July 31 - September 4, 2023: Island Lake Campground in Grand Mesa National Forest

 We left the Reverend's Ridge Campground in Golden Gate Canyon State Park for a rent house in Golden, CO on July 31. We spent the week there with our children and their families as well as my sister. I biked up to Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill's Grave and Museum during our stay. I also got a chance to see Denver's Buffalo herd on one of my bike rides on a trail along I-70 https://www.denver.org/listing/buffalo-herd-nature-preserve/4549/. 

One of our family outings was to the Red Rocks Amphitheater. The amphitheater stairs or seats are a local workout attraction so there was a constant flow of people running/walking up and down the stairs. The amphitheater offers a pulse rate monitor at the top of the stairs.

We headed to our daughter's home in Grand Junction on August 6. We stayed there until Labor Day Weekend at which point we planned a group camping experience in the Grand Mesa National Forest. We went up on Thursday to register for a first come first serve dual campsite at Island Lake Campground. Our daughter and her family met us on Saturday morning. Here is the rig at the campground before our daughter arrived.

A buck with the biggest rack I recall seeing visited the campsite next door. I went over to take a picture and was surprised that he seemed very comfortable with me being close by. I got within 10-15 feet of him to take a picture and decided I shouldn't press any closer and have him dart off which he never did.

There are numerous campsites in the area. On my relatively short bike ride, I passed by five others.

Once my daughter's family arrived, fishing was the main activity. Fishing was available on Island Lake as well as Little Gem Reservoir. Here is one of our grandsons fishing at Island Lake.

Unfortunately, we never had fish for dinner although one fish got hooked but got away.

We returned to my daughter's on Labor Day (Sept 4) where we planned to stay until our niece's wedding in Colorado Springs later in the month.