I moved to Colorado in October of 2024, and during the winter I had plenty of riding and exploring opportunities, just doing day rides in the plethora of available public land nearby. But camping season comes early here, and so I decided to go over to the Paradox Valley and visit the Dolores River Canyon in Bedrock for a couple of nights.
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| Dolores River Canyon |
Although I'm brand new to Colorado, I'm a researcher, and a hiker and so just a few weeks earlier, I had driven out to this area to check it out, and do a hike. The transmission in my truck had to be rebuilt and I was informed that I should break it in by driving it between 400 and 500 miles, before towing with it again. So this was one of the road trips I did during that time. I was happy to discover a free BLM campground there that I could return to with with my horse.
But since there is only one trail from that campground I wanted to do a couple other rides in the area. The first one I did was on EE22 Rd. There is a kiosk there with a map, and so I set off along the road beneath Sawtooth Ridge. There is quite a bit of red rock along the way and views of the nearby La Sal Mountains in Utah, and also over to Lone Cone outside of Norwood.
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| Parking on EE22 Rd. off of Hwy 90. |
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| Lots of red rock at the beginning of the ride. |
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| Views over towards Utah and the La Sal Mts. |
There was another horse trailer parked in the area and when I eventually got to a side road all the hoofprints went that way, so I figured they were probably riding there for a reason, and it might be worth checking it out. Eventually I came across the three ladies who said they had never run into anyone else on a horse out there before.
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| Another map at the side road junction. |
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| Lone Cone, over near Norwood, Colorado. |
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| Up on Sawtooth Ridge. |
Once up on the ridge, in an open area, there are some designated dispersed camping spots, you could only reach with a 4x4, near some rock formations and more views over to the Uncompahgre Plateau. I live directly on the other side of this plateau which has 1.5 million acres for me to explore in the summer.
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| Looking at the Uncompahgre Plateau. |
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| Snack break. |
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| A rock formation, near one of the camping spots. |
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| Looking at Davis Mesa. |
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| The La Sal Mts. |
I rode for about four hours and then drove the 12 or so more miles over to the "town" of Bedrock. It's really not a town, but there is a post office and the Bedrock Store, which is currently closed and up for sale.
Bedrock is a free BLM campground for anyone, including horse people. There are four covered picnic tables with BBQ grills, and lots of space to park or put up corrals. The Dolores River is right next to camp, but it has steep banks and is not easy to get water out of, or a horse down to it. There are no other amenities, and no bathroom. In the summer rafters use this area, and apparently they bring in porta potties during that time. There is no cell service at the camp or on the trail.
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| Bedrock Campground. |
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| Is it just me, or do these look like bare feet. |
I had the place to myself the first night and since the day time temps were in the mid 70's the evenings were mild with lots of stars to see after dark.
In the morning, a lady drove in and went for a hike with her dog and I saw her later on the trail. But generally this trail does not get much in the way of traffic. It's also a wilderness study area and so no motorized vehicles or bikes are allowed into the canyon.
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| My pony decided this would make a nice horse shelter. |
The Dolores River Canyon Trail is 7 miles round trip. I was hoping I could cross the creek and continue on, but that does not seem to be a possibility. What it lacks in length, it makes up for in beauty. There are a few petroglyphs along the way and although it's not a hard trail, it has one section that has eroded a lot, so your horse has to shimmy across that.
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| Entering the wilderness study area. |
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| Around this corner the trail is eroded. |
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| On the Dolores Canyon Trail. |
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| Petroglyphs. |
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| Some more of those feet! |
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| This is where the trail ends. La Sal Creek is hidden in the brush. |
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| An overhang above the river. |
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| One section has a cactus garden. |
There are a couple of places you can get down to the river, and one spot where I rode out onto a small island. There is a desalination plant or, "desalination station" as I like to call it, close to the campground, because they are trying to get rid of the salt in the area, so it does not end up in the water. My horse sampled it and found it drinkable.
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| On a small island in the Dolores River. |
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| Near the petroglyphs. |
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| The Dolores River. |
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| The "desalination station". |
When I arrived back at camp there was a guy named Al, and his dog, camped there for the night, he said he has been visiting the area twice a year for many years.
After the sun went down, my pony plopped herself down for a nap next to me. Sometimes it's like having a horse sized dog!
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| After dinner nap. |
In the morning I packed up, said goodbye to Al, and drove back to an area on the way home that looked interesting to explore. There is so much public land, that it's just a matter of finding a good spot to pull over and then start following dirt roads to see where they go. My first attempt riding up towards the hills didn't get me anywhere, so I turned back and started riding cross country following well used cow trails. Good thing I did, because there are some old falling down fence lines I would have had to try to find a way through, but the fences had been cut so the cows could wander freely.
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| Heading towards the mountains. |
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| Found a shed! |
At one point I dropped down into a little gully and found the cows water source, and shortly after that I found a rock shelter/hideout of sorts. Then I skirted a large fenced in area that had signage that said "Danger, Radioactive Materials". It's out in the middle of nowhere, so not sure if it's from uranium mining or if there is some other story behind that.
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| Found the cows drinking water. |
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| The hideout. |
I had to go back the same way, there was no option to do a loop, but I had found an antler shed earlier, and I had left it in a sage bush, so I retrieved it on my return, and my horse was happy to get a second drink from the gully.
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| Looking at the Uncompahgre Plateau. |
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| Looking over to where I parked, just off of Hwy 90. |
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| On the way back. |
That concludes my first camping trip in Colorado. So many places to explore!
