Crystal Creek Ditch

37.440069, -108.233749

Great location for boondocking as long as you don't mind mooing cows for your wakeup call (right outside your bedroom window). Of course, the cows aren't always there, but, we were fortunate enough to have them join us just after we got all set up. Typically, the farmers let them graze for a week to 10 days and then they moooove them along to the next location up the road. All in all, we've had worse neighbors...

Fairly good cell reception and only one or two other campers in the area while we were there. Great views of the adjacent mountains and valley below. This is also right off of the paved section of road, so, really easy access and the short drive back to the site is decent as well. Sites are marked with fire pits. We snagged the spot that is farthest in and there was another site nearby that was much larger that would support at least 2 big rigs. I believe there are about 4 sites total back there on this side of the road.

Just down 561 on the other side of the road there is a much larger area with a good many sites, however, it gets very crowded over there, especially on the weekends with local campers who are there for off roading. The cell reception is also not very good over there.

So, we ended up leaving earlier than we wanted to when we woke up in the morning and smelled smoke. After checking the local news, we found that there was a forest fire that had erupted nearby. We didn't want to take any chances, so, we headed back down the mountain and off to Pagosa Springs. Here's a link to our YouTube video that shows some nice aerial footage and details our adventure if you'd like to check it out: https://youtu.be/K5KW-v5jYls

P.S. Even though someone else had named this "Crystal Creek Ditch", we would not consider it to be a ditch. Not a great name IMO...