Our first foray into the wild yonder took us to James Robb State Park just east of Palisade, CO. This park is split into several sections and we stayed at the Island Acres section. It’s a really pretty little campground that is surrounded by steep canyon walls which were cut by the majestic Colorado River. The campground nestled at the bottom of this canyon really only saw the sun from about 9am to 5pm. I imagine it’s mighty chilly in the winter, but there is a swim beach next to a giant pond for summer swimming.
The Colorado Parks department has curated trails along the river, easily accessible from camp. Dan and I walked both directions of the river. There is a spotting scope placed along the trail where you can scout out big horn sheep on the sheer rock walls opposite the river (we saw none).
The downside of this location is its proximity to the Interstate - it’s so close you can make out the makes and models of the vehicles driving by. The road noise was pervasive and we were not able to quite tune it out.
From there we headed west into Utah. Antelope State Park is located on Antelope Island on the east side of the Great Salt Lake. I thought how cool camping on an island on a lake might be!
The name is a bit misleading, we didn’t see any antelope. However, we saw loads of bison 🦬 and they have free rein of the environment.
The lake levels are dramatically low - so much so I’m not even sure Antelope is still an island. We decided to check it out by taking a bike ride to the southern tip. Before leaving Denver, Dan and I invested in ebikes from a company called FattEBikes (women/minority owned, made in the USA and based in Denver). Those bikes made that 27 mile round trip so much easier! We rode on the paved surface until reaching the ranch that was operational from the 1870s unti the 1960s. The ranch is a self-guided hands-on display, and we saw so many neat blacksmithing, wood cutting, hay baling tools.
Several times we needed to stop riding to allow the bison to cross the road for better eats on the other side. Despite the mosquitoes, it was a great day!
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