2016 Summer Road Trip: UT, CO, NM: Day 19: Thurs, 6/30: Bayfield to Vallecito Reservoir, CO

Day 19: Thurs., 6/30: Bayfield and Vallecito Reservoir, CO

We had a relaxing morning fishing at and enjoying our beautiful campsite in Bayfield. Around noon, we drove about 30 minutes north to 5 Branches RV Park at the Vallecito Reservoir (about 1 hour from Durango). Wow, what a beautiful place right on the gorgeous lake. Our campsite is right on the river where it comes into the lake. We rode bikes around the pretty forested campground and took turns on the river/lake riding the stand up paddleboard and kayak. Ryan took the paddleboard over into the grasses to watch a lady bug. When he was riding back towards mom who was in the kayak, he told her there was a funny sea slug on his white paddleboard. It was dark brown and would contract to get fat and then get long and skinny. After looking at it, Andrea realized it was a leach! When they came back to shore, we used a stick to get it off the board and we flipped it over and saw a sucker. It was gross and we were disgusted. We didn’t want to let the parasite back in the water so we tried to kill it with the stick. We couldn’t. So we got a knife and cut it to pieces. It had a lot of red blood in it meaning it had been feasting on something—nasty! After kayaking/paddling, the kids and Sam rode their bikes again around camp. They saw a large male buck with 5 point antlers and a younger male deer about 30 feet from them. They also looked at many beautiful wildflowers and lake views. We grilled steaks about 10 feet from the river’s edge enjoying the view and the ducks and geese on the river nearby. Our neighbors from New Mexico in the RV next to us are very nice and invited us over to their campfire after we played spades. Rather than doing s’mores on the fire, we roasted Peeps (Easter marshmallow candies with a sugar layer). They shared them with us. WOW—they were so good.