Bruce Spruce Ranch Adventure, JUNE 2021
As found on their website: Can You Hear the Mountains Calling? Come and experience the majestic mountain views and charming, rustic log rental cabins available with Wi-Fi. Come and fish our clean ponds chock-full of trout. Ride horses, hike through the beautiful San Juan Mountains, or just relax on a porch swing, enjoying the hum of hummingbirds.
Soak in the breathtaking wonders of nature as the cool breeze and majestic mountain views wash away your worries. Finish your day sitting by the campfire and enjoy the mountain evenings and gorgeous starry skies.
Did It Live Up To The Billing?
So based on our experience staying at Bruce Spruce Ranch, it most definitely lives up to its billing. We arrived here from our time down in the Durango area, having done over a week there checking out National Monuments and Parks. The drive from Durango to Pagosa Springs, Colorado was gorgeous. That is a drive with a lot of eye candy for a person's viewing pleasure. The area of Pagosa Springs draws numerous people with the hot springs, camping as well as the views. Upon our arrival at Bruce Spruce, we were efficiently checked in and taken to our spot to get setup and start enjoying our time here. We had large spruce trees creating shade for us during the day, but still allowing early morning sunlight to strike our campsite.
Laundry Facilities
Cindy fell in love with the laundry facility that the ranch provides for their guests. You sign up for the day you want to wash and when it is your day you take your turn. They have laundry soap and such, which if you use theirs you just let the office know what you used as well as number of loads done, and it is added to your bill. If you like to hang your clothes out, they have clothes lines with clothes pins. All in all very useful and helpful to the guests.
Wildlife
During our stay at the ranch, we were graced with seeing deer, squirrels, fox and a wide variety of birds. Cindy loves humming birds and the Ranch has feeders out around the main office, and laundry area allowing guests to enjoy them without having to do your own feeders.
Fishing At The Ranches Ponds
The Ranch has 3 ponds which they have stocked with Rainbows. They sell a daily license which allow the license holder to catch and keep 3 fish. During our stay, the folks in the site next to us had 2 young boys, which they took advantage of the fishing with. The 2nd evening we were there they went fishing and came back after about an hour elated with their catch. The boys caught 3 fish each, with a rough average around 20 inches. Needless to say, those boys were ecstatic with their fishing experience.
Rivers?
The East and West Fork of the San Juan flow through the area, allowing a person via the roads in the area to access the creeks. With a license from Colorado, you can fish these bodies of water.
Treasure Falls
Treasure Falls lies just East of the Ranch. A person has to go back out to the highway and go East approx. 1.5 miles to the parking area. You can see the falls from the parking area as well as hike into the lower and upper viewing areas. The lower viewing area has a bridge that spans the canyon, from which you can get a great view of the falls as well as the creek flowing through the canyon. The upper viewing area allows you to step out almost level with the falls plunge pool, allowing you to be in the mist cloud from the falling water. Just realize that you will be at higher elevation, which means there is not as much oxygen for your hiking/climbing endeavor.
Cabins Owned By The Ranch
If a person doesn't own a RV or desire to tent camp, the Ranch has numerous cabins that can be rented for staying at and enjoying the ranch. They range in size of a single bed to cabins with multiple beds as well as cooking facilities. One would have to use the public showers, as the cabins do not have bathing facilities. Over all, the cabins are quaint but are in a gorgeous setting. They have the main house, the "Ferris Cabin" which is large enough for a total of 8 couples to stay in it for a larger group camping experience.
Firewood
The Ranch has a large firewood pile from which you can get firewood, which if you split your own was no charge at the time we were there, You could also buy firewood from the ranch if you did not wish to have to split the rounds.
Wolf Creek Pass
Wolf Creek Pass lays just East of the Ranch. There are beautiful vistas as you travel up or down the pass. There is a viewpoint that allows one to look out over the ranch as well as the rest of the canyon that the ranch lies in. Be sure to bring a camera with you to capture memories for the future.
Pagosa Springs
And then there is Pagosa Springs. They have the hot springs there that are great to soak in. Also, there is plenty of lodging in the area for you to take advantage of if you prefer to be in the thick of people rather than being out away from people in nature. There are rafting companies in the area as well as the opportunity for fishing and hiking. Like most of Colorado, there definitely is no shortage of outdoor fun to be had.
Shopping and Groceries
The town of Pagosa Springs has numerous artists that sell their wares, as well as many different dining opportunities. It is only around 18 miles west of the Ranch so it is convenient without having to be in the thick of things. There are grocery stores, convenience stores as well as fuel available in town. Plus, with the hot springs, you can have a good day and night on the town. Colorado has numerous microbreweries and Pagosa Springs has their own grouping of these.
Fellow Campers
We found our fellow campers to be wonderful people. Being originally from the Prescott, AZ area, we were surprised to find a total of 6 other campsites occupied by fellow Prescottonians. We had a great time visiting with them as well as other campers at the Ranch. We had the folks to the East of us with their young boys, which were having what appeared to be a great time.
What Brought Us To The Ranch
I had attended a work function at the ranch back in 2007 and fell in love with it. It is quiet with some of the best eye candy you will ever see in my opinion. The Ranch has reasonable rates, clean, quiet and peaceful. A hard combination to beat.
We Are Fulltime RVer's
We went fulltime in December 2020. We finished selling our sticks n bricks in March 2021 and set out on our adventure to see this wonderful country that we live in. With the purchase of our current trailer, we are able to do this traveling in the lap of luxury. We are looking forward to many years of traveling and seeing our country is all things continue to play fairly with us.
Our Grand Design Imagine, 2970RL
So after a very challenging time of finding models to walk through to see what we thought would fit us, we were able to look at quite a few models at the Quartzsite RV show, We settled on the 2970RL due to the fact that it was the same floorplan as their 5th wheel 1/2 ton model with the caveat of having no inside stairs. If there is one drawback to this over the 5th wheel model, it would be the lack of basement storage. It still gives us the same amount of cargo capacity roughly as the 5ver has, though, making it fit the bill for us. With opposing slides, the interior opens up well and still keeps us in the 30ft length, making it much easier to get into campgrounds with length limits. We tow with a Ram 2500 gasser which has more than enough power to drag this unit around the country. We also have split awnings, which makes things nice for campsite setup.
Next Stop on Our 2021 Adventures
After enjoying ourselves at Bruce Spruce, we found ourselves having used up our days that we reserved here, and needing to be on our way to the next stop on our 2021 full-time rving adventures. So we broke camp, hooked up to the trailer and pointed ourselves East, headed for "The Great Sand Dunes National Park". Look forward to sharing the next leg of our journey with you.
For more details about our adventures click on the links at the top of the page.