Workamping in Buena Vistal

We had pulled into the Buena Vista Colorado KOA campground and were immediately greeted by the owners Tommy and Sarah Martin. After a brief visit they showed us our assigned site and we began the task of setting up our home for the season.

The first order of business was to decide which direction we would set the trailer. This was actually a no brainier for me. Pointed east we have a beautiful view of the mountains out our back window. It was like looking at a huge mural painting on the back wall. As we learned later there were three peaks we could see from our site. To our left was Mt. Anterio. In the middle was the beginning of the Collegiate Mountain range with the most prominent Mt. Princeton. Too the right of Princeton is Mt Yale.

The picture is of Mt Princeton and what I would look at every day from my living room chair. Snow covered much of the mountain peaks when we arrived. Each day the line of snow melted away and crept up towards the top. In some areas it refused to give up its hold on the mountain and remained the entire summer.

As I had my morning coffee I would watch the many moods of the mountains from late spring, through the summer, and into fall. Each day brought a renewed appreciation for the majesty that lay out my back window.

We were glad to be here and anxious to begin working in our new jobs. But, it was not be. The owners insisted that we take the next three days to become acclimated to the 8,000-foot altitude. I felt great, why should I need to get acclimated?

With the time we decided to explore the area. I don’t think this is what they meant to be acclimated but, what were we to do? First we drove into the town of Buena Vista. The KOA campground may be called Buena Vista KOA but it actually outside of the town and located in Johnson Village.

A right out of the campground took us past two River Rafting companies over the Arkansas River through Johnson Village to highway 24/285. Buena is a small town and every direction revolves around the one stoplight in the center of town. The town hosts a local fly fishing shop, one grocery store, and one drug store.

We found several liquor stores so I set about to sample as many of the local micro-brewed beer that I could. No more of that mass-produced stuff for me. There is also a diverse assortment or restaurants, and one bar. A right turn at the light took us into the older part of town. Within five blocks we passed the locals favorite restaurants. It has no menu because you are offered only one meal. You have a choice of a salad with the house dressing, a Filet Mignon with a baked potato and bread. On Friday and Saturday is Prime Rib. There is a bistro with outside seating, the only bakery, and several sporting stores. It was a very typical small town main street. The road ended at a riverside park.

For a small town this park rivaled any that I have found. There is a baseball and soccer field that is part of the local school system. The park has a picnic area that is immaculate, as were the restrooms. A path led from the park down to the Arkansas River that is used for launching rafts and kayaks on the river. A bridge over the river is the head of the Barbara Whipple trail.

Going straight at the stoplight led us past more restaurants, liquor stores, sporting goods stores, and several jeep or ATV rental shops. There are three banks and more Realtors that should be necessary. Very tourist oriented to be sure. The road out of town follows the Arkansas River up to Leadville.

A left at the light took us out of town towards Cottonwood Pass. The pass itself was closed because of snow and would not open for another two months. We found Cottonwood Lake, as well as the Cottonwood Hot Springs and spa. There are several trailheads up this road.

Over the season we explored the countryside in our jeep Mini Me. I was definitely glad I had decided to bring the jeep along with us. There are a lot of the Colorado Mountains and forests to see in this area. That was a large part of my decision to embrace this new career in this area.

However, it is now time to get to work. As we were the first workampers to arrive we were the first to begin to get the campground ready for the season with the owners. In all there was to be five workamping couples to help run the campground.

Within the first weeks the other workers started arriving. I know the owners had gone to great lengths to make sure that everyone coming to work would be physically capable of handling the work at this altitude. However, within two weeks two of the couples were forced to leave. The 8,000-foot altitude and the stress of any physical work were a little too much for them. I guess the excitement of living in this picturesque surrounding was too inticing for them.

To start the campground season we set about opening the water supply. Winter had been harder than usual here. Within a weeks time I had become very proficient at repairing water leaks that seem to grow from the ground like so many weeds. These leaks could be found anywhere from 6 inches to five feet down. On the first day Tommy and I ended by digging a five-foot hole just to replace a water valve. He later confessed to me that he was surprised I didn’t leave that next morning after that hole.

As I had expected the work involved very basic electrical and plumbing repairs. Painting and some heavy cleaning was needed to get the campground looking nice. During the season there were many of those basic home maintenance jobs like replacing screens, or maintaining the one and only swamp cooler that kept us busy. Other jobs included maintaining the utilities, cleaning the fire pits and raking the individual sites.

The mule deer are very prolific around here leaving their droppings everywhere. We kind of ignored them during the cleaning. As far as I know no one complained about them since they are considered part of the camping experience.

Tommy has an old John Deere tractor with a box blade to smooth the sites and roads. The tractor is used from everything from hauling firewood to picking up trash. A few of us loved to use it and could invent the wildest excuses to jump on. This meant it was used a lot so there were some mechanical problems. When I drove around on it I whistled the tune to "Green Acres" thanks to my cousin Sugar reminding me of the show.

As the campers started arriving for the season we newbie’s learned about the many quirks of the traveling vacationing camper that arrive from a day on the road. People would pull into the campground and not pay attention to any of the signs or where to park. They barreled in just wanting to get in their site and relax. After a day at the camp most became totally different individuals. Many were even quite enjoyable to be around.

Buena Vista KOA is considered a "Destination Campground." This means that most of the campers came here to stay several days for some sort of activity. The exception was the bike riders. I was amazed at these hardy souls, all lean and fit looking in their spandex, peddling their bikes over mountain roads just to pass through this area. Some of these passes are well over 12,000 feet.

Others came to hike the trails in the wilderness area and of course to climb or summit a 14er. A few came to fish the Arkansas and South Platte rivers. Both are famous for their Brown Trout and caddis fly hatches. I’ll talk more about the mountains and fishing in the next installment. Of coarse some people came just to be there.

Visiting with this diverse group became one of my most enjoyable experiences of this new life. Campers came from all walks of life and from all parts of the world. A large percentage of the campers were of course from Colorado, followed by Texas. I’m not sure why the Texans would want to leave their state that they seem to brag so much about but these are the facts as I saw them.

People would come from Europe just to ride their bikes in the mountains, or to see the Rockies, and just to be in the American West. I had many enjoyable discussions with some of these guests. I have talk about humming birds with a lady from Amsterdam. I talked with a gentleman from Austria about the Rock Crawler jeeps that were putting on a show out our back door. I drank beer with a grandmother Berlin who was traveling with her grandson. I learned that people from England don’t like Root Beer because it reminds them of some sort of medicine. We had dinner with a couple from Nova Scotia that invited us to their little home next summer. I soon came to realize that many of these foreigners looked at us as experts on all things about the Rockies and the West. For me this led to all sorts of conversations that allowed me to embellish the facts perhaps just a little bit.

Tommy and Sarah had contracted with a company from Tucson to provide horse rides. They arrived with ten horses for the season along with the wrangler Kerry. Kerry is one of those unique individuals with a southern drawl that talked constantly has he led groups out the gates. He would still be talking as they returned. You could often hear him long before he topped over the ridge leading back to the corrals. The girls just loved him and his dog.

The days rolled on as more and more campers arrived. With Memorial Day the first holiday of the season it was very busy but it did not indicate how the summer would go. The season started out slowly. By the middle of June it was a steady stream of trailers and campers leaving in the mornings only to be replaced by more in the afternoon. Cabins and sites had to be cleaned and readied for the next visitor. Wood had to be stacked for the fires, and the restrooms needed constant vigilance.

Fourth of July weekend was the busiest time with all of the sites filled for four days. Many of our guest campers came from Denver area to play with their quads and 4 wheelers. Several extra events were planned for the holiday with all of the workampers in charge of some event.
Some of the workampers were loaded into our little horse drawn wagon and entered into the Buena Vista town parade.

Tommy organized a flag ceremony to kick off the evening activities. He had the wrangler ride up with a flag draped over a rider less horse to honor those who have given their all for the freedom we were celebrating. He then asked all of the veterans to stand up to tell the crowed where they had served. It was an emotional time for all.
Other events included a nice Smoked Brisket dinner, and an Ice Cream Social. A team of horses were hitched to the wagon for hay rides. The kids had face painting an arts and crafts booth, sack races, and bingo. There was even a visit from Mark Twain who gave a little talk around the campfire that evening. At the end of the day we were all tired but everyone had a great time. That evening we walked up to some rocks at the edge of the campground to watch the fireworks in town and eat popcorn.

Even if we did not have a full campground every day the pace was very hectic through July and August. It was all we could do just to get the sites ready for the next visitors. Repairs became patches until we could get to them later in the season. We were working Thursdays through Sundays and were really tired by Monday. Our days off became time to recover. The owners called this the "Storming Season."

It started to slow down near the middle of September. We still had Labor Day to get through since this holiday marks the official end of the summer season. Once again the campground was filled for the weekend. Our holiday activities were planned again similar to the Fourths. We served the Root Beer Floats were getting good at selling them.

The Brisket dinner was served along with the ice cream social. The hay ride wagon was brought out again along with Mark Twain. The children activities were similar to the Fourth of July events.

I was off that Monday and enjoyed sitting outside waving to everyone leaving knowing they were going back to work and school. I also knew that others had to clean up after them. Our work was slowing down and I could get back to relaxing and enjoying the area.

We had a staff meeting with the owners after Labor Day and the end of the season was outlined. They had decided that they did not have the funds for many of the projects they had planned for the end of the year. It was even decided that they would let some of the staff leave early.

At the beginning of the season we had started to paint the office/store building. We now had time to finish that small task. There were two projects planned to finish the season. The biggest was to replace the roof over the office/store and garage. The A frame was contracted out to have a professional replace its roof. We were given the task of replacing the garage roof. The other was to pressure was the outsides of all of the cabins. Some of the cabins needed new curtains and the men’s restrooms had a nice border painted on the walls.

I was working on the roof with another worker and we were setting the last piece of sheeting when I had the one and only accident. Without going into details the tip of my middle finger was cut and needed stitches. A quick trip to the ER and my outside duties were done for the season.
This gave me time to work on my skills in the office on their KOA Kampsight system. Within half a day I was bored silly. It was good that we only had a week left here.

We finished the week on Friday and began the task of packing up our home. We have our winter job lined up and they are expecting us.

The work here had been all that I had expected. We both met many interesting people from all over the world. We made friends with the other workampers and many of the local residents. Sometimes the work was hard but rewarding. We were in the great outdoors most of the time helping people enjoy their camping experiences. The campers who came here were here to have an enjoyable relaxing time so everyone was in good spirits. Sure we had the occasional rude person, but they were soon gone from here never to be heard from again.

What can I say? For our first season we had a great time never regretting our decision to become full time Workampers.

In my next Blog I will talk more about what we did and where we went on our days off in the Rockies.

For those who are interested here is the link to the Buena Vista KOA where we worked. The photo gallery is old and I am told they will be updating it during their long cold winter.

http://www.buenavistakoa.com