Mt. Shavano BLM

Overview

This was a very pretty BLM area outside of Salida. It’s super close to both Hecla and Stonebridge and only about 10-15 minutes to Walmart. This was our first boondocking adventure and so we wanted to be close to town as well as close to rafting.

Good

We stayed at the end of a cul-de-sac overlooking the mountains towards Gunnison. We had a ton of privacy and beautiful views and we were able to burn before Memorial Day Weekend; after which, there was a fire ban.

Bad

There were a lot of logging trucks coming and going during the weekdays and even on Saturday. Over Memorial Day Weekend it got pretty busy, but nobody was really louder than us. The wind was cranking pretty much all day, every day. It became annoying at the end.

Ugly

The site had a lot of trash in it, including what seem to be poop buckets, a mattress, kitty litter, an automobile seat, and a bunch of other random trash around.

Events of note

The hot water heater in El Pudú crapped out the day we arrived. That was a bummer and we camped the whole time using the JetBoil.