Trip 2: Buena Vista, CO

Trip two is under the belt and things just keep getting better.  This time around we chose a destination that didn’t require as many traverses over high mountain passes:  Buena Vista, CO.  Buena Vista is only about 1.5  to 2 hours from Colorado Springs and the Wilkerson Pass (9500ft) is the only pass.  The Vue, once again, handled it quite well.  We stopped at the pass on the way back and the view from there is wonderful.  There is a small trail that leads to an overlook that looks back toward 11 Mile State Park.

We stayed at a commercial trailer park in Buena Vista that wasn’t bad but was no where near as nice as staying at a state park.  But it did provide a based from which we explored the area around Twin Lakes. There are some wonderful trails above the lakes, multiple campsites and the lakes have sandy beaches from which the pups invaded the cold water.

We also went to Buena Vista’s River Park, which has a wonderful casual trail on one side of the Arkansas River and a wicked hiking/biking trail on the other side.  We enjoyed both and ended up walking through the rain to a small (and apparently fairly new) development of row houses and small restaurants.

This trip was the first use of the R-Dome.  I’ll put up some pictures and explanation of that in a separate post.

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What we learned:

• Take the camera when you go hiking.  We always forget it.
• Reba loves cold water.  Our lethargic old lady went nuts splashing in the water and even chased the other two into deep water, though she never got in deeper than her belly.
• The R-Dome holds up well in high wind, as long as its tied down properly.  But the suction cups it comes with to attach to the ends of the pod are undersized.