In October 2018, we started our volunteer position for Larimer County Natural Resources (LCNR) at Horsetooth Reservoir, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Our schedule is a rotating 4 days on and 3 days off working every other Monday, and we share responsiblitites with another host couple. We are in charge of 41 sites and cleaning of 3 camper cabins. The campground has several full time rangers and its own maintenance crew. The office/visitor center is open 5 days a week from 9 am - 5 pm during the winter.
My husband and I, both like the position for the fact that it is close to our daughters and only few miles into town if we need anything. We also like that it is slower in the winter and this campground is never full. Most county and state parks only allow 14-day stays in a 30-day period. The down side to that is that it is not a lot for us to do, and we like to stay busy.
A typical week in the winter, we may have 6 RVs, car campers, tent campers and 1 to 3 cabin guests at any given time. On the weekends, it does tend to pick up and add 3 to 5 more usually. So it is not busy at all! We have many projects that we like to do during this slow time; mine include volunteering for Poudre Wilderness Volunteers or PWV, hiking trails and talking with other hikers about Leave No Trace (LNT) concepts. In the RV. I love cooking, baking, cleaning as well as looking up information on the web for remodeling the RV. My husband also volunteers for PWV and being on the web team and advisory board member does keep him quite busy. He likes to do web design, development and programming and spends time teaching himself other programming languages on the computer. His project this winter has been to update our MyRV.Life website.
We also enjoy getting out walking with our two dogs. Within the campground itself, there is approximately a good 5-miles to walk. We have seen an increase in the amount of water in the reservoir. The water was drained during the dry summer months for the local farmers to water crops, causing a significant drop in the reservoir. It makes it interesting each day to see it slowly rise. We do have wildlife in the area which is always amazing to see. Bald eagle, red fox, coyote, cougars, deer, Canadian geese to name a few that have been seen by us or others. We also enjoy the mountainous landscape surrounding the reservoir. Mountains just make me happy!
Today, being February 12, 2019, the temperature reached 52-degree. The snowfall from last week has almost completely melted away and the high winds are drying out the gravel driveway. It does get cold in Colorado, but that is the challenge of winter camping. The abundant sunshine and blue azure skies make up for the cold and occasional snow. Life is good!