Guernsey State Park and Fort Laramie National Historic Site

Our second brief stop in Wyoming this spring was a three night stay at Guernsey State Park. This beautiful, rather remote state park is primarily focused on water sports on Guernsey Reservoir. Unfortunately this reservoir has lost a lot of capacity due to silt deposits and a "silt run" is done in July, where the lake is drained to levels that may not allow water activities, but it usually refills by the end of the month.

Currently the lake is very full due to the wet spring we've had. In fact, we got even more rain during our stay, most of the day today! But the day we arrived it was hot (90 degrees) and humid and we noticed the swim beach was just down the road from our camp site. The swim "beach" was overgrown with young trees and grasses and the water was covered with a wide swath of pollen making it rather unappetizing as a place to swim.

Instead we entertained ourselves by watching giant carp stir up the sediments among the shore plants, flopping and splashing as they loosened nutrients from soil that was newly saturated by the high water level.

That's us all alone in the Sandy Point campground.
The lake is just beyond the cottonwoods.

Clouds building across the reservoir.

A gorgeous sunset our first night.
Only one other RV joined us that night.

The next day we took a scenic tour of the area which included Fort Laramie National Historic Site. Fort Laramie is situated at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte rivers and as such was an important stop over for humans during the 1800's.

Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes dominated the region in the early 1800's and had good relations with trappers into the 1830's and 40's, when a trading post was built at this site. In the 1850's tens of thousands of overland emigrants traveled through the area as they migrated to Oregon or California or Utah.

In 1849 the US Army bought what was previously known as Fort John in order to establish a military presence along the emigrant trails. Renamed Fort Laramie, it quickly became the principal military outpost on the Northern Plains. It was also a transportation and communication hub, with stage lines, Pony Express and transcontinental telegraph all passing through.

Several treaty negotiations with the Northern Plains tribes were held at the Fort. Over time relations between the Indian tribes and the Army deteriorated as the number of emigrants swelled. Major Army campaigns were launched from the Fort. With the end of the Indian Wars, the Fort's importance diminished and it was abandoned in 1890.

Today the grounds consist of 11 restored structures with excellent period displays inside, several ruins, a visitor center with detailed history of the site, a good video, and personal stories from Indians, emigrants and soldiers.

With very little wood onsite, many of the original buildings were constructed from local rock, including limestone. When the Army took over they sold the existing buildings to locals who salvaged the wood roofs, leaving the walls exposed to deteriorate over time.

View of the hospital ruins.

Cavalry barracks.

The detail in this barracks display is typical of all the furnished rooms, which are viewed through glass barriers.
Those are checkers made of sliced corn cob in the foreground!

The North Platte river was overflowing its banks, and providing mosquito habitat!

Hans tries out a jail cell.

Officers quarters.

Back in the tiny town of Guernsey, we made a stop at the Oregon Trail Ruts site. It's fascinating to walk the ruts and imagine the thousands of emigrants and their livestock that passed through here and their many struggles on the way to a new life .

A lark sparrow serenaded us as we contemplated the hardy souls who passed this way.

Here we could see the wagons passed through the deep rut section, while the walkers traveled along the shallow rut section.

Just a couple of miles from the Oregon Trail Rut site is Register Cliff. This area was the first overnight camp west of Fort Laramie for overland travelers in the late 1800's. Hundreds of emigrants inscribed their names in the limestone cliff face. A fence has been installed to protect some of the oldest inscriptions due to innumerable additions in modern times.

This is a small section of Register Cliff.
Take note of the dark section in the middle of the cliff face...

...there are dozens of swallows nests on the cliff face!

Following our tour of Fort Laramie and Guernsey we took the long way back to our RV. Highway 270 was a short but beautiful drive to the North East entrance of Guernsey State Park. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was responsible for much of the building of Guernsey State Park in the 1930's and our drive through the park got us up close to much of their handiwork. CCC work was begun in 1933 and was about 85% complete when the CCC was disbanded in 1936.

Guernsey Reservoir covers 2,375 water surface acres, with many branches and coves lined with tall limestone cliffs.

A bridge constructed by the CCC.

On the drive up to the CCC Museum we had an excellent view of the North Platte river as it flows out of
Guernsey Reservoir and in to the town of Guernsey.

The CCC Museum is considered one of the finest examples of CCC work in the country.

Museum interior detail.

One of the neatest things about this museum is most of the displays are original.
Original art details information relevant to the time the display was created.

Many of the displays included extremely detailed small mannequins.

The North Platte river as it emerges from Guernsey dam.
The power plant is visible on the right.

Train tracks run through the park, directly past the campground.

Our last stop for the day was The Castle. Actually a fancy picnic shelter, The Castle is a gorgeous CCC-built structure on a bluff overlooking the reservoir.

The Castle.

Hans enjoys the view directly in front of The Castle.

Interior of The Castle.

We saw more CCC work from the bluff.
This narrow road hug the entire East side of the reservoir.
Though there are many beautiful, secluded dry camp sites along the East side,
it is not recommended for vehicles with a combined length of 45' or longer.

Today we had a high chance of rain but first thing in the morning the skies weren't too threatening, so we decided to hit the trail for a quick leg stretcher before we had to cocoon in the RV.

Guernsey State Park website is another inadequate Wyoming State Park website. It briefly mentions trails but offers no maps or details about them. The person at the check in booth didn't know anything either. On our drive to The Castle we spotted a kiosk at Brimmer Point Rd. that had a large sign with trail details.

This morning we discovered the road just beyond the kiosk was gated and locked. No problem, we just parked at the kiosk and walked up the road. It turns out that the fire that devastated a big chunk of the park in June 2012 had hit this area hard and the CCC-built trails had not been maintained since. Thus, we enjoyed a solitary hike of three miles on the road. The views were magnificent and we saw several turkey, deer and a fox.

This burnt CCC trail bridge was possibly one reason why the trails were not maintained.

Ominous skies over Guernsey Reservoir.

Guernsey State Park was a beautiful place to stay for a few nights. They have 142 sites, only a few of those are water/electric (50amp), most are dry. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit. Pit toilets are located throughout the park and there is a dump station. We had good 4G Verizon signal. There is one big drawback with this park and that's the railroad.

We chose a water/electric site in the Sandy Point campground, which turned out to be the campground closest to the train tracks. These are double tracks with LOTS of train traffic from nearby coal and oil sites. If we had chosen a water/electric site in the Sandy Beach campground the train noise may have been slightly muted.

The high volume of train traffic worried us at first and we alternated between fascination and annoyance with the trains. But since we were able to sleep well with earplugs we decided to stay for the three nights we had paid for...and are happy we did because we really enjoyed all the sights we saw during our stay.

We were pleasantly surprised by how empty this park was during our midweek stay. We never saw more than four other RV's spread out among several campgrounds. When we booked our site we could see that this park gets VERY busy on the weekends.

Site 77, Sandy Point campground.

Oh yeah, the trains are close!
The double track means there is lots of idling as trains pass each other, 24/7.

Our view in site 77, Sandy Point campground.
That's a tent camping area beyond the fence and slightly down hill from us.

After a very rainy day we're looking forward to dry driving conditions tomorrow as we head into South Dakota for the next several weeks. That area has been getting lots of rain this spring too so we're looking forward to a lot more green!

Completely Smitten by Curt Gowdy State Park

We've fallen in love with another state park and this one's in Wyoming: Curt Gowdy State Park. Named after Curt Gowdy, a Wyoming native, renowned sportscaster in the 1960's - 1970's and accomplished outdoorsman; the park is located midway between Mr. Gowdy's high school home town of Cheyenne and his college town of Laramie.

There are three reservoirs in the park for fishing and boating (no swimming), multiple camping areas, an archery range, 35 miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding all set among rolling hills, lush meadows, stands of ponderosa pine and aspen and large granite formations. During our stay in early June the reservoirs were completely full and the hills were emerald green.

Mountain biking is popular here, but challenging on most trails. We were quite happy to just hike the trails...we hiked at least 15 of the 35 miles of trails and were completely enchanted with the park.

Wyoming State Park websites are not the greatest, so the campground information may not be completely accurate, but they are supposed to have 145 camp sites of which only 35 sites are reservable. There are only 15 water/electric sites, most of which were reservable from May 15 to Sept. 15. We had decent 4G Verizon signal using our booster.

We reserved a water/electric site, and were very glad we did since we arrived on a Saturday and the park was almost full. Water/electric sites are well separated with a large concrete pad and picnic table and BBQ pit, roads are gravel. Many of the dry camp sites are extremely spacious and well situated for water views. Many sites have some slope to them.

The parks dump station is closed indefinitely, apparently the leach field was not large enough to support the high volume of campers that use this park. There are free dump stations in both Laramie and Cheyenne about 24 miles West or East.

We drove into Laramie one evening to have a delicious dinner at The Crowbar, and what a drive it was! Highway 210 took us through Medicine Bow National Forest where numerous dirt roads took off to hiking and boondocking areas...clearly there is much more to explore in this area.

View of the Tumbleweed campground, our rig is the large white one in front.

Granite Springs Reservoir.

On the Stone Temple trail.

There are short "play areas" for mountain bikers off the main trails.
Note the last line item: Remember it is OK to walk!

Marmot

The Stone Temple.

Distant view of Granite Springs Reservoir and storm clouds brewing from El Alto trail.

Crow Creek.

Hidden Falls

Hidden Falls close up.

The Chameleon rock feature.

Boulders, boulders every where!

Granite Springs Reservoir dam is made from the local granite.
It's been a rainy spring and the reservoir is FULL and pouring over the spillway just out of sight.

We saw many tiny streams throughout our hikes due to the abundant rain this spring.

Along Middle Kingdom trail giant slabs of granite formed part of the hillsides.

Crystal Reservoir had the oddest looking dam we'd ever seen...it was also pouring over the spillway.

A dry camp site along Crystal Reservoir.

There are gorgeous views from every trail.

Family time!

Our site, #26 in the Tumbleweeds camp loop.

Another view of our site.

Nice view from our site when the waterfront site was empty.

Watching the geese from the waterfront site.
You can see some of the dry sites across the water.

Wrapping Up Our Stay in the Sweetheart City, Loveland, CO

Loveland, CO, also known as the Sweetheart City, was a short stopover for us to relive a little of Hans history and to do some stocking up before we head into small town territory for a while. It would have been a good hiking stop too, but the weather didn't cooperate this time around.

Sculptures abound in downtown Loveland.

Loveland boasts a mostly paved 18 mile bike and pedestrian trail around the city. The trail goes through Boyd Lake State Park where we stayed. One day we rode a 15 mile loop from the campground, along the Big Thompson River, then back through city streets.

We did run in to some minor challenges along the way as there is construction going on at various places along the trail due to major flooding in 2013 and also current flooding due to the heavy rains we've experienced this spring.

The trail through Boyd Lake State Park; you can see some of the camp sites on the right.

The day we rode we encountered several places where the Big Thompson River had overtaken the bike path.

The Big Thompson River flows swift and overflowing through Fairgrounds Park.
Heavy spring rains and recent high temps are quickly melting snow in the Rockies.

Sometimes we had to hike-a-bike to avoid a flooded underpass.

One of several whimsical sculptures along Lake Loveland.

New Belgium Brewery, located just up the road in Fort Collins, is one of MANY breweries along the Front Range, but we'd been told this one was special (thanks Mike and Keyna!). It's no wonder this tour rates #1 on Trip Advisor's list of Things to do in Fort Collins, it was the most fun brewery tour we've ever taken! This employee-owned company does it right, with beer tastings DURING the tour and a tornado slide at the end!

Our tour guide, Mindy, was lively and knowledgeable, telling us about the sustainability practices used throughout the company and how each employee gets a bike on their one year anniversary and a two week trip to Belgium on their five year annivesary! People temp here for years before getting a chance to be hired, and then they may compete against hundreds for a single job.

Mindy tells us how to pour a beer and about the 8 beers we had to choose from on our first tour stop...
we got to pour our own beer!

In the area where they barrel-age the sour beers, we got to try both the pre-aged beer and the final sour beer.
It goes from a smooth coffee and chocolate flavor to a puckery, fruity sour beer in 1 - 3 years.

The tornado slide is a blast...especially after the tasty brews!  :-)

Following the tour, as if we hadn't had enough beer already, we drove a short distance to Odell Brewing to partake of an onsite food truck and listen to some live music. Umami's thai nachos and edamame were delicious, as was the Sibling Rivalry Red IPA.

We shared the beer...!

Campground Review

We spent our four nights in Loveland at Boyd Lake State Park. It's got 148 electric only sites. Roads and sites are paved and each has a picnic table and BBQ pit. The sites are said to accomodate up to 40' rigs and they have a weird curve to them that makes it a little difficult for larger rigs to maneuver while trying to avoid the grass. There is a reasonable amount of separation between the sites.

The park is well off the freeway so it's nice and quiet at night. Though there was no wifi available, we did have decent Verizon signal with our booster. Each camping loop has a restroom building and there is a large central restroom facility that includes pay showers and a small laundry room. All types of water sports are allowed on the lake and there are multiple picnic sites, playgrounds and a swim beach. The Loveland Recreation Trail goes through the state park.

Our stay included a Friday night in early June and we definitely experienced the beginning of summer weekend revelry. RV's streamed in all afternoon and evening, many folks had boats, loud music was played and many campfires burned...a 9pm thunderstorm put an end to all that! This place has got to be crazy busy every nice weekend during the summer months.

The weather was wild during our stay, ranging from 90 degrees and sunny to hail and rain and thunderstorms...and a tornado touched down less than 10 miles South of us. We've both decided that we do not like hail very much! And we'll take a pass on tornadoes too!

The biggest hail we've ever encontered!

We got creative trying to protect our truck on the second day of afternoon hail storms!

Not sure you can see the curve of our site, #71.
Our truck and 35 foot 5th wheel just barely fit on the site.

The Recreation Trail along Boyd Lake.

Today we head into Wyoming for a couple of brief stops and, unfortunately, we aren't done with the rain yet! Though it certainly cut back on our outdoor activities in Colorado, at least it's making everything around us incredibly green!