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The BLM map of the area : https://www.blm.gov/visit/search-details/16697/2 (Should you wish to view it for some reason).
From the perspective of writing this some months later, I can’t recall with certainty why we stayed in the North Sand Hills Recreation Management Area in northern Colorado. One of our considerations for picking the next camping spot was distance – we aimed for keeping our drive to about 3-4 hours while towing the travel trailer. This ensured that we’d arrive in daylight and have plenty of time to set up camp before sundown. But the trip from Granby, Colorado to Sand Hills was just 2 hours – so that couldn’t have been the reason.
Another consideration was timing for arriving at the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in northwest Wyoming. Since the days of our honeymoon many years ago, we’ve been loath to plan much ahead; reserving places ahead of time locks you in, with no opportunity to stay longer at a particularly nice spot. However, this free-wheeling style comes at a cost. Especially for the uber-popular Yellowstone, not making reservations months ahead meant we’d need to arrive past peak visitation season. So I recall having some time to burn until the back-to-school bells started ringing and we’d have a better chance of snagging a campsite.
Seeing our trailer parked up on that ridge in the middle of nowehere, I frequently gave thought to Pink Fury, except that I had misremembered him as a mountain goat. ..
But I suspect the real reason we stayed in the North Sand Hills Recreation Management Area was Dorian’s fascination with being off the grid, and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) camping is about as off the grid as you can get. BLM camping means no fees, no sites, no reservations. It also means no electricity, no potable water pumps…no services. Our fridge and stove run on propane, and we have solar panels to charge the battery; without shore power we can run the lights, heater, and television, but not the air conditioner or microwave. Also, the 40-gallon water tank only lasts so long. And the holding tanks are only so big. So you’re a bit limited as to how long you can comfortably stay on BLM land.
In addition to these challenges, the North Sand Hills were, well, sandy. The rough roads leading into the BLM area eventually petered out into humongous sand dunes, leaving us to just kinda decide where we wanted to camp. We weren’t alone there – this place is a favorite weekend destination for ATV-ers (apparently ATVs have been rebranded and are now called OHV/off-highway vehicles) – and so there were many existing sandy trails, not all of which were meant to be navigated by a huge truck and travel trailer. I think I held one breath for a really, really long time as Dorian moseyed around looking to see what might be the best camping spot, heading into some places I didn’t think we’d be able to head out of without a tow truck (oh which, by the way, was absolutely nowhere nearby, and I’m not certain we even had cell signal). Places like this..
In the interests of journalistic integrity, we'll note that this picture may have been "borrowed" from a BLM site.
We settled on a ridge with a commanding view of the valley and a magnificent sunset. As is generally the case, that beautiful sunset was attributable to all the clouds in the sky, which portended a thunderous storm – at which time our camp location perched all alone on the edge of a steep hill didn’t seem like such a terrific idea. Also we felt a bit vulnerable later that night….WAY later that night, around midnight and continuing into the wee hours … when some no doubt intoxicated OHV-er decided it would be an ideal time to go racing around in the pitch blackness, ad nauseam. We left a light on to make sure he could see us (why am I so sure this was a he?), and fortunately the drone of the OHV didn’t keep us awake.
We visited the nearby Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, but generally there wasn’t much for us to do at the North Sand Hills Recreation Management Area except develop our BLM street...err, dune...creds.
A picture from a nature reserve nearby.
Would We Come Back Here?
Would We Come Back Here?
Maybe. It was a lot of fun in an adventurey, will-we-get-stuck-and-how-embarrasing-would-it-be-to-have-to-coax-a-towtruck-driver-way-out-here kind of way. But it is pretty far from everything. Except cell signal--we actually ended up with pretty good cell signal because of our primo location on that windy ridge.
As with so many places we stayed, there was way more to explore that we didn't get to. There were some jeep trails into national forest land nearby which I would have liked to have taken. Detailed maps of the area seemed hard to come by. And the maps that existed didn't seem to differentiate between OHV-only trails and 4-wheel driveable roads. So we might come back--particularly if it was on the way somewhere.
Would We Live Here?
Would We Live Here?
No. Except for natural beauty and wonderful isolation, this place didn't hit any checkboxes on our list.
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