Yampa River SP, CO - Sep 2007

One of the challenges we run up against in our fulltime lifestyle is where to stay during holiday weekends. Most campgrounds are usually booked solid way in advance and our challenge is trying to find a place to plant until after the crowds leave. We usually try to find a campground that has first-come-first-served sites and then arrive several days, better yet -- a week early -- and then just wait it out. This year we were in Colorado for Labor Day and most of the desirable campgrounds were totally booked, so, after some online searching, I found a state park that still had sites open for the weekend.

We arrived at Yampa River State Park on the Wednesday before the big weekend and the place was deserted. Only the friendly camp hosts - Jane & Wayne - shared the place with us. All that changed by Friday night when the campground was nearly full and we even had our site reserved out from under us and we had to move to another site.

The campground wasn't all that scenic, being little more than a large field with parched grass and gravel pads, but it was a good place to sit for a spell and we had several really nice sunrises and sunsets. Also, it was 25 miles to Steamboat Springs - a lovely town, where we enjoyed fabulous Eggs Benedict one morning on the outside patio at the Creekside Cafe. We also took a drive up to Steamboat Lake and Pearl Lake -- both exquisite parks. We hope to go back and camp at Steamboat Lake State Park as it had some great sites with views of the lake.