Navajo State Park Colorado

Saturday 17th June 2023

We drove into a new State - Colorado.

We stayed at, yup you guessed it, another lake with a dam! Navajo State Park on the north end of the lake that is mostly in New Mexico.

https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/Navajo/Pages/Camping.aspx

This is the the first place that we have stayed at (this was stay number 21) that we did not like. The bad feeling began by finding someone still in the pitch we had booked. The ranger came to sort it out and called the guy who did not answer his phone. His teenage son turned up and the ranger got him to call his Dad who of course answered the call and had to hand it over to the ranger who said you need to move. Oh we are on the boat 30 miles down the lake. We would find out this was pretty typical of the people staying at the park, their attitude was - I'll do what I want to do and the rules do not apply to me. 

The ranger luckily had two emergency spots that she offered us which worked out just ok. We said the guy should get a fine, Oh don't worry I'm charging him an extra night. Whoop de doo, I'm sure the guy is upset at the $35 charge! We kept an eye on the pitch to see when they left, he stayed there until Tuesday night so he obviously wanted a longer reservation, could not get one as the park was always full so decided to take up squatter rights!

From not tying up their dogs, to driving around the loop like it was Nascar, to making a lot of noise at nights the whole place had a bad vibe. Each site would have an RV, at least 3 vehicles and a big boat on a trailer taking up all the space. 

I commented how technically it was the same as other places, RV sites, a loop road, a lake with beautiful backdrop of mountains - but it all felt off.

We were glad to leave Saturday 1st July as the park was about to get a lot worse with the 4th July holiday.