RV Boondocking Near Silverton, CO – Maggie Gulch
Last week I wrote about our two week RV boondocking stay on Mineral Creek, three miles west of Silverton, Colorado. After getting run out of there by all the fifth wheelers showing up for the 4th of July weekend, we decamped to another spot about five miles north of town on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, and got through the holiday in fine style. It was a lot livelier than Mineral Creek, so we stayed entertained our entire two-week stay.
First a little geography, and then I'll tell you about the entertainment. The Animas River flows down the valley toward Silverton, and Maggie Gulch is an old mining area off the road that goes north from Silverton, becomes a pretty hairy jeep trail, and eventually rejoins US 550 in Ouray, Colorado. The first few miles of this are navigable by two wheel drive vehicles, so there we were, at 9800 feet up in the San Juan Mountains. This map shows the area- the yellow line is the continental divide. The miners had actually hauled a steam engine and stamp mill up to the Esmerelda Mine at 13,000 feet, and there it sits today. Gold fever is a powerful motivator. All around us on the ground were reminders of the late 1800s mining operations – broken porcelain tableware, milk glass and cobalt glass fragments, and all kinds of strange and primitive machinery.
The first entertainment was the bears. As we set up we were cautioned by nearby campers about the bears. They said there was a smaller one, around 300-400 pounds, and then there was the BIG bear. We saw the smaller one one afternoon, and were visited at night by one or the other of the bears. We slept through it, but Fiona was a little wide-eyed the next morning. Sure enough, there were paw prints all over the cargo carrier, and paw prints on the side of the Roadtrek where they peeked in the windows. It make me grateful that Roadtrek does such a good job of building their units – Class Bs are the hardest of the hard-side campers, and there's not much for a bear to get their claws into.
Next were the dusky grouse, which are HUGE, chicken-sized game birds who come up here in the summer for some reason. Fiona again got motivated to get herself a chicken, but her resolve weakened as she approached and saw that the intended dinner was roughly her size. Her step faltered, and she looked back to me, for suggestions, I suppose.
After Fiona flushed the adult, she started poking around near a rock, and there was a perfectly camouflaged baby grouse chick, frozen in place. That's why the adult was hanging around – she could fly, but the chicks couldn't yet. There were about eight or ten of them. Fiona was put on Roadtrek restriction, happy grouse family was reunited, and they went off into the brush, pecking away.
A few days later, Harry Bawcom, a fellow Roadtrekker who follows my misadventures on the yahoo group, saw that I was in the area, and took me on a jeep ride up the valley to Animas Forks, an old mining town at 11,200 feet, that was pretty much evacuated every winter back when they were mining up here. Some of the old buildings are still standing, and the local preservation folks are doing a good job in this rough climate.
Harry then took me further up the jeep trail all the way to Engineer Pass at 12,800 feet. It's fourteeners as far as the eye can see in every direction from up there. Thanks for the memorable ride, Harry. It makes you realize what you miss staying on the paved roads. At that altitude, there's still snow all over the place in mid-July. The plants are tundra plants – no grasses, because the ground's frozen solid half of the year.
For me, the most amazing thing about our stay there were the wildflowers around our campsite, which were just coming out in early July at that altitude. They are utterly alien to any I am used to – we just started making up names for them. A few like irises were familiar, but most of them were totally new to us. A stroll through the woods was magical discovery at every step. Summer is brief but vigorous up near 10,000 feet, and we really got to see all the flora and fauna close up.
Great place!
Been there and Loved it
I want to get back up there !!!
I want to go.
I saw an RV trucking van yesterday in UT
Go to the Amphitheater Campground in Ouray, CO – perfect!
Is there a guide that lists all the areas where one can boondock? Also what about dumping stations, etc. Thanks!
Jackie Stotler
What does boondocking mean?
Heading up there to my little place in 24 days. By the end of July, there’ll be a little cabin at about 10,700ft….
Pam Farris
Love, love, love the Silverton area!!!
Love Silverton Colorado !! 🙂
my kinda camping…
Sue Anna Copacabana Williams
Beautifucountry
Loved visiting there, loved Colorado. We also took the train which was a thrill!
Now that is real boondocking.
Went there once to ride the train with my wife and 3 small children. Got to Ouray Colorado and a fella with a trailer and two four wheelers was just too excited to get to the mountains and wiped out our RV and sent us limping back to Texas. Never got to ride that train but always wanted to.
Heading to that country in two weeks. We’ve spent many summers in that country. Can’t wait to get back to the high country.
Love taking the train from derango to Silverton.
Looks beautiful.
Kelli Darland, thought you would enjoy reading this story about one of your favorite places.
We sure liked going up there & wish health issues would allow us to return!
We visited this area last Summer…. Amazing place!
I live in Farmington I’ve been all over those mountains it’s beautiful country
Love it, wish I could afford a RV!
That’s awesome
Thanks for sharing. For those interested in seeing the back country but don’t own/have a 4 wheel drive, you can rent them in all the surrounding towns and they give you maps with odometer mileages. It’s not dangerous off roading for the most part with common sense as all the old roads were built for Horse and wagons. Google ” Alpine Loop” for a beautiful back country drive.
Have you discussed composting toilets in any of your blog posts?
no i haven’t. i’m not aware of any RV manufacturer who offers them, even as an option, even in europe where they have gray water only dumps, and cassette toilets to dump in public bathrooms. maybe the space or ventilation requirements somehow make them a bad fit for RVs, or something like that. maybe having them up off the ground changes the temperature they maintain inside, which would affect the bacterial action. since you have to dump your gray water tanks anyway, and dumps here in north america accept both gray and black water, it’s easiest just to have a tank you dump instead of a composting toilet. just guessing, though.
Thanks so much for your answer. The fillup, long hot shower, and refillup was a great out-of-the-box tip. I just thought the shower would have be done at the campsite. But if the shower travels with you, why not take advantage of it during a fillup.
One more question – considering your boondocking lifestyle, why not switch over to a composting toilet (like Nature’s Head)? It seems like a perfect solution – and doesn’t consume the fresh water.
You mentioned this was a 2 week stay. Approximately how many days could you stay at the same spot before finding a dump station?
we could make the 25 gallons of fresh water last about five days. then we’d go into town ( 5 miles), dump, fill up, take long hot showers, dump again, fill up, and head out for another five days.
This is really what I would like to do when I retire
Must be in the summertime!!!!
been there……….NICE!!!!!!!!!
Can’t do it this time of year. July and Aug.
nice
Beautiful area.
Been to Silverton, love it.
Joe Dirt loves Silverton.
Where’s the train???
cela est la vrai vie
Very soon!!!
Do you ever worry about your safety when boondocking alone?
no, i really don’t. look at the crime statistics- almost all the assaults and robberies are in town. you’ll find a lot more respect for people’s property rights and privacy among country folks. the only people who tramp through my campsite usually just drove in from downtown denver.
We visited the area for several days two years ago. Beautiful…
nice
When I was 15 my parents and I rode the Silverton Railroad through Colorado. It was beautiful.
Yall are so lucky to be that close to the mountains, s e texas.we love going to st. Elmo every other year on atvs. 14xers are awesome. We are at 62′ elevation
My parents, three siblings, and our dachshund, Herman stayed in a tent in almost that exact location when I was about 14 (a very very long time ago 1970 -71). Us kids and the dog ran wild during the daytime, loving the freedom. Our last day there, Herman found a skunk, making the trip home to Pueblo, CO extremely unpleasant. A vivid memory of childhood.
We have camp here.
Don’t forget about Lake City just over the mountain, but a long way around.
My dream would be to have about ten acres up in the mountains around Silverton.
I think we took the same trip last year… But we were in a 36 foot motor home towing a tracker.. It was a great trip.. I think we were in Mesa Verde the same time too… Funny… Happy trails… We also blog as we go.. On TravelPod.. This summer will be our 5th cross country trip with our family.. If you are interested you can find us under travel pod and look up evotech and you can see our last 4 month long trips… Love to get other campers views…
We have been here many times, usually camping just up the road in the old townsite of Eureka. A couple of times we were the only camper there. I’m sure that this isn’t possible much anymore. We first started camping here in 1977. We towed our 15′ Serro Scotty Highlander with our CJ5 Jeep. The next year we moved up to a motor home and towed our Jeep.
close to my home in bv co.
Lovely article!