ROS AND JOHN RV LIFE: July 2023

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Crawford State Park, Crawford, Hotchkiss and Paonia

July 1st 2023

We arrived at Crawford State Park and after not liking Navajo State Park we were happy to see all Colorado parks were not the same. The park is set on quite a small 400 acre reservoir, which was built in 1963.

https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/Crawford

The area around the park is almost exclusively cattle country and as we drove around the North Fork area we would see tractors cutting and baling the hay for the Winter feed. The town of Crawford was two miles away and has cattle drives down it's Main Street on the way to market or to the mountain pastures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovzdv7wERUQ

We visited the towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss which were small but nice with a good community feeling.

Our pitch with a covered picnic table area and firepit

Cute neighbors

Swim with a view

Joe Cocker lived his later years here and is buried in Crawford

Crawford hardware store

We went to a free park concert at Hotchkiss

John's Dad had a company with the same name.

Paonia

Million Dollar Highway

July 1st 2023

We left Navajo State Park to make our way north via the famous (or infamous) Million Dollar Highway. This is a stretch of road between Silverton and Ouray that climbs up three mountain passes, Coal Bank Pass, 10,640ft, Molas Pass 10,970ft and Red Mountain Pass 11,018ft.

How dangerous is the Million Dollar Highway?

This road is not for the sissies. One mistake can have consequences. First time you drive it, it's a real breath taker. Lots of sweaty palms. You'll be on the "outside" for a while with a hell of a view to your right (let the passenger look. You'll want to watch the road). There are a number of turns around mountains that you'll take at 10 mph. Though the entire stretch has been called the Million Dollar Highway, it is really the twelve miles (19 km) south of Ouray through the Uncompahgre Gorge to the summit of Red Mountain Pass which gains the highway its name. This stretch through the gorge is challenging and potentially hazardous to drive; it is characterized by steep cliffs, narrow lanes, and a lack of guardrails; the ascent of Red Mountain Pass is marked with a number of hairpin "S" curves used to gain elevation, and again, narrow lanes for traffic—many cut directly into the sides of mountains. This highway has recently been on the news after a drastic increase in the number of truck accidents. However, most of the accidents have nothing to do with the road's age but the region's topographic conditions. Slight weather changes can cause the road to becoming extremely dangerous, mainly due to black ice.

Our drive for the day was 225 miles, a lot of it going as slow as 25mph and we were very tired afterwards but it was an amazing drive. John enjoyed the challenge and he did amazing to get the truck and RV around some very very tight hairpin bends, curves and big ascents and descents.

We passed through the towns of Silverton and Ouray and it would have been great to stop and have a wander but there was no where to park the RV so we had to miss them this time.

I have not been to the Swiss Alps but the scenery reminded me of pictures of them. John got a prize for amazing driving and I got a prize for not closing my eyes or squealing! Once again the pictures do not do it justice for the amazing scenery or how scary the roads were:- but enjoy! And if you want to experience the drive there are some great YouTube videos.