Brown’s Grotto

July15th, 2026

On June 24th, I finally decided that my stay along Halfmoon Creek, at 10,000 feet in elevation, had slowly worn me down to the point of exhaustion. My shortness of breath each night meant that I was only averaging about 3 hours sleep per night. I packed up, and moved south, following the flow of the Arkansas River past Buena Vista and half way to the town of Salida. There I found a dispersed, but designated site in rocky hills known as Brown’s Grotto. In fact, it was along the road to Hecla Junction, which was the “take out” location of last year’s white water float trip on the Arkansas.

Being the middle of the week, there were a number of open sites. I chose a pull through location. Many of the sites are short and work better for van or tent camping. To the east and west of my site were cliffs of broken rock, reminding me of Bedrock, from the Flintstones cartoon. As I set up camp, there was a group of 5 Bighorn rams watching me from the about 50 yards away. These sheep moved past my trailer most mornings around sunrise. One day I even woke to the sound of clashing horns as they took turns head butting each other.

This BLM campground was quiet and out of the way. On weekends, the sites were nearly all used, but during the week, emptied out. The only downside was due to my comparison to the higher elevation campgrounds to the north. As this spot is at about 7,800 feet, temperatures are warmer. Usual daytime temperatures were around 84, compared to the 72 degrees of 9-10,000 foot campsites. This meant afternoon temperatures inside the trailer of about 93 degrees. I spent most afternoons running errands into town or sightseeing around the area in order to take advantage of my truck’s air conditioning. The night time temperature was usually about 50. Sleeping was still comfortable, and with the higher air pressure, I was able to start catching up on my sleep.

On the 29th, I started out about 6 a.m. on the drive further down the river and eastward to Cañon City where I had a ticket to ride the Royal Gorge Railroad tourist train. The scenery was outstanding, and the Breakfast Burrito I was served was excellent. Afterwards, I drove north to Dillon to retrieve an orphaned prescription at the Walgreens and then looped back through Leadville on my way back south. I wanted to get a look at the smoke plume from a wildfire that got started the day before near Turquoise Lake. Had I stayed at my campsite on Halfmoon Creek, I would have been forced to evacuate with my friends, as the fire was a threat to the Halfmoon access road.

I stayed at my campsite through the holiday weekend and then on the 9th of July, started the 3.5 hour drive down to Loveland, Colorado and 3 reserved nights at Boyd Lake State Park. The drive across South Park between Buena Vista and Fairplay had awesome early morning scenery, with rolling grassland backed up by the peaks of the Mosquito Range. I was soon back on I-70 and then I-76 with a short stop at the hospital in Lafayette to get pre-ablation blood work done. Finally I completed a loop that was started way back in April by rolling into Boyd Lake State Park. I quickly plugged into the campsite’s electrical outlet so that I could run the air conditioner in the trailer. The temperature was approaching 90. My next 7 days would find me in 90+ afternoon heat at both Boyd Lake and then for the four days after at St. Vrain State Park.

On July 14th, I entered Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette for my second Cardiac Ablation procedure. It went well, heart rate returned to a normal sinus rhythm, hopefully correcting the breathlessness I had been feeling at higher elevations.

Next, back into the mountains…