Anyone that is camping on a holiday weekend knows that it is important to have reservations. If we are keeping track of the good and the bad parts of this Labor Day weekend, we would have to say that crowds in the campgrounds would place a check mark in the "bad" column. We didn't do a great job of figuring out where we were going to be for Labor Day weekend 2021, so we had limited choices. That's why we ended up on a Friday night of the holiday weekend at the Walmart parking lot. But that ended up being a "good" thing as it worked out well. The temperature was nice, and we had a peaceful night at our Walmart campground in Salida, Colorado. Normally we would be leaving early, but we wanted to do a little exploring before we left. Our plan was to head north on highway 285 early the next morning. That leads to great views of the Collegiate peaks that start between Salida and Buena Vista. We love wandering God's wonders in these mountains! 
But first, we are making a stop at the Salida Farmer's Market. We made a big score with garden peas (in green and purple) and homemade caramel pecan rolls. That added to the "good" tally for this holiday weekend.
Now it's on to Brown's Canyon National Monument. It's 24 miles north of Salida, and it was designated a national monument in 2015. It took us some time to find Brown's Canyon, as it is hidden off the highway down a dirt road. Once we got to the Arkansas River that flows through the canyon, we found it was not included in our national park pass. Signs indicate that the river banks were controlled by a different federal agency. It was very confusing! But we finally found the Ruby Mountain trail head that is in the national monument, and started our hike on the Turret Trail.
It's one of those trails where you work hard to gain elevation, and then you immediately go back down into a ravine, then back up again. It was a roller coaster of ups and downs, and even though we had quite a bit of up-hill hiking we never got a mountain vista. The prettiest part of the hike was the big rock formations in this meadow, with views of the majestic mountains far away on the other side of the highway.
The trail lost elevation one more time, and we finally found ourselves at a bridge over the Arkansas River. But a big sign made it obvious that we weren't welcome on that bridge. Mark found out from the two ladies enjoying the view, that the bridge was built by the small village on the other side. The private bridge allows the owners access to the trails without having wayward hikers like us come into their village.
We got a view of the Arkansas River from our side of the bridge. This is a popular river for whitewater rafting in the spring and early summer, and is probably the best way to enjoy Browns Canyon. We don't have time to kayak this trip, and the water is a bit low. We watched a single boat float by, pinging against the exposed rocks.
We then hiked down to the shore for a view with that private bridge. We weren't sure if we were on private land at this beach, but we hiked a long ways not to at least see the river. We would say that this trail was a little disappointing, and would tally up on the "bad" side of the holiday weekend.
Even though it is very late in the season, we still found a few flowers remaining on the trail. But we would say that Brown's Canyon National Monument is probably the most disappointing national facility we have visited. There is no visitor center, no facilities, no mountains, the road was rough and one-laned at times, and we got only questionable river access. We took the best rated trail in the park, and it certainly wasn't a highlight for us. We did get some exercise this morning, but we won't be recommending Brown's Canyon to fellow hikers. There are much prettier hikes available in this beautiful section of Colorado. The national monument brochure explains that the Arkansas River is the most accessible way to enjoy this canyon, and we would agree.
Our 24-hour pass at the Walmart parking lot is almost over, so it was time to hook-up the pickup to the motor home and roll out of Salida. We headed east on highway 50, following the curves of the Arkansas River.
We are obviously way behind in our blogging, as this was our destination for the Labor Day weekend a month ago! It's hard to find a place to camp for holiday weekends, and we got the very last available site at the Bighorn RV Park. In fact, our motor home is really too long for our end-of-the-line site, but they squeezed us in. It was a warm holiday weekend in a packed campground, and our site was also at the end of the electrical circuit. This will tally up as "bad" on our holiday meter. This was one of the few places in the last six years that our power hook-up was so bad that we couldn't run our microwave or our air-conditioners even though we were paying for 30-amp service. We have a power monitor that shuts off the flow of electricity when it is so low that it would harm our appliances if it tried to run them. When we reported it to the owners, they sent someone to confirm the low voltage. They apologized, but never offered a reduction in price for the reduction in service. It got better when it cooled down in the evening and other campers stopped running their air-conditioners nonstop.
We did have a nice view of the Sangre de Cristo mountains across the highway, and we could have stayed cool in the Arkansas River that runs beside the campground. The nice location gives this campground one tally in the "good" column.
Even though we didn't have good electricity, we like it that the owners planned extra activities for the Labor Day weekend. They offered a pizza night with live entertainment on the deck overlooking the river. Since we're keeping track, that puts another point in the "good" column this weekend.
We enjoyed the live music, and even danced a few times in the grass by the deck. The weather was great this evening as we watched the clouds turning pink over the river valley.
Denisa left the music on the deck long enough to take a sunset picture over the Sangre de Cristo mountains. That sunset earns another point for the "good" column for our stay. So even though our Labor Day weekend had some disappointments, we see that the good outweighs the bad when we total up the columns. We are sharing this holiday with lots of other people that have to go back to work tomorrow. While the rest of the country must labor on, we are blessed to get to continue our travels, wandering God's wonders. That's a big check mark in the "good" column for us!
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