"Momma said that there'd be days like this ... there'd be days like this Momma said"

We said farewell to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison ...

And headed off for Ridgway State Park, 20 miles south of Montrose ...

We're official annual Colorado State Park members, so we decided to try another state park.  

Part of the challenge is that the national park system frequently has limited services ... The Black Canyon had electrical hook-ups, but no hook-ups for water (which isn't really a problem because we can always add water to our water tank using a large plastic water carrier) ... the larger problem was that there was no dump station for our black water or gray water tanks (basically our sewage system).  So, we can hold some in our holding tanks, but eventually have to get to a dump station.  

In addition, Black Canyon had no Internet or cell phone service.  The national park doesn't even have mail service as  I discovered when I attempted to mail some cards.  We were beginning to feel a bit disconnected from the world.

So, we headed down to Ridgway State Park and discovered the world of spring fly-fishing in Colorado along the Uncompahgre River ... full hook-ups (electrical, water and sewer) ... but again, no Internet or cell phone service (disappointing).   The state park system appears to be geared toward the "sportsman" ... which also means limited hiking trails (mainly muddy paths along the river for fishing) ... and, in this case, no connectivity.  

We realized that we had stayed at this campground before, in 2009, when we were tent camping and remembered that we had to set up our tent in a virtual tent "ghetto" of crowded tent campsites and limited facilities ... not great memories of our last visit.

Umcompahgre River below the dam ...

Bambi and Fritz nestled into a side above the river with a ponderosa pine whistling in the wind ... did I mention that we discovered the wind, yet again, roaring down the river valley, rattling the trailer and overturning our chairs, table and sending cans of sparkling water sailing?

We walked along the river until the Chafee Creek poured into, and discolored, the Uncompahgre River ...

And found a beaver den, but no beaver sightings ...

We frankly grew a bit "stir crazy" ... the wind made it hard to be outdoors, the state park itself was limiting in its focus on "fisher persons", and the lack of connectivity left us without our usual "mind stimulation" ... "Momma said that there'd be days like this" ... time to move on.