~Thursday, October 8, 2020~
Day 116
Always fun to start the day off with chores. But it’s been a few weeks now since our last laundry run and we can’t pass up the opportunity to do laundry here when it’s so conveniently located, just a tiny walk from our campsite. And it’s the cheapest we’ve seen. Only $1.50/load. Good. Sheets/comforter clean for starters and we’re out of here. We’ll do the rest of the laundry tonight.
Felt good getting the heart pumpin’ today at 8,000 feet. Jeff and I just realized we’ve been over 5,000 feet for over a few months now, between Oregon, Utah, Montana and Colorado. So, I think you could say that we’re acclimated, except for climbing steep hills as we did today. Our first stop was the Lower Cascade Falls Trail AND it’s dog friendly. We knew at this time of year the amount of water we’d see in the Falls could be a trickle but it was worth the hike. Well, it was just slightly more than a trickle. Jeff walked through some boulders to get just underneath to take a few shots. It must be quite a site in late Spring, early Summer. Once you get to the waterfall which is only a ¼ of a mile to get to, you can continue on to what’s called the Perimeter Trail, a 6 mile, 1600 foot elevation gain hike that takes about 4 hours to complete. We’ll have to do the whole Perimeter Trail when we have more time and we WILL be back without a question.
Next stop, the Box Canyon Waterfall & Park. Just a few miles from the Lower Cascade Trail, we arrived mid afternoon with perfect sunshine in the Canyon.
For this hike, they charge $5.00/person and unfortunately, dogs are not allowed due to the many grated metal platforms and stairs you have to climb. Luckily, there was a perfect shaded spot to leave Sadie in the car. We really enjoyed this 2 mile steep hike to the bridge.
From the bridge you can continue on through a tunnel which connects you on the other side of a tunnel, to the Perimeter Trail once again. Very cool. We weren’t gone long on this hike, but Sadie was still very glad to see us again.
We stopped at the small downtown Ouray grocery store for some basics, then stopped at the Ouray Meat and Cheese Market to pick up a smoked beef bone for Sadie. One of the people Jeff follows on Instagram recommended this stop for their dog. Sadie hasn’t had this kind of treat in a long time and she’s been such a trooper on this trip, so she really deserves this yummy treat. We drove back to our campsite to finish up some “to do’s” before leaving for Durango tomorrow. Sadie must have enjoyed her bone for a few hours until we took our sunset stroll around the loop. We met some like minded campers who also wanted to watch the sunset from one of the few decks that overlooks the reservoir here. I’m telling you this park is really dialed in. And to cap off our evening….a delicious dinner of bbq’d chicken (Jeff), bbq’d black bean burger (me) with a side of roasted red potatoes and parmesan/pine nut topped asparagus. Yum!