After leaving Grand Junction, we went south and stopped at the ranger station in Montrose to ask for advice on a good BLM lands camping place. We were informed that there was an OHV staging area west of town and some scattered dispersed camping.
Quick side note…
The Bureau of Land Management holds vast tracts of land in the West, this is used for hunting, grazing cattle, Off Highway Vehicles (such as polarises, 4 wheelers, and dirt bikes), and other assorted activities. Much like the National Forest, you are permitted to camp pretty much anywhere off the road. It makes things a lot easier for us. Also BLM, if you are reading this and you wanna be hip with the kids, you really should keep the “a” after the “L” in “lands” and the you can call yourselves BLAM!
Occasionally we run into a dud though, and this one was even more so than our first Grand Junction spot. After finding no perches, we pressed forward towards Telluride. We found Caddis Flats, a free BLM campground near Placerville, which had a stream and was close to the ski town.
In a long list of places to visit, many of them are time-of-year sensitive! While it has been enjoyable to see all of the ski places I have always wanted to go, visiting them while they are closed (to skiing) is a bit of a bummer. In the Case of Telluride, at least there was snow everywhere… Not sure if that made it worse actually…. But hey, at least I got to see the village and gorgeous landscape.
If you’re not skiing, don’t have a large budget, or it isn’t warm enough for a hike…there isn’t much to do in Telluride other than riding the AWESOME FREE GONDOLA. The gondola happens to be dog friendly! So, all three of us floated across the snowy slopes and up and over the lip of the box canyon to Mountain Village.
We poked around a bit and then returned to our campsite, hooked up traytray and moseyed towards Durango. That was a stunning two hour drive over Lizard Head pass and through a bunch of little mining towns.
As usual, upon our arrival to the area the sun was quickly setting. Another trip to a BLM office for advice, and this time we had a winner! Madden Peak road. High up on a hill about 20 miles out of Durango, we set up camp. The next day would be Thanksgiving.
Next up, Thanksgiving, Durango, and LOTs of snow!