The Pearl Lake State Park History Adventure: Day One from Steamboat Lake to Savery, WY and back

Dear Isaac, Maia, and Virtual Wanderers,

In July of 2022, my pups and I embarked (so to speak) on an adventure to Pearl Lake State Park which is named for my grandma, Pearl Hartt. It was a quick trip – 1 day up from Montrose (it’s a hike for a car), 2 days camping at Steamboat Lake State Park, and 1 day back to Montrose.

It is notable that this is my first adventure (other than regular camping trips) since I retired the month before. One would think I would go for a week or more with so much free time. Except, I have DIY projects to get my house back into shape and daylilies at peak bloom. I have done it in 3 days, but really it should be a minimum of 5 because of the long travel days.

We drove up 50 to I-70 to 13 to 40 to Grandma’s road. I remember when Grandma’s road was mostly dirt and we stopped at the soda fountain in Steamboat while mom called grandma to see if we needed to bring anything. Now, there is a lot more traffic that I ever dreamed and it is paved. We didn’t get there until late afternoon and it turned out to be a walk-in site, which I try to avoid with 3 dogs to tow along. Anyway – camp got set up and I treated myself to dinner in Hahns Peak Village.

The first day, I wanted to re-trace granddad’s footsteps up through sheep country to Savery, Wyoming. We started mid-morning and from Columbine, we took the road to Hog Park Reservoir. The video below shows the trip – our first stop was the Columbine Store, which is before out route started. Then, we took Forest Service 550 to Hog Park, with a stop in Red Park. We also drove through Whisky Park. All these places were where my granddad’s sheep company – Cow Creek and Pioneer – ran sheep during and after the CO-WY range wars. I like to imagine what it was like in his days during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

From Hog Park, we continued of Forest Road 550. I think this is my first time going much beyond Hog Park on this road. I should have looked at the map more closely, but the drive was so scenic that I just kept going. We eventually caught WY highway 70 and dropped down out of the Medicine Bow Forest into Savery. I was going to stop at the museum there (I am now on the Friends of the Little Snake River BOD), but the trip took longer than expected and I was worried about time.

Once at Savery, we caught Route County 129 back to Steamboat Lake. This road is much more familiar to me (and shorter). I took photos of the road every few miles because the landscape changes pretty drastically during those miles. I put my photos in correct order in the video vlog. Stay tuned for our day two post from Pearl Lake State Park, July 2022.