More Mountain Loop Camping

We snuck way for some camping a week ago. We made reservations at a new campground we hadn’t tried before- River Meadows in Arlington. The photos and description made it look nice, and I found several good reviews. But omigosh, when we arrived, we were so disappointed. The RV camping area was a dirt patch with big mud puddles, abutting a mowed grass field. Absolutely no privacy between campsites, other than a meager planting of rugosa roses to delineate the boundaries. The place was deserted except for one family with a tent at the end, and a group of twenty-something skinhead punk-looking boys set up with three tents in the space next to ours. They were sitting at their picnic table looking aimless and bored, with what was hopefully a toy semiautomatic rifle. I would have taken a picture of this most pathetic campground ever, but I was too crabby.

 

Monte Cristo Ghost Town

While camping last weekend, we hiked to the ghost town of Monte Cristo. It was a gold and silver mining town in the late 1800’s, located way the heck in the middle of nowhere. The mining era only lasted about twenty years and the town has been forsaken mostly ever since. A few small cabins remain. I never figured out for sure if they are from the original settlement, or later additions built for recreation. But they are old, at least.