Cheyenne Mountain State Park Camping! Where’d You Go?
We had a relaxing and fun Memorial Day Weekend. Spent it camping in Cheyenne Mountain State Park. We arrived on Friday afternoon, set up our fifth wheel, put out the camp chairs and went for a hike. Most trails in the park are an easy and fun hike. Upon returning to the campsite we started a blazing campfire roasted hot dogs and brauts then later marshmallows for S’mores. A little guitar music as we enjoy the city lights.
The next day Mother Nature rained all over us, but we were not deterred. Morning hike then chased inside where it was popcorn and movie night. Yep, that’s why we camp in a fifth wheel trailer. The rest of the weekend was sunny and warm, steaks over the campfire with baked potatoes. Then S’mores of course. Perfect camping weather! Now the wonderful news!
I’m so excited, finally all my letters, forms in suggestion boxes, and answers to surveys for the Colorado State Parks & Wildlife system were answered! Yippee! Colorado State Parks & Wildlife Department is doing a three month trial allowing dogs on certain trails in Cheyenne Mountain State Park and Mueller State Park. That little tidbit made our day as well as our dog’s! In Cheyenne Mountain State Park as of 
June 1st dogs are allowed on these trails Acorn Alley, Bobcat Way and Raccoon Ridge. The trails connect to park’s campground, where dogs are already allowed.
In Mueller State Park, as of June 1st dogs will be allowed on portions of Homestead Trail and Black Bear Trail leading out of the campground.
The trial period could be extended into the winter, if it’s deemed a success. Of course it will be a success! Even better, it could become a permanent policy. Music to our dog’s ears! We have been advocating for allowing dogs on Colorado State Park trails for years. Steamboat Lake already allows dogs on their trails and we love it!
The caveat is visitors with dogs MUST pick up after their dogs, bag stations have been installed, so there is no excuse. It’s completely in our hands to see it’s a success! We got this.
There is nothing more exciting than hiking a trail with your canine companion. So PLEASE, pick up after your pets. If you see someone who needs a little nudge to pick up after their dog, hand them a bag and say THANKS! Let’s make this a permanent policy.
***Next week – We take a look at the Great Horned Owl family that have taken up residence in the Lowes Home Improvement Center in University Village Shopping Center in Colorado Springs! Don’t miss it!
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Posted in Camping, My Say What Blog and tagged Campfire, camping, Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado, Dogs, Dogs allowed, guitar, Hiking with you dog, Memorial Day Weekend, Mueller State Park, Trails by Tena Stetler with 3 comments.
Camping a Recipe for Summer Treats & Reads
My hubby, our dog, bird, turtle and I love to trade the jungle of civilization for a few days of paradise relaxing in the cool quiet of a Rocky Mountain campsite with a mesmerizing book and evening campfire. That’s my idea of Summer Treats and Reads. Okay, let me qualify what camping is to us. We have a fifth wheel trailer with all the creature comforts required, left tent camping behind a long time ago. LOL
Favorite camping areas in Colorado are: Rocky Mountain National Park a stones throw from Estes Park is a great hiking and biking destination. Twin Lakes in the Pike & San Isabel National Forest is wonderful for kayaking and mountain biking. Both these areas are dry camping, no services but with a generator or solar panels you are all set.
Another fun place is Steamboat Lake, a Colorado State Park, the kayaking is good, hiking with your furry friend is excellent. Electrical is available on some sites. Not far away is Pearl Lake, nice kayaking area, lots of wildlife early morning or around dusk. No motorized boats allowed. It’s also primitive/dry camping but there are several sites large enough for a 30 foot fifth wheel trailer.
These are just a few of the exciting camping area’s in Colorado. Last week we enjoyed a fun filled vacation at Lake Vallecito which I detailed in the prior post.
Mueller State Park is close and a great weekend trip to the mountains. Cheyenne Mountain State Park is centrally located for visiting all the Pikes Peak Region has to offer and is open all year around. It is usually our final destination of the season. The park offers full hookups, tent pad and campfire ring on each site.
Now for the Treats: Chocolate Cherry Dumpcake Recipe. Quick and easy.
2 cans (21 ounces each) cherry pie filling
1 package (about 15 ounces) Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake mix or your favorite Chocolate Cake mix.
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 X 9 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Spread the pie filling in prepared pan, top with cake mix only, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. pour butter over top, covering cake mix as much as possible.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Make 12 to 16 servings. Now for just my husband, myself and a couple of friends, we cut this recipe in half and use a 9X9 inch baking pan or a cast iron dutch oven. Yummy!
For Reads: Obviously, I’d like you to check out my books,
A Demon’s Witch, Charm Me (its on sale for .99), A Witch’s Journey. Otherwise, The Wild Rose Press has lots of wonderful authors with a wide variety of books. I like cozy and regular mysteries, paranormal romances books categorized as fun reads. I’m not into thrillers or weepy books. Happily Every After and feel good novels are what I read, anything else, I can get by turning on the television or internet and I don’t call that entertainment. Just me.
Please visit the other blogs listed below for fun, games and prizes. To be entered to win the $10.00 Amazon gift card I’m giving away, like my facebook page and sign up for my quarterly newsletter on my webpage at https://www.tenastetler.com. Winner will be drawn at random and notified at the end of the blog hop. Also the author’s of The Wild Rose are giving away a Kindle Fire as a grand prize. Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter below. Good Luck! See you next time with tales of the unexplained. Got your attention now! <giggles maniacally>
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Check out all the fabulous writers and their blogs
in the SUMMER BLOG HOP below!
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RV Memory | Visit blog
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Tricia Schneider | Visit blog
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Anna Durands Spunk & Hunks | Visit blog
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Judy Ann Davis Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog
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Spicy Summer Treats with Mia Downing | Visit blog
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Linda Nightingale. . . Wordsmith | Visit blog
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Jana Richards – Journeys with Jana | Visit blog
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Summer Memories of books well read @ Peggy jaeger. com | Visit blog
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Summer on Cape Cod ~ Kathryn Knight books | Visit blog
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Summer Fun at the Beach, with Katie OSullivan | Visit blog
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I Believe Ill Go Canoeing – C. B. Clark | Visit blog
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Summertime Love is Sweeter with. . . Frozen Mango? @ Kimberly Keyes blog | Visit blog
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Wild Rose Summer Treats Blog Hop @ Brendas Blog | Visit blog
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Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog
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Midsummer Magic on the Isle of Skye! | Visit blog
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My Guilty Summer Treats from Lori Sizemore | Visit blog
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Wild Rose Press Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog
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Hywela Lyns post for the WRP Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog
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Wild Rose Press Summer Treats & Reads | Visit blog
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Camping is a Recipe for Summer Treats and Reads | Visit blog
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The Snarkology | Visit blog
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Summer Survival Tips @ Nitty Gritty Romance | Visit blog
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Wild Rose Press Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop | Visit blog
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Nell Castle – Summer of the Sweat Lodge | Visit blog
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Myth, Magic & Wonder Susan Edwards, Breathing Life into the Past | Visit blog
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Romance with Spice, Sydney St. Claire | Visit blog
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Author Kat de Falla | Visit blog
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Anni Fife. Exciting new author of Steamy Romance with Irresistible Heroes | Visit blog
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Summer Vacation, Victorian-Style, AND a Giveaway | Visit blog
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Wildfires, Monsoons, and Mojitos – Author Susabelle Kelmer shares how she keeps cool in a climate that is on fire! | Visit blog
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Casi McLeans recipe for Hot Reads and Cool Treats | Visit blog
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Cool Summer Reads: Jeannie Halls Romantic Suspense Blog – Where Hearts Tremble From More Than Attraction | Visit blog
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Summer treat – Adult Slushie | Visit blog
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How to Rediscover the Magic of Bicycling | Visit blog
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Charlottes Tips on How to Stay Cool in HOT New York City | Visit blog
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Caryn McGill | Visit blog
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Posted in Camping, For Fun, My Say What Blog, The Pikes Peak Region and tagged Anne Hillerman, Authors, Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Chocolate Cherry Cake recipe, Cozy Mystery, Lake Vallecito, Molly Harper, Mueller State Park, Nancy Atherton, Pearl Lake, RMNP, Romance, Steamboat Lake State Park, Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop, The WIld Rose Press, Twin Lakes by Tena Stetler with 18 comments.
Lake Vallecito – A Slice of Paradise
View as we left the campground
I have been MIA for ten glorious days, along with my husband and friends from Las Vegas. Unplugged at the 5 Branches Camper Park, best kept secret on the shores of Lake Vallecito in Bayfield, Colorado. It’s near Durango in the San Juan mountains. A great camping destination I highly recommend. They serve a great breakfast on Saturday mornings. There are RV sites as well as wonderful tent sites, if you prefer roughing it. Which I don’t. Video taken from beside our campsite.
During the day, we hiked, kayaked, mountain biked and sat around along with our chow, Mystic, and parrot, Taco watching the humming birds devour our homemade
nectar at the feeder (raw sugar is the secret) Evenings we spent around a crackling campfire staring at the stars (we saw several shooting stars, yep made wishes) and eating s’mors or a slice of dump cake. No internet or very little connection, so the outside world was held at bay, for the most part.
Trail through the campground
I had to resort to writing my work in progress with a pen and notebook. How archaic. But it resulted in several pages I’m very pleased with. Yea! Now back at my computer, I type in the new sections and the creativity continues to flow. That’s a good thing!
Returning to civilization was a shock to the system, I wouldn’t have predicted. On our way back home, in heavy traffic, I might add, we stopped at The Malt Shop in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The crowd inside seemed stifling, but it could have been the heat. I have to say, the food was delicious and the chocolate shake was out of this world. We got our meal to go and ate lunch in the cool, quiet of our truck.
After temps in the 80’s and a cool breeze off the lake, ninety-five degrees was stupid hot, to coin a phrase a good friend from Las Vegas, Nevada uses when the temperatures rise above 100. Heat rose from the pavement in waves, vehicles and voices seemed louder, all adding to my discomfort. Isn’t it funny how ten days of peace and quiet can make your return to civilization and the hectic life we lead seem almost unbearable. Okay, I am exaggerating, I’m a fiction writer what do you expect, but not embellishing by much.
Taco in her carrier, enjoying breakfast outside
Back home sitting at my computer, I sift through the e-mails numbering in the hundreds (I did address them a couple times while we were in Durango, picking up supplies.); my twitter account blew up, the tweets overwhelming, edits due on my holiday book, and the deadline on my work in progress looms large. Was the ten days off worth it? You betcha! Our dog and parrot loved the vacation too.
Now back to the dump cake. Have you ever had one? They are fantastic and so easy. I’ll have a recipe for a chocolate cherry dump cake in next week’s blog part of The Wild Rose Summer Treats and Reads Blog Hop. Did I mention there will be prizes? Don’t miss it. Until then, you can find me chained to my computer in an attempt to catch up. Have a great week!
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Posted in Camping, My Say What Blog, Uncategorized and tagged boating, campimg, kayaking, Lake Vallecito, relax, vacation by Tena Stetler with 3 comments.
Camping Season – The Perils of Getting a Late Start
Can you believe it’s camping season again? Seems it was just Christmas and winter. Hey, wait a minute, it was just winter, Colorado had significant snow through April and into the first weeks of May. My daffodils, crocus and tulips did their best even through the snow.
Snow and winter weather made us late de-winterizing (is that even a word?) our fifth wheel trailer and truck. Uncovering the 
trailer in the wind was an experience in itself. Imagine a thirty-foot long, thirteen foot high cover billowing in twenty-five mph wind as you try to fold it up. Nearly took me off my feet (Dorthy from OZ swirls through my mine) as my hubby shouts, “Fold it the other way. ”Yeah, right, I could if I could get it on the ground,” I retorted, my words swallowed up by the wind. What’s the use of a good retort when no one hears. Kinda like that question, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it still make a sound?
Any way I digress. While parking the fifth wheel in the driveway, a strong odor of fuel permeated my nostrils, I looked under the truck and saw a steady stream of liquid puddling below the vehicle. Peering at my husband I said, “Is that supposed to be happening?” I point under the truck to the leaking fuel. “#*#? no,” he said.
After a tirade of not nice words from under the truck, my hubby ascertained the fuel pump was leaking. Okay, so you think, no big deal, just get it fixed. Right?” No way! Because my hubby trusts no one to work on his vehicles, especially brakes and fuel system, he spent Memorial Day Weekend draining a thirty six gallon gas tank. Of course we’d just filled it. He pulled the tank out and replaced the fuel pump. That done, the tank back in place, we took truck and trailer to a tire store for 8 new tires all around. Bank account drained, we brought the vehicles back and parked them in the driveway, much to the chagrin of our homeowners association (that’s a whole different story). People who don’t own an RV should never decide how long it takes to get ready. Still had to de-winterize the trailer, and get it ready for camping.
Hubby crawls under the trailer only to find a bolt holding the slide-out mechanism sheared off. What a
disaster if we’d been going down the highway. Thank goodness we weren’t. Hubby sprinted downstairs to his ton of important stuff that fills the basement and found exactly the bolt he needed. Then proceeded to remind me that’s why he keeps all the junk I bitch about. Okay… enough said. Further inspection and the trailer ground brace is loose, another trip in the basement and taa daa a can of screws and the brace is repaired.
Kayaks loaded, truck full of fuel (not leaking), trailer packed with human, dog, parrot and turtle necessities
Steamboat Lake
we’re ready. Let the camping adventures begin. On our agenda this year, Steamboat Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Lake Vallecito, Twin Lakes in San Isabell National Forest, and Cheyenne Mountain State Park. Note to self: Next year regardless of what Mother Nature throws at us, the fifth wheel comes out of storage in April.
Oh, by the way, I figured you’d rather look at pictures of places we’ve camped, rather than repairs in our driveway made this year. Was I right?
Where are you going? Did you have as much trouble getting ready as we did? I’d love to hear from you! Next week, we’ll check out favorite camping spots.
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Posted in Camping, For Fun, My Say What Blog and tagged Adventures, camping, Fifth wheel, repairs, Rocky Moutian National Park, Steamboat Lake, Twin Lakes by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.
