First Night: Comanche Grasslands Ranger Station

Getting across the Colorado state line took longer than expected due to the heavy traffic leaving Dallas and numerous stops for gas, food and supplies. My goal was to get to Springfield, Colorado before stopping for the night to sleep. That was a stretch, but I finally pulled into Springfield just after 1 AM..

My plan was to head west from Springfield toward Kim and continue on to Trinidad. This is a new route for me, so I didn't know where I'd be able to park for the night. I decided to pull over at a truck stop at the intersection of US-287 and US-160. Getting to the truck stop required looping around on a frontage road and while doing this I noticed the Comanche Grasslands Ranger Station.

I'd never heard of the Comanche Grasslands and wasn't expecting to see a range station. A couple of 18-wheelers were parked along the frontage road between the ranger station and the trucks stop, so I decided that parking across from the ranger station would be better than a truck stop parking lot.

I rearranged the back into a configuration that worked for sleeping. I laid awake for about an hour appreciating how comfortable it was and how good it felt to have my legs stretched completely straight. My reasons for buying Ellie was to have the ECamper conversion, but in the meantime this arrangement would workout fine.

In the morning I woke up early, feeling awesome and well-rested. After rearranging all my things back into a driving configuration, I was ready for the morning drive across southern Colorado and into the mountains.