2020 Pandemic Road Trip – Trinidad Lake State Park
/David worked till the last possible minute and managed to have Blue ready to head out on schedule. We walked in the morning, knowing that our 800 mile, 2-day trip to Trinidad, Colorado would not afford us many opportunities for long walks. We handled last minute chores and were on the road by 10AM… a bit later than planned, but still the same day. We sang ‘On the Road Again’ with Willie Nelson, our traditional heading out on a road trip song, and spirits ran high.
Traveling on the Mother Road - Kingman, AZ
We’ve traveled the route from Las Vegas to Albuquerque countless times now. We know Interstate-40, all the turns, and sights and possible stops… Kingman and Flagstaff, ‘standin’ on the corner in Winslow and Ash Fork ‘the flagstone capital of the world’. We traveled on a parallel course to Route 66, the Mother Road, always a bit of nostalgia. We decided to end our day in Holbrook, Arizona for no reason other than we were tired of driving/riding and we found a reasonable hotel for the night. We did our usual ‘pandemic room clean’, but we’re already being a bit more lax than our last trip… pandemic fatigue? Dinner was leftover Chinese from the night before and some 3-buck Chuck to wash it down. David finished up a blog, we watched some news and hit the sack anticipating an early morning departure. We still had 500 miles to travel.
We were lazier than anticipated and didn’t hit the road till nearly 8am. The rest of the drive was pretty nondescript. We chatted, we sang, we listened to podcasts, we van-danced to get in some exercise. We stopped in Albuquerque for some last minute camping supplies and headed north up I-25 for the final 250 miles to Trinidad.
David’s sister, Mary, had mentioned a stop in Las Vegas, New Mexico at Charlies Spic & Span Cafe & Bakery and we decided it was worth a try. Oh, my… what a place! Charlie offers an all-day breakfast, but we concentrated on the ‘bakery’ side of the business and decided on chocolate eclairs mostly because we couldn’t figure out how to eat the foot-high cream puffs! The rest of the ride to Trinidad was spent with our stomachs regretting pigging down that eclair. At last, the turn-off to the campground appeared.
Just click on the thumbnails above to enlarge them.
It was great to finally arrive at Trinidad Lake State Park
Mary was already at the campground and set up when we arrived. The rest of the family was not anticipated to arrive until the next day and we busied ourselves with set up and camp chores and enjoyed an evening meal and chat around a campfire. The Visitor’s Center was not open, but the ablution block including modern flush toilets (hooray!), showers and laundry facilities were.
Blue snuggled into the campground midst the juniper-pinyon.
We had planned on a campfire, but the wind was brisk and when the rain started, Mary headed back to her tent and we sought refuge in Blue. The thunder, lightning, wind and hail storm that followed was one of the more violent storms we’ve encountered. The noise inside Blue was deafening. Loud, sharp thunder claps jolted us and lightning seared the sky. Blue rattled and shook with the wind. The hail on Blue’s roof was deafening. Unlike most such storms which pass through quickly, this storm lingered and bands of violence continued throughout the night. During one lull, David went to check on Mary who had abandoned her tent for her car. He came back soaked and cold. The marble-sized hail had accumulated in small drifts between the campsite. Luckily, no damage, just noise and inconvenience.
The morning sky was mottled-gray and by early afternoon, contrary to weather forecasts, all hell broke loose once more… wind, rain and even larger hail stones pelted us. By the time our nephew, Erik and his partner, Asher, arrived a few hours later, all had cleared as if it had never happened. Mary cooked dinner and we sat and kibitzed around the campfire. We couldn’t make it past 10pm before we collapsed into Blue. The rest of family arrived later … a 4-hour drive for them after their work day ended.
Hallelujah! A sunny, warm day with clear blue skies greeted us. The boys had the campfire blazing to ward off the morning chill and everyone gravitated sleepily to the warmth to grab a cup of morning coffee and begin our day.
We opted for a hike on the Reilly Canyon Trail. The 7,000 foot altitude had us huffing and puffing as we maneuvered our way up along the rocky trail. The views were gorgeous with a backdrop of flat-topped Fisher’s Peak in the distance. Interestingly, the Carpios Ridge Campground is located high above the lake. No one seemed to be interested in actually heading to the lake known for boating and fishing, but not so much for swimming.
Flat-topped Fisher’s Peak in the distance
Mountain views everywhere.
Beyond the views, wildlife surprised us at every turn. Short-horn lizards, reminiscent of tiny triceratops dinosaurs, and brightly colored black-collared lizards sunned themselves then skittered along the path beside us, startled by our approach.
A pair of short-horned lizards
A colorful black-collared lizard
Mule deer browsed in the thick pinyon-juniper woodlands. We noted that the bucks were all in velvet.
Everyone gathered back at camp in the late afternoon for a shared dinner, campfire and s’mores. The chat was lively. There was lots of laughter and we reveled in the company of family we loved and missed seeing more often.
Family camping… at last… a sunny day!
Isabella thought the s’mores were awesome!
All too soon, the weekend was over. We indulged in a leisurely breakfast, but it was evident we all knew that we needed to start breaking camp… seemingly just after we’d barely arrived. All packed up, we hugged goodbye and drove off on our separate ways. We lingered a bit in the park and took another short hike before heading into Trindad for supplies.
Where to next? Well, it depends on the weather and quite honestly, we really haven’t decided. Check in with us later in the week and you (and we) will know where we ended up.