Ah, the rigors of campground hosting. This must be a picture of Shannon after a hard day’s work dealing with campground issues. I’m sure of it. Or, maybe it’s Shannon getting ready for a hard day’s work. I can’t remember exactly. Or, maybe it was in celebration of her birthday on June 1 or just thinking about her birthday or maybe she just is assuming the retirement pose. Any and all of those work.

Today I turn 70 and it is a damn miserable day. It’s not because I turn 70, but we have had almost non-stop rain since last evening. Campers, instead of enjoying a relaxing time camping, are bailing out early. Rain is predicted for the rest of the day and 50% chance of rain tomorrow. It will not only be a wet one in the old campground tonight but a quiet one. The deer and the bears should be able to roam freely throughout the campground.

There are three campgrounds in the park and each campground has multiple loops. There are close to 300 campsites; 200 are above the dam, and 100 are below the dam. The campsites below the dam are full hookup sites while the sites above the dam have only electricity. There are also tenting sites and 3 yurts. There are 7 host sites in the three campgrounds and 13 volunteer hosts.

We are located in a campground named “Dakota Terrace” and it is fairly close to the lake. It is probably the least popular campground since it is fairly open with little tree cover. We have host responsibilities in two of the three loops of the campground. Since the loops are lower on the hillside, people either go into the first loop higher on the hillside or go on top of the ridge to another campground that is built in a pinyon-juniper forest. In our two loops we have about 49 campsites to attend to.

As mentioned we have 3 yurts in the park. They are located in our campground but are located in the loop that we don’t normally host. However, the host for the loop with the yurts is off Monday and Tuesdays, and we cover for him those two days. That means we clean yurts on those two days if anyone is vacating them.

The park was opened in the 1990’s and was built by the Bureau of Reclamation which still owns the land, the dam, and the lake. The State of Colorado was contracted to manage the recreation. The lake, obviously, is the big draw. There is a large and quite nice swimming beach not too far from our campground, and there is a marina and several boat launches on the lake. Fishing is a big draw but so is water recreation. We have a big ANS group of seasonal and volunteers. ANS is Aquatic Nuisance Species, and every boat is inspected before it can enter the lake.

There is also an awesome overlook built behind the visitor center. It is a hugely popular spot for weddings. Unfortunately, we just heard on the radio that the wedding planned for today was being moved to Ouray. I’m sure the groom may even remember this day 25 years in the future.

Now this is more like it for a true representation of a campground host doing her thing. We have a number of responsibilities as hosts. We greet campers moving into the campground and make sure they have the correct permit slips and are in the correct sites. We sell firewood and ice. We answer questions and remind folks of the rules. At 10:00 each night I lock a cable over the dumpsters to keep bears out. So far it’s working… Our biggest job by far is cleaning campsites when they are vacated. Cleaning consists of picking up litter and trash, shoveling out the fire pits, and cleaning out the charcoal grills. Memorial Day was our biggest day for campers leaving. It was an all day job to get all the sites vacated cleaned out. I was pooped. I went to bed by 9:00 and Memorial Day was when I was still a young guy. I’m not sure how early I’ll go to bed on the Fourth of July and Labor Day when I’m 70 years old.