Taylor Park, CO - Aug 2008

OMG -- this campground is now our official "Number 1 Most Favorite" place of all for it's scenic beauty. You've heard of "million dollar views", well we've labeled this the "billion dollar view." This is the Lakeview National Forest Campground on Taylor Park Reservoir. It is located about 35 miles north of Gunnison, Colorado and is just about the prettiest thing we've ever seen.

The campground has 4 loops that are terraced on the side of the mountain. There are about 70 sites - most do not have hookups, but there are 16 sites with electricity. The "electric loop" has the best views in the whole campground. Mostly wide open (there are a few pines scattered around), large graveled pads with nice patios and plenty of elbow room. Some of the non-hookup sites (located further up the mountain) also have good views, but are more sheltered in the pines. We lucked into a first-come-first-served site with a great view and spent two-weeks here -- just in awe of the lovely views.


Since the campground was all terraced, walking the dogs was always a challenge -- especially since we were at 9,400' elevation. On one of our walks, we discovered this beautiful canyon at the edge of the campground and often took off for a nice walk along the jeep trail. A babbling brook ran next to the trail, making it a delightful stroll. One day we even spotted a buck, a doe and her fawn (still with spots) grazing in the meadow. Being very shy, they darted away before I could snap a pic.



Can you spot our doggies up ahead on the trail? They enjoyed these walks a lot since we could let them run off leash.


We had tons of birds (these are pine siskens) at our feeders and they pretty much emptied the feed tube every day and the seeds that spilled on the ground were eaten by the chipmunks and ground squirrels.


The occasional stellar jay and nutcracker (seen here) dropped by to check out the food.


Of course, lots of hummers too. This was a good shot of the colorful markings on a broad-tailed.



Another shot of our pretty view site. The campground had water spigots scattered about (and we could fill up our tanks with them.) The nearest dump station was 5 miles up the road (and $5 fee.) There were tons and tons of dirt roads to explore. This a favorite location for off-roaders, but they cannot ride their OHVs in the park, so we didn't have to deal with the noise in the campground itself.


The weather was darn near perfect (at least for us) while we were here. Sunny days that rarely got as high as the mid-70s. The nights were crisp and cool -- just right for throwing that down comforter on the bed. These two Texans are still constantly amazed that there are places where you need to wear a jacket in August. Of course, almost every afternoon we had the possibility of a storm -- sometimes just a few clouds, but often some rain and on exciting days we had thunder and lightening and hail. These storms usually erupted just in time to cool off a warm afternoon and then were over and gone by sunset -- leaving behind a colorful sky.



This storm broke up just at sunset and the rain clouds in the distance were glowing orange as a result.



Frank out on our patio -- enjoying the colorful sky over the lake on another pretty sunset.



Most mornings we awoke to a layer of fog hovering over the lake, but usually by 9:00, the fog burned off and the sky was deep blue and the lake even bluer -- so pretty -- what a nice way to start the morning.



We took many day drives while here -- one up to Crested Butte where we were amazed with this bigger than life-size Dragon Slayer statue. The artist made this out of chrome automobile bumper pieces.