Today was a travel day so we got up late, prepared in a very leisurely manner and departed Goldfields RV Park in Colorado Springs and took off for a change of scenery. We drove east on US-24 to southbound I-25 to CO-115 south through some really gorgeous terrain. We merged onto US-50 westbound and, after about 10 miles arrived in Canon City, CO. As we passed through town, we noted there was a Chinese restaurant with the name of “Fu-King” which we will certainly return to in order to check out if their food is as funny as their name.
We continued through town past a myriad of Federal, state and local prison facilities and started up a pretty steep incline to an area called Royal Gorge where we turned south on County Road 3A and into our destination, Starlite Classic Campground. Some earnest, but small-minded, individuals might be scared away by the initial appearance of this treasure. Those expecting an outdoor, jungle-like park will certainly be disappointed because this little oasis is perched at about 6,000′ and those kinds of parks just don’t exist here.
Those of us that think like me (and I am always right, some of the time) and blindly charge ahead will be rewarded with a stay in a old-fashioned park, complete with vintage trailers and automobiles that have been restored by the operator of the park. Those who neglected to bring their own trailer are in luck, as well, because several of the restored vintage trailers are available for rent.
The owners, Larry and Sylvia, have introduced to me what should be SOP for RV parks. Instead of large scenic ponds, marginal quality restrooms and all the sales offices inside nifty recently-built rustic buildings infesting the park, these folks have chosen to provide a big porch with numerous chairs and a free juke box during pot-luck happy hour or maybe two hours. This excellent and enriching ritual seems to kick off at about 4:00 PM. Good conversation with locals or travelers is available on the porch and right behind the porch is the office and store.
The store has some objects that I am not familiar with like an electric Jiffy-Pop hotplate that even provides the required pan shaking, a phone / singing figure of an Elvis with great thrusting hips and games of Trailer Park Wars, including bonus packs. The owners have embarked on a mission to revitalize a dead weed lot and turn it into a unique park with excellent service, ample RV site size, fully-functioning water, electrical and sewer systems complemented by a pool, a currently evolving gorilla mini-golf course and big, squeaky-clean restrooms. The easily frightened will need to cowboy up to come here but once they get used to the place, their personality defects will probably go away.
Ohhh! I stupidly forgot! The view from the happy hour venue / porch is absolutely stunning with tip-top views of the Sangre de Christ mountains on the horizon, the top and part of the deck of the Royal Gorge Bridge accenting the foreground and everything else in between looking very spiffy in the changing afternoon light. The porch is available for guest use I imagine 24 hours a day as long as you pipe down when folks sleep. Staff is onsite 24/7. We spoke with Sylvia when we checked in and she got us squared away with good answers about stuff to do and good places to eat before making sure to tell us we were cordially invited to the evening get-together. We went. It was great. Nobody got hurt and they had dogs. This is my kind of place.