Sylvan Lake State Park - July 28th to 31st, 2020
Sylvan Lake State Park is one of our favorite Colorado State Parks. The campground is on a small, secluded, peaceful lake with several hiking trails leading away from it. The wonderful setting made working around having no cell service and the occasional rain shower all worth it.
From Vega State Park, Google maps told us to head east on CO 330 to Silt instead of heading back west to Collbran. However, when Left Buddy (LB) looked it up in our 2020 road atlas, it said CO 330 was an unpaved road most of the way. LB decided to take the paved road back to Collbran, then take CO 65 back to I-70. This was a little longer, distance and time wise, but it made us feel more comfortable. We stopped at the Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs to have lunch and hopefully get a good internet connection to get some work done. The park hosts a nice memorial to the 14 firefighters that perished on Storm King Mountain in the South Canyon Fire in 1994. While we ate our lunch, we watched the white water rafts come in to the boat ramp at the park. Even though the cell signal looked pretty good, the data download speeds were horrible, so we packed up and moved on.
We tried again in the town of Eagle, since that is where we needed to get off of I-70 to head south to Sylvan Lake State Park. We set up shop at a picnic table in the Town Park. The data connection was much better. We both got a good hour of work in.
Soon after we arrived at our camp site at Sylvan Lake, the dark clouds rolled in. When the one storm let up, we decided to start dinner early since it involved making rice on the butane stove outside. However, another storm quickly followed and LB was standing out in the rain finishing the rice. Inside, Right Buddy (RB) was making the rest of the dish, her version of Spanish rice, using the Instant Pot. She sautéed onion and green pepper, then added a can of black beans and a can of diced tomatoes along with some spices like cumin, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, and paprika. Along with the Spanish rice, LB had a flour tortilla as his bread. RB decided to have a tortilla, or two, for dessert with butter, sugar and cinnamon. The only butter we had with us was unsalted stick butter, so she pulled it out of the fridge to soften. Then she massaged it with a knife over the tortilla to soften it some more. After adding the sugar and cinnamon and rolling it up, she held it in her warm hands for a couple of minutes to get the butter even warmer. It tasted pretty good. Not as good as heating it up and letting the sugar and butter caramelize together, but it was raining and getting the butane stove out again was not an option she wanted to take.
Later, the weather cleared so we went for a walk around the campground. The walk turned into a walk around the lake, about a 1.5 mile trail. Sylvan is such a quiet and peaceful little lake, at least during the week. We don't know what it is like on the weekends. Most of the boats on the lake were non-motorized such as paddle boards, row boats and kayaks. Only motor boats with electric motors are allowed on the lake. The lake is so small, we're not sure why you would want use a motor on it.
After we finished breakfast the next day and were preparing for our hike, someone came along in the campground and was interested in our camper van. We invited them to take a look inside and, before we knew it, there were about half a dozen people at our van checking it out. It was interesting to learn all the different reasons why people were curious about camper vans. One couple wanted the ability to travel faster than their little camper trailer allowed them. Another couple have a son who is considering converting a van into a camper. Some were just intrigued with our setup. We enjoyed talking with everyone. RB even got the chance to peek inside a neighboring camper's trailer that was made by A-liner. It was a different style than the typical A-liner. We believe it was the Ascape model.
Our hike for the day was on the Sneve Gulch Trail. This was hike #41 of our 52 Hike Challenge. It was five miles with a 1600 foot elevation gain in just over three hours. The trail was mostly soft dirt so the footing was pretty good. You just had to watch out for tree roots every now and then. The route was not excessively steep, but it was a steady, unrelenting uphill climb the whole way. There were views of Sylvan Lake and the surrounding mountain peaks during the first mile. The rest of the time we were in large aspen groves and dense pine forests with an occasional open meadow filled with wildflowers. The end of the trail was anticlimactic; it just ended at a dirt road in the middle of the woods. However, the trail was very enjoyable. It was definitely a workout on the way up. We made better time on the way back down than we did on the way up for a change since the trail was such easy footing.
In a conversation with our neighboring campers, they said the dirt road at the end of the Sneve Gulch Trail goes down to the Yeoman Park Campground on FS 415. On a previous camping trip, they had hiked from Yeoman Park all the way over to Sylvan Lake, where they had parked a car to drive back with. Sylvan Lake State Park is several pieces of land along FS 400, the road where the lake is, and FS 415. Interspersed between the state park land parcels are Forest Service areas.
When we got back from our hike, we tried to put up the Moon Shade using the magnets on the driver side of the van to give us some shade, but the winds were strong. We even tried to use our trekking poles instead of the Moon Shade poles to keep the one side of the shade down lower. A strong gust of wind pulled one of the magnets off of the van, so we packed it up. For lunch we made chicken salad sandwiches with canned chicken, grapes, celery and mayo.
In the afternoon, the dark clouds rolled in. When we looked up the weather forecast from DarkSky on our Garmin InReach Mini (paid link) the day before, it claimed there was a zero percent chance of rain for Wednesday. It lied. Every time LB set up his chair outside, the rain would start again. Most of the time it was a light rain, but RB didn't want to get her laptop wet, so she spent most of the afternoon inside the van.
The people in the camp site next to us offered to let us use their kayaks when we got back from our hike. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. It was very gracious of them to offer.
RB went to check out the showers to see if they were any better than Vega State Park's showers (Vega State Park - July 25th to 28th, 2020). It did not look promising at first. When she went inside the building, the lights were not on. There were a couple of skylights, but, due to the dark clouds overhead, it was pretty dark inside. Was the electricity turned off and was the coin-operated shower mechanism electrical or mechanical? Then she saw that there was no temperature controls for the shower. She decided to give it a shot anyway. She put the minimum amount of money required into the slot, four quarters. After the fourth quarter went in, the shower automatically turned on. As an added bonus, it was a very comfortable temperature right from the start. Success! The four minutes was plenty of time for RB to wash and rinse her hair and body. Were the shower stalls as nice as the ones at Vega State Park? No, but the water temperature allowed RB to take an actual shower this time and that was the most important thing!
The weather cleared long enough for us to make dinner outside. It was pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw. Later that evening, RB made some popcorn. She used the medium sized pot this time which worked out better for dumping it into the bowl we have. She didn't burn any this time like she did at Mesa Verde (Mesa Verde National Park - July 13th to 16th, 2020), but she pulled it off the heat a little too soon as there were quite a few unpopped kernels. It tasted good, though.
As we were sitting in the van, we noticed the sky was turning gorgeous variations of orange and red. RB hopped out of the van with her camera and LB followed shortly after to enjoy the view.
In the morning the following day, we hiked the West Brush Creek Trail to Bear Gulch. The trail started from the dam and followed the creek down the valley. Most of the way we could hear the sound of the babbling brook next to us. The trail was not as strenuous as the Sneve Gulch Trail the day before. Similar to Sneve Gulch trail, the West Brush Creek Trail went through a mixture of aspen groves, pine forests and open meadows with wildflowers, but the trail was not as steep. We counted this trail as hike #42 of our 52 Hike Challenge: 4.9 miles, with 982 foot elevation change in two hours and 39 minutes.
The trail continues for almost six miles, all the way to Meadows Day Use Picnic Area, but we did not go that far. There are mile markers every half a mile along the trail, but they are the distance from the trailhead at Meadows picnic area, not from Sylvan Lake. The first mile marker we saw was 5.5. Just past mile marker 5.0, we spotted two buildings of a historic homestead in the Borah Gulch Conservation Area. If you are not paying attention, they are easy to miss.
Just a little ways past mile marker 4.5 is a bridge over the creek with a vault toilet on the other side. This is the Bear Gulch Conservation Area and where we turned around. We found a nice spot on the bank of the creek to rest our feet and eat a snack while enjoying the creek flowing by us. On the way back, right at mile marker 5.0, we noticed a third building of the historic homestead that we had missed seeing on the way out. It is partially hidden by trees.
After our hike and enjoying our after-hike Cokes, we made chicken salad sandwiches for lunch again. To get out of the sun, we grabbed our laptop bags and walked part of the way around the lake to a partially shaded picnic table. We worked there for about an hour, enjoying a view of the lake, until the battery power on our laptops got low.
A couple, Dan & Susan, set up camp in the site near us. We had seen them on the lake earlier while we were working. They were in an inflatable kayak with two large dogs. LB went over to talk with them to get more information about their kayak. It looked like they were having fun with it on the lake. Later that evening after dark, they invited us over to their campfire. We had a wonderful time enjoying their fire, swapping stories with them, and watching the moonlight dance on the ripples of the lake.
For dinner, we made pasta with bacon and onion along with a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce. For the first evening at Sylvan, it didn't rain so we really got to enjoy sitting outside and watching the paddlers on the lake. Our entertainment was several people on SUP boards trying to do headstands on their boards on the water. A great blue heron and a bald eagle flew over the lake.
We were heading home the next day, but it was not a long drive so we took our time leaving Sylvan Lake State Park. As we ate our breakfast, we watched everyone else around us packing up. For some reason we take pleasure noticing how it takes people an hour or longer to pack up their tents and/or rigs, knowing that it only takes us about five to ten minutes to pack up. It just makes us thankful that we have a camper van.
Before leaving, we walked the 1.5 mile trail around the lake again. A woman in a kayak told us that she saw a bald eagle swoop down and pick up its breakfast out of the water. On the way out, we stopped at the Eagle Town Park again so that LB could reconnect to the internet. He starts going through withdrawal when he can't stay up-to-date on his messages and emails. Since it has become a tradition with us, we stopped again at the Vail Pass Rest Area to eat our lunch. The rest area was busier than ever. Signs were posted everywhere that masks were required to enter the restroom.
Having no cell service while we were at Sylvan Lake State Park forced us to slow down and relax. It also encouraged us to interact with other campers more. Swapping stories with others always enhances the camping experience as we usually seem to meet interesting people in campgrounds. Do you meet wonderful people when you camp?
Check out our related video: Sylvan Lake State Park
(RB)