Our friends Pam & Steve invited us to go camping last week, Wednesday, April 15th thru Sunday, April 19th. The weather looked nice for the first two days, and then it was supposed to cool down (and possibly snow). They originally proposed State Forest State Park (about 4 hours NW of us in the mountains), but after looking at the weather, they suggested Jackson Lake State Park (about 2 hours NE of us out in the middle of nowhere by Fort Morgan). Chris and I only agreed to the first two nights b/c we thought we would be miserable if it was too cold and snowy.
So we headed out to meet them at the campground (Pelican CG - and actually SAW pelicans on the lake) on Wed, Apr 15th, arriving about 3ish. We first stopped at the Visitor's Center to gather some information (lots of great pamphlets that I love to read!) before heading to the Pelican campground, where we had reserved adjoining spots. Chris headed out on a bike ride (of course!), and I went exploring with my binoculars, looking for birds (more on birding later), walking out on the sandy isthmus (that you will see later in the Great Blue Heron photo) on the lake, and visiting the marina store.
Pam & Steve arrived about an hour later. Our sites were right on the shore of the lake. Although at this point of the lake, it had a rocky barrier to enter the lake (there were a few sandy "beaches" along the shores to the north and south of us, and the marina was less than a quarter mile to our north).
The BEST PART of our sites was that we were the ONLY people in the entire campground, and that was truly lovely! Except on Thursday, two other campers pulled in late in the afternoon to the section to our South, not directly where we were...so we still had tons of privacy.
We sat in the shade of our camper and talked for a long while, then Pam and I went for a little exploration to go to the end of the isthmus, the end of the boat ramp, and then to the next campground to the north of us. After we came back, we separated to make our dinners in our campers b/c the bugs were OUT OF CONTROL...never seen so many bugs in Colorado before!! Pam & Steve ate in their camper. Chris and I grilled pork chops and ended up eating outside on the picnic table....and my bug patches kept me from being eaten up.
All of us re-convened around a roaring fire that Steve built with a huge Cottonwood branch that was too big for the fire pit. We all worried about it, but it turned out fine!
We talked about all sorts of stuff and watched the sky dim from the sun...
Sunset light on the lake (but the sun was behind us)
Then the sky brightened with a bazillion stars. It was a beautiful night to watch the heavens. Pam & I were angled perfectly to look up at the Big Dipper and saw probably 15-20 statellites flying through the bucket and handle over the course of maybe only about an hour. Steve looked it up, and Starlink had launched a bunch of new satellites that day!
Jackson Lake SP is an International Dark Sky Park, and it did NOT disappoint. We were so lucky to have clear skies and not too cold an evening to see our amazing universe!
Next Day...
On Thursday morning, Pam had to do some work, and the rest of us just kind of did whatever we felt like doing. Chris went on another bike ride, I wandered around some more with my binoculars, and Steve took a short hike along the lake. I also had a little time for reading too! ;-)
After a late lunch, all of us "hiked" (it was only like 1.5 miles roundtrip) to the Visitor's Center and back. Then we sat in the shade of our camper again talking about all sorts of things.
Later, Pam made us spaghetti and a salad for dinner. It was cloudy that evening, so we had a short bonfire and went to sleep fairly early.
"Last Day"...
Chris and I woke up early on Friday to drive home because there was supposed to be 1-3 inches of snow at home starting around 11 AM. We wanted to beat that and unload the camper. Pam & Steve stayed another night.
Overall, for a middle-of-nowhere, short, mid-week camping trip, it was a good little adventure. It was fun to spend time with good friends, fun to be outside, fun to be away from the house, and fun to explore a new place. On paper (and a bit in person b/c there was a ton of trash everywhere, the facilities weren't the cleanest, and it was dry with very few trees), this state park didn't look like much, but it had its good points!
BIRDING REPORT
I said "more on birding later"....IT WAS A GREAT place for birding! I saw a ton of birds, and I saw my first ever Meadowlark (maybe I saw one before I was interested in birds, but it was exciting now)! It was difficult to take good photos with my phone b/c most of them were far away or up in trees.
Here's what I saw and heard:
- Western Meadowlark - MY FIRST EVER! Very pretty yellow breast and lovely song.
- Killdeer
- Grebes
- Ducks
- Geese
- Gulls
- Mourning Doves
- Nuthatches
- House Finches
- Common Grackle
- And more, but I wasn't diligent in my recording!
Flower Report
