Scouting Trip & Pictures #2

We used to camp up at Cottonwood Lake near Bueña Vista, CO on some of our rock crawling trips at least once a year. We could ride the trails during the day and then come back to the lake to fish the lake and the creek in the afternoon and evenings. Our favorite camping spot was across the creek where not many people could get to. There were a few trails we could ride in that area, too. We haven't been there in about 5 or 6 years so when we started thinking about making another camping trip up there we decided to go on a scouting trip to see if anything had changed and where we could get to with the motorhome. It was amazing how much it had changed! Our favorite camping spot was blocked off along with many other spots. There were a lot new Aspen trees blocking other good camping spots that we had originally thought we could have gotten into with the motor home. We were VERY happy we went on the scouting trip before we went up with the motor home and trailer full of ATV's.

Here are a couple pictures of the lake. It was hard to get a picture without a bunch of people in it because this is the free fishing weekend in Colorado.

It started to rain but we saw a bunch of fish surfacing.





Fishing Piers

 We were going to stay and fish a little but the lightning started and we decided holding a graphite fishing rod up in the air with the lighting so close was not something we wanted to do today. Instead, we decided to go back to Buña Vista for lunch and then go check out the areas we are thinking about riding.
First, I have to tell you about lunch. I usually don't give a place such HIGH rating until I've been there a couple times, but I give Punky's Diner in Bueña Vista, Colorado ALL of the TOP raitings! 10 out of 10, A+, 5 stars!!! I can't wait until our camping trip to the area so I can go back to Punky's! I had the chopped brisket sandwich and my husband had the pulled pork sandwich. I'm thinking about emailing them and pleading with them to open a chain in my town!
Okay, back to the adventures. We headed towards St. Elmo to check out the parking areas for the ATV trailer and where the trail heads were. My husband realized I had never seen the leaning building on the way to Hancock so we decided to drive up that way.

The road to Hancock

Still some snow on the mountains.

Some more snow.



The leaning building! The area used to have a lot of active mines so there are a lot of old mining buildings. The trails are the old mining roads.

It had slid back a little farthur than the last time my husband saw it.

 Going on this trail was a pretty big deal because most of the vehicles on the trail were Jeeps and other SUV's and ATV's and we were in my car. My car is a Kia Rio - frontwheel drive, not much power and not much clearance but great on gas mileage! Here is a picture of part of the trail:

 Next time we'll take the ATV's so we can go further and a lot faster. It was kind of fun getting looks from the SUV owners. I'm sure they were thinking "Why did they bring that little car up here?!?!"
We were very glad we made the scouting trip so we know how to plan that camping trip and because it was a lot of fun. We may have to plan some more scouting trips this summer............and more trips to Punky's.