Estes Park - National Parks Retreat Campground

Anxious to get the trailer out on its first real camping trip, we took it to the National Parks Retreat Campground in Estes Park. It was early in the season, so we had most of the campground to ourselves. [Note: Since posting this entry, the National Parks Retreat Campground no longer offers camping]

It was only mid march and cold outside at night, so we spent the evenings inside playing board games and eating jiffy pop popcorn. One night we ordered a pizza delivered to our door, which was a fun and novel experience for us in a camper.

Estes Park is right on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park and many wild animals wander through the campground. We saw many herds of elk and deer this weekend.

What a fun little camper this is! It was a great trip, great fun, and we can't wait until the next one.

Making it Fit

Call me cheap, but I hate having to pay a monthly storage fee to have my brand new camper sit outside in the sun, snow, rain, and wind.

Although I knew it was a few inches too tall, I wanted to see if I could get the camper to fit in my garage (7' opening) by taking the wheels off and sliding it in on modified tire skates.

After much measuring and checking, and carefully lowering the trailer onto the skates, I slowly pushed it into the garage with just a fraction of an inch to spare. Once inside, the tires were put back on and the trailer was nice and cozy in its new home. Mission accomplished!

After I got the hang of it, I got to the point where I could move it in or out of the garage in about a half hour or so. I figured it was worth the effort, but, to be perfectly honest, by the end of the season, this exercise got really old.

My First Camper

After many weeks of searching for the right camper, reading countless reviews, posting questions to camping forums, and visiting dealers across the state, I decided that a T@B microlite trailer would be the best match and might even fit in my garage for storage (more on that later). The T@B campers are small, retro-style trailers that can be pulled by small SUVs and many cars, and it was within the published towing capacity for my Jeep Wrangler.

Unable to locate the floorplan/price I wanted at a dealer near me, I found a salesman in Iowa who was happy to order one new. Conveniently, the dealership was located near my parents home, so I placed the order, and a few weeks later I picked it up over the Christmas holiday.

I got lucky, and I was able to tow it back to Colorado between major snowstorms, stopping overnight in a dark, abandoned campground off the interstate in central Nebraska. So, my first night camping was a little spooky, and I learned that running the heater and refrigerator all night long will drain the battery quickly. Otherwise, no major issues.

I made it home fine the next day and found a storage facility off the Boulder turnpike. There it sat until warmer and drier weather prevailed.