Over half of our long journey from lovely Colorado to winter work in Kentucky is now in the rearview mirror. There are only 700 miles and couple of unknown campsites left to drive and to find. As part of our obligation to fellow full-timers, we must report on three very nice places to park your rig that come with electrical hookups, drinking water and a dump station. Two of the three are well shaded, and two are free.
None are in garden spots, but all are in states that must be crossed to reach the more scenic parts of the world. All are welcome oases in the blaze of August’s heat – you can run your A/C all night, for you will likely need to.
Our trip to Kentucky began in an all-day thunderstorm which moved east with us from Allenspark, CO. The first ten miles were 8% grade, downhill, and the rain was relentless. The weather turned chilly as we crawled through the suburbs of Denver surrounded by traffic that could have been imported from Houston. We drove five hours and landed in an RV park in Stanton, CO. It wasn’t scenic but full hookups are nice now and then, and with Passport America, $17. Kat caught a spectacular rainbow from the door of our ‘Stream as the storm finally passed.
The following day required another long pull, this time to Ellis, Kansas, 40 miles west off I-70 from the boyhood homes of Arlen Specter and Bob Dole (Russell, KS). Ellis has a population of 600 with less decay than most rural villages, a brick-paved Main Street, and a little city park with a narrow gauge train that rides kids around on Saturdays. The little RV park is on a small reservoir, covered by a cottonwood canopy adored by all RV air conditioners. The showers are old but clean, and they’ll entertain you with an endless loop of 7-day weather forecasts, punctuated here and there with “Possible severe thunderstorms with wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph.” Legend has it the Ellis police come through late at night directing visitors to the city tornado shelter when twisters are likely.
Lyons, KS is about 50 miles southwest of Salida, and is our first free full hookup campground. There are perhaps a dozen spots, each with electricity, all set right next to a gem of a baseball field, the home of the Lyons Lions. It’s 350’ to dead center, with shady dugouts and a dark green batter’s eye. Alas, the season ended a few weeks before: no ballgame. There’s a community dump station and a potable water source, plus ample shade. You could stay there for up to two weeks, but ‘Hey, Toto: We are in Kansas.”
El Reno, OK is a westside suburb of OKC with a new Cherokee/Cheyenne casino, The Lucky Star, featuring free full hookups, and just as much shade as a Plains Indian would have expected 150 years ago. They issue new players $10 each in slot tokens, and seniors get another $10 token on Tuesdays. We put our $20 into $1 slots (the payout is better on bigger denominations) and cashed in $15. We then adjourned to the sports bar to see a couple of innings of Braves baseball while savoring Heineken.
It’s a pretty good life, even if you don’t work all summer.
Life on the Blue Highways 
Thanks for sharing this excellent info, Jackson. You’re right, if you cross the country, you have to go through some of these states that might not be first choices as destinations, but good to know there are places to stay for low or NO cost. Nice!
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And they’re nice parks. Just buy your groceries somewhere that has a real store … Ellis has a little IGA with poor selection and New York City prices. Lyons is a little better, but if you’re jonesin’ for mushroom sauce over a polite little filet, bring it.
Jackson
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What does one serve with a rude fillet?
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Chop it fine and feed it to Pancake so it gets eaten more than once.
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Seeing a whole rainbow is rare, let alone capturing it in a photo. Beautiful.
Even though these locales may not be the best, it’s easy to see here that there is a lot of history in them.
For one example, I’d like to know more about that church, and the statue on the hill.
With floods, termites, and tornadoes, however, I would not want to dillydally there. 😉
Another fun, fact-filled post. 🙂
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The church on a rock is St. Malo Retreat outside Estes Park just south of Rocky Mountain NP. It was consecrated as a Catholic church, but is used more often as a place of group meditation, and when they can land the business, they do picture book weddings there. The statue was ordered by an alumnus of Notre Dame U. as a tribute to old Touchdown Jesus (who watches over Fighting Irish home games with both hands held aloft over his head). This sculptor forgot the thing with the hands, and his commission payment soon hit 90-days past status. In time the church convinced the parishioner to pay up. Not sure you can see it, but it’s almost funny that immediately behind the white statue stands a steel or aluminum rod of equal height: a lightning rod!
Jackson
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I read this past last week, as we were driving through Kansas and had just stayed at the Ellis campground ourselves! It was a great little find – so funny to read that you had recently stayed there also.
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Doggone it! Sorry we missed you.
Jackson
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