Chaco Culture National Monument
Because there is so much Tribal Reservation land around Gallup and Farmington, New Mexico, Forest Service Campgrounds are rare. We did find a campground at the Chaco Culture National Monument and stayed there one night. Incredibly long and rough road in and out of the place. Hiking through the areas of ancient building sites was definitely an early morning activity since the days were quite hot and shade was not to be found anywhere.
After Chaco Culture, we headed for Colorado, hoping to find cooler temperatures. Stayed one night at Hovenweep National Monument. The visitor centers at these places have interesting displays and usually an informational video to enjoy. The rangers are very pleasant and sociable. One ranger at Hovenweep helped me enormously as I struggled to book a campsite online for the night. First come, first serve campgrounds are scarce in Colorado. Most must be reserved online in advance and cannot be reserved on the same day that you wish to stay, but reservations must be made at least four days in advance. This does not fit with our seat-of-the-pants, go where you feel like camping strategy. Plus there is not always a cell signal strong enough to complete a booking unless you are in an urban center. While in Colorado we are learning how to live with this system. It was very hot at Hovenweep—elevation somewhere in the 6000 feet range. After that we decided to move higher. We spent a day on the Durango/Silverton Train and had a wonderful time. Then we decided we must go higher (since it was 84 degrees in Silverton) and we ended up in Creede, Colorado, where they have a wonderful reperatory theatre. We enjoyed the opening night of their musical comedy Young Frankenstein. Leaving Creede, we planned to take Hwy 149 over the Rockies and down to Gunnison on the other side of the mountains. Turns out there are First Come, First Serve forest service campground in this area. My suspicion is that because the camps are in the 9,000 to 11,000 foot range of elevations, not many come there to camp, so reservations are not so important. We stayed at a couple of different places while in the area. Daytime temperatures were in the low seventies—perfect in my opinion! Area information implied that our chances of seeing moose were high, but unfortunately we didn’t see any. One beautiful meadow we stayed in was called Bristol Head. We were almost the only campers there. Then new campers drove in and selected the campsite right next to ours. We had to walk past their camp to get to the toilet. Every time I walked past, their dog (a red and white border collie) went nuts barking at me. Although these campgrounds state that all pets must be leashed, this dog was not. When I walked by, the owner would grab the dog and hold her close until I got to the toilet and then when I walked along the road back to our camp they would hold her again. After two days of this, I was walking back to camp at dusk from the toilet. The dog broke away from the owner and ran flat out in a beeline at me, circled behind me, and bit me on my right calf. Broke the skin, bled, was painful and traumatic. The people caught the dog and kept her from me. They said she had all her shots. In Colorado dog bites must be reported. We called the Sheriff in the morning, he came out, took pictures of the bite, got everyone’s statements, and cited the other campers for having a vicious dog. We drove back to Creede where they have a small urgent care center. Saw the doctor, got antibiotics, and filled out paperwork for the Public Health office. Apparently now the dog will be kept at home for 10 days while the owners monitor her health. After 10 days the public health people will let me know if I have to get the series of rabies shots. The dog was wearing a 2023 rabies vaccine tag, though, so it appears to be a low risk situation. Meanwhile I am taking antibiotics for the next 10 days and have a hell of a bruise on my swollen calf. The bite marks are healing ok without stitches. We’ve been worried about bears and mountain lions. Did not realize we were at risk for dog bite.
