RIDGWAY STATE PARK, RIDGWAY, COLORADO

RIDGWAY STATE PARK, RIDGWAY, COLORADO
(Take US 550 south of Montrose, CO for 22 miles to the park entrance or north of Ridgway, CO on US 550 – 4 miles. 28555 Highway 550, Ridgway, CO 80432, park info: 970-626-5822)

Just outside of Ouray and Montrose, Colorado is Ridgway State Park. What a gem! The parks service touts it as the “Switzerland of America” . . and they aren’t kidding. The mountain scenery is breathtaking, the reservoir is pristine, there’s an awesome beach area, with picnic areas and playgrounds. There are many hiking trails and the wildlife is abundant.

When we first pulled into the Pa-Co-Chu-Puk site at the Ridgway campgrounds, we couldn’t believe how much space each site was provided. Pa-Co-Chu-Puk is on the northeast side of the reservoir and reservations can be made at Ridgway State Park. Our site was so secluded we couldn’t see any other RV’s from our spot. We were parked facing the forest and both the Cow Creek and Uncompahgre Rivers, which feeds into the Ridgway Reservoir, were less than a five minute walk from our trailer. The creek and river were running quite heavy – which is not always the case during Colorado summers – but you need to be aware of the currents if you plan to venture into the river to fish.

It was out first night, we had just lit the BBQ for our traditional first night “steaks on the grill” dinner, around 6:00p. I was inside the trailer preparing dinner when I hear, pssssst . . pssssst . . . come quick, bring the camera!! I stepped outside to see that a herd of white tail deer had just wandered up to our site – within feet of the trailer and the BBQ. It was amazing – as they were clearly not afraid – or even aware of us. They grazed around our site for nearly 30 minutes. Beautiful animals!





We did some star-gazing the first night. At 6,700 ft in elevation, the stars seemed close enough to touch. There was no moon the first night and the Milky Way was so visible it seemed we could reach up and touch the stars. The stars were so thick it was hard to pick out the common notable constellations. Ridgway is a place we plan to visit many times in the future.