Carbondale, Colorado…"Where Rocky Vistas Meet Crystal Waters”

September 9-11, 2016
Carbondale, Colorado/Aspen-Snowmass

We stayed at a small RV park/campground called Gateway RV Park.

It's owned by the town of Carbondale, a short drive off of I-70.  It's a small campground with 16 RV sites to accommodate a wide variety of sized RV's, 11 of the sites are full-hookup and 5 are water/electric.  Only 4 sites (#11,12,13,14) could accommodate up to 45ft rigs. Sites #9 and 10 were max of 40ft. All of their sites were double wide; you had a space for the RV and space next to your site with a picnic bench, fire ring and plenty of space to park the tow vehicle. The park is close to the highway but the noise wasn't a problem for us. It is also right above the river, easily accessible for fishing.



Our site #12 

Sites are well marked and the campground has very nice hosts. They come out to greet you when you arrive, make sure you get into your site and know where everything is within the campground. The campground does have showers and the Wi-Fi was excellent but no laundry. We had good T-Mobile, Verizon and satellite reception. We liked this park, it was close to Glenwood Springs and Aspen-Snowmass.

Carbondale offers miles and miles of hiking and mountain biking just across the highway from the RV Park within the BLM Red Hill Special Recreation Management Area. The RV Park is also located alongside the paved Rio Grande Trail that stretches 44 beautiful miles from Aspen to Glenwood Springs.

The mountain biking/hiking trail we did was across the highway from our RV park called the Red Hill Loop.
I found it to be an advanced trail for biking due to it's steepness and rocky terrain.  I ended up hiking/biking most of the trail. Hauling my bike up the hill on the ascent was a workout but the upper sections and the upper part of the downhill were doable and fun. Although the trails are marked and I made notes, we missed a turn and didn't get to do a portion of the loop which would have been the more flat and intermediate portion of the trail. The lower half of the descent was rated upper intermediate but many sections I had to hike. The trail would be better as a hike and the views at the top are worth the effort to get there.

Flatter sections were nice

On our 2nd day we went to Snowmass Resort, only 18 miles away from our RV park for a hike to the peak. On weekends they run a lift and gondola and if you hike up you get to ride down for free. We always like these hikes. We knew there was and event in the area, the Colorado Tough Mudder, I thought it was at Aspen Resort but when we got to Snowmass it was set up at the base. Lots of people and activity  but we had no problem getting a parking spot in the garage at the base.



Start of the Tough Mudder

Gondola base-getting ready for the hike

Trailhead -Vista Trail to the top of the Gondola

I didn't go the entire distance to the peak but made it to the top of the gondola, 2.2 miles and a lot of elevation gain.




Gondola ride down Snowmass Resort

Mike took the Summit trail to the top, another 2 miles and 1500ft elevation gain at a much steeper grade.



Top of the peak

After the hike we went into Aspen, it was okay, may be better on a weekday. It was Saturday and prime time in Aspen, no chance of getting any outside seating at restaurants. We grabbed some ice cream, walked around and said okay we were here.

Had a great time in Carbondale/Aspen-Snowmass.  There are a lot more places to explore in the area, we just didn't have the time. May have to plan another trip this way. Our next stop Breckenridge(9400ft), expecting cooler temperatures and some weather.

Always Chillin.....