THREE FALLS AND A BROKEN IPAD…

A Drop from Rifle Falls

Dropping your IPad on the power connector while plugged in is bad, doing this when we’re 300 miles away from the nearest Apple Store is also not so good… but buying Apple Care Plus at the time of purchase guarantees a replacement (even if dropped) for a modest fee, not so bad.

We check the Colorado State Park reservation system and find a spot in Chatfield State Park, close to the Aspen Grove Apple Store in the Denver suburb of Littleton.  Working backwards, we book five days at Rifle Falls State Park and one night back in Ridgway. Then we call the Apple Store and set up an appointment to swap out the IPad.  (This is too much like work… argh!)

A nice pull through
along the creek

After an overnight in Ridgway, we arrive at Rifle Falls State Park.  This is a tiny 13-space campground and is very popular.  When we check in, the campground host tells us that we only got our space because of a cancellation and we probably booked within the hour of cancellation.  WOO HOO Lucky us.

The campsites are along the main park road, so there’s some foot and vehicle traffic during the day but the nights are really quiet. The sites have water and electric. The closest dump station is down the road at Rifle Gap State Park.  It is an easy walk to the falls and hiking trails from our spot, so Dave gets to park it while we’re here.

One of these falls
is not like the others

Rifle Falls is one of the few triple falls in the country and the only one in Colorado but this is not a natural occurrence.   The original falls fell in a single, wide arch over the limestone cliffs.  In 1910 the town of Rifle built a hydroelectric plant, which changed the flow of Rifle Creek into three separate falls. One of which, flows out of a large metal pipe.  So the falls may not be natural; but they are nevertheless, stunningly beautiful, a rainforest oasis in the high desert.

Limestone
Cave

Caves and alcoves dot the limestone cliffs around and behind the falls. There are hiking trails to the top of the falls, with a walkway along the cliff edge over the falls.  A loop off this trail winds across a meadow with artificial fishponds that are stocked and open to fishing. These ponds are part of the Rifle Falls Fish Hatchery.

Trout ready to be planted

There is a trail from the bottom of the falls to the fish hatchery.  We hike to the hatchery from the ponds and return on the Hatchery Trail.  When we get there the hatchery office is locked, so we just walk around and check out all of the trout in the tanks. And read the displays about how the fish are planted: pumped out of trucks, dumped out of planes and back-packed into inaccessible lakes and streams.

View from the Ledge
Behind Rifle Falls

After five days in this park, we’ve pretty much seen it all and hiked every trail. (Some more than once.) Now it’s off to Littleton.  Chatfield State Park is on a high grassy plateau.  Besides being just outside of Denver, the park boasts a 1,450 surface acre lake for fishing and water sports, 26 miles of trails, picnic areas, a balloon & remote control model plane area and horse back riding. The RV campground has full hookups and free WIFI. (No wonder we could only find one spot for a couple of days this time of year!)

We take care of business at the Apple store – New IPad for Chris .  We also visit the nearby Camping World and pick up a few supplies.  Now it’s back to Fruita and start thinking about heading southwest.