Monday Jul 1, 2024 South Fork to Marshal Park Campground (Creede CO)

Another quiet night at the Silver Thread Basecamp RV park. Silver Thread refers to the name of the scenic road that stretches from South Fork, CO all the way to Gunnison, CO. There was a lot of mining activity along this corridor in the later 1800’s.

We topped off our water and used the dump station before leaving and stopped at the office to ask about breakfast somewhere. She said Tiny Timbers Coffee Bistro and Cafe was the “only” good place for breakfast in South Fork, which isn’t bragging so much as it is true.

She was right. It had food somewhere between diner and foo-foo so something for everyone. There were the usual assortment of “old farts” solving all of the world’s problems, again. A group from Sierra Vista, AZ saw our Bisbee license plate so we chatted for a while. A very social place with good coffee and hot tea and good simple breakfast.

After breakfast  we went up to Big Meadows Reservoir and hiked the Big Meadows Loop Trail, which was Milo’s test on the 6 week anniversary of his new knee. After 2.6 miles of fairly flat but soggy, root and boulder infested trail, Milo survived and celelbrated back at the van with some ibuprofin and hot coffee. It was drizzly all morning but we had lightweight rain jackets so were fairly dry. Deb wore her camera out snapping pictures of wildflowers.

Deb taking over for the rest! We decided to drive to Lake City for the afternoon, traveling further on the Silver Thread Byway (Rt 149) than we’d been previiously, up and over Spring Creek and Slumgullion Passes. Our first stop was at the parking area for North Creek Falls, where we made lunch and enjoyed the clearing skies at a picnic table. We had a long chat with a couple from Oklahoma, who are staying in a cabin in Lake City but have a Travato van at home. 

Following our lunch break we drove up and over the passes, first Spring Creek Pass (10,000+ feet) and then Slumgullion Pass (11,000+ feet). Both the Continental Divide Trail and the Colorado Trail go through Spring Creek Pass. Magnificent vistas and country.

Down and into Lake City, another historic and charming town complete with wooden sidewalks. Our new Oklahoma friends pulled up behind us and offered us a spot in their driveway on the night of July 3rd if we needed it. So sweet, since after we leave our current campground on the 3rd we don’t have any reservations.

We then drove to Wupperman Campground, a county-run campground up above Lake San Cristobal, to check it out and see if we might have any luck getting into that campground on the 3rd. We had a fun chat with the campground host Dan Bell (his wife’s name is Tinker, seriously) who said if we decided to camp there he’d find room for us.

Back down to Rt 149, up and over the passes and on to Marshall Park Campground by 5:30 pm, our home for the next 2 nights. This is a lovely Forest Service campground right on the Rio Grande river, with 16 sites total and decent pit toilets. At $17/night the price is pretty hard to beat.

Milo made a rice and chicken sausage dinner with salad and we enjoyed talking with a few of the campground guests and listening to the river.