Here's a few pix from our summer travels this year..hope you enjoy them.
This great secluded creekside campsite is in Williams Creek CG in the San Juan NF




Two miles upstream from the campground is Williams Creek reservoir and beyond that, the Continental Divide.





The Conejos River flows alongside Elk Creek CG in the Rio Grande NF, not far from Antonito, CO





This trail, starting at Vallecito CG, outside Durango, CO climbs high into the Weminuche Wilderness in the San Juan NF





Late summer monsoon rains bring out the wildflowers near Bonito CG in the Coconino NF. In the background is Sunset Crater Nat'l Mon, center of much ancient volcanic activity in northern Arizona.

When seeing your pictures, Ed, it's a wonder that sooooo many people want to get into the NFs, that the Forest Service has to gate them for crowd control. Did you climb a tree to get the rig shot?

Ed, how was the road up to Williams Creek Res.? That is one of the areas I've thought about visiting. I also want to go to Vallecito. The San Juans are one of my favorite places to be. BTW, ya'll have a great website!!

The road out of Pagosa Springs is paved for the first 8-10 miles and then becomes all-weather gravel. It is well maintained but can get pretty dusty with some washboarded sections, but nothing severe and not enough to deter anyone. There are 3 or 4 more smaller campgrounds on the same road, and a horse camp right at the end. All worth a visit and you can get details on the Campground Guide (see link above). The road to Vallecito is paved all the way except for a short stretch on the East side of the lake, where there are a couple of small campgrounds. The San Juans are one of our favorite areas too, but we are thinking of going up to the BigHorns this summer.

Ed

Great shots! What equipment do you use? I highly recommend the Big Horns. We were there for almost a month this past Jul/Aug. We took our horses up to Battle Park, which, I think, is equestrian only, but there are numerous cg's. It is really gorgeous everywhere you go in Cloud Peak. What will you use for bear protection?

Thanks for the comment on pix. I have a quite simple (by todays standards , but it has more functions than I'll ever learn to use) Canon Sureshot A520. We have only driven through the BigHorn area before..never spent any time there so we'll be doing our own exploring, but staying in designated CGs with our 25' trailer. Haven't really thought about bears yet. I guess we'll just do the usual...keep a clean campsite , dog under control and make noise on the trails.If the area is as great as I'm hearing, we may not even get to the other NFs. We have the time so we just do what seems to fit at the time.

Ed

Good on ya, Ed.

I like your style of planning! You may want to consider some bear mace, especially if you're going in early summer when you might meet mama griz' and her two younguns.