity to help children in Haiti and featured all Colorado musicians.
We camped on BLM land along the river about 1.2 miles from the festival along a rough road. Our campsite had river access, picnic tables and a firepit. Down the road there was also a vault toliet! A guy had brought an RV down the road which was amazing to me. Turns out itwas a member of one of the bands and his family.
Bill caught a fish that we ate for dinner the first night. A yummy rainbow trout! It was an easy walk back and fourth to the festival each evening. During the day we just hung out by the river.
Since we had limited car space and we weren't sure of the size of the campsite, we set up the small tent.