Salli’s journal recollections day-by-day-ish of our camping trip travelling from Georgia to Colorado – Utah. (Tay has officially opted out of journaling at this point)

Anyone still reading these? Comment below if you think I should keep posting, I still have a whole month’s worth of adventures to share!

October 26th – November 1st, 2025

Silverton would become our next stop after driving up 550 from our previous campsite. The views along the highway were next level beautiful, making us feel as though we’d been transported to somewhere foreign, like the Swiss Alps. I was glad for the little bit of road work happening along the way, forcing folks to drive slower so that we could both take in the views, and feel a touch safer as the hairpin turns along the steep cliffs will absolutely make you pucker.

We went ahead and fueled up at the Whistle Stop gas station on the edge of town, grabbed a gallon of milk at their small grocery store, then went to scout out a potential campsite just past the city since it was early on in the day. We then returned back into town to visit a handful of great small business shops, and to grab supper in an infamous old west restaurant, The Lacey Rose Saloon. There’s some fun legendary claims of outlaws frequenting the spot, and the atmosphere was top notch. We’d arrived a bit too early for their supper menu, so we opted for a burger, and of course a crispy Coors Banquet.. (When in Rome?..)

With our bellies full, we went in search of another option to park our home for the night. Anvil Campground was where we landed.

The campsite was nestled beside a main dirt road in a mountain valley alongside Mineral creek. We spent our time here wandering alongside the beautiful frosty creek and appreciating the quiet cold calm having the place all to ourselves. The sounds of the creek were vast enough that we could hear the rushing waters from inside the camper, which was fantastic in lulling ourselves to sleep each night we stayed.

It’d been a while since we filled our fresh water tank, and we’d started to run low enough that we’d either have to move on to the next spot, or stay a bit longer and test out our portable water pump that hadn’t been utilized yet. This would be the perfect place to try it out with the crisp clean flowing water that was just feet from our camper. The system worked perfectly, although we had to take a battery charge break in between for the pump. We have an in-line filtration system to take care of anything undesirable in the water. We also have a gallon counter to show us how much has passed through between filter swaps, which we did right before leaving home a month and a half ago. We realized after doing this fill that we’d only used about 750 gallons the whole trip without either of us skipping our daily showers.

After passing by the hot spring on our way up 550, we decided to return back down to test out another local spot. We pointed ourselves back towards Durango to the popular springs, which conveniently had a RV park right across the street. This campground was the most expensive night we paid for on the entire trip at $71 for the night. Thankfully they had laundry, so we went ahead and took care of the 3 full loads of clothes ($7 per load) then put on our swimsuits to head across the road to test the waters at Durango Hot Springs. For the two of us, we paid $78 for essentially the evening to soak in the natural mineral water pools. It was a new experience for us and we didn’t really know what to expect, but overall we had a great experience and enjoyed our time relaxing in the warm water while the night air was crisp and cool. 

The next morning we got ready and went into Durango to get a full load of groceries, then made our way towards Pagosa Springs. We searched for a good while along Turkey Springs road where dispersed camping was scattered throughout the main and many side roads. The area was quite dry and incredibly dusty, so we made an attempt to get back into the woods a bit. The area seemed to be teeming with lots of public land hunters, but we managed to find a quiet spot to settle in for the next couple nights. We also noticed that the trees here were pretty damaged, possibly by a recent fire or something, so that was another small obstacle to be mindful of when parking the camper.