Bassam Guard Station, Colorado.

The scenery around Bassam Guard Station in central Colorado includes rolling grasslands, rocky hillsides, pine forests and towering peaks. The Arkansas river and the town of Buena Vista are nearby.

 

Bassam Guard Station is a 14 x 16 log cabin built around 1911 and is available for the public to rent for $50 a night from www.recreation.gov.

The cabin is furnished with only one bed but there's plenty of open floorspace to set up camp cots and mattresses for others to sleep inside. The public might be better served if a couple of traditional Forest Service bunkbeds were installed here instead.

 

The cabin is equipped for cooking inside on a propane stove and a wood burning, pot bellied stove is available to provide heat. There's a table and chairs and battery operated lamps also for dining inside. 

Well water is available from a hand-pump located outside along with a picnic table and a firepit.

Firewood is not provided and there's little to be found around the cabin so its best to bring your own. 

A well built and equipped vault toilet is located behind the cabin, the path to which is lit at night by little solar lanterns in the ground. 

The nearby Arkansas River and the town of Buena Vista caters to river rafters and is a popular destination during the tourist season. 

The Arkansas River also draws many anglers to the area where public land and fishing access is plentiful.  

Hiking up the hill behind Bassam Guard Station at sunset can be rewarding.

 

Rustic Dawson Cabin a Great Great Place to Stay and Play in Southern Colorado

Dawson cabin was recently rehabilitated and features a wood stove and picnic table inside. Visitors need to bring water, lanterns, bedding to enjoy their stay.

The $50 a night cabin has a clean, well lit outhouse and a picnic table, fire-pit and a level tent site behind it. Visit www.recreation.gov  to reserve for your next vacation.

The cabin floor is bare concrete and requires an insulated sleeping pad or mattress to provide comfort, warmth and a decent night's sleep. This air mattress would have worked better with a couple of closed cell foam pads spread out beneath it.

Wildlife visit the cabin too.

Dawson cabin is just 20 miles north of Buena Vista, Colo. near the historic mining town of Winfield in the San Isabel National Forest.

Winfield's one room school house where according to the pamphlet in the window working conditions for female school teachers were draconian and required them to avoid almost all contact with men.

The nearby Arkansas river provides plenty of public access and stunning scenery. 

The Arkansas river provides plenty of good fishing including feisty, resident brown trout that readily take a well-placed fly. Photo by Bill Diven.

Nearby Clear Creek Reservoir also provided good fishing with a Pistol Pete beneath a bubble producing plenty of strikes. For more information about the fishery visit the Colorado Parks and Wildlife  website. Photo by Bill Diven.

Neighboring Buena Vista offers plenty of services including a supermarket, fly shop, restaurants and free wi-fi at the community center. For more information about Buena Vista and outdoor recreation opportunities in the area visit www.buenavistacolorado.org.

Colorado brook trout.

Adobe Belle Resort at Conchas Lake a Great Escape

The Adobe Belle Resort offers spacious cottages with all the amenities on the shore of Conchas Lake, one of the state's best bass and walleye fisheries.

Cottages include big screen, high definition televisions powered by DIRECTV with local Albuquerque stations included. Cell phone and internet service is also available. 

All cottages feature two bedrooms equipped with new furnishings. 

Beds are new and comfortable.

The kitchens are well equipped and each unit has a large propane barbecue grill outside on the patio.

Bathrooms are clean and spacious with plenty of hot water and quality toiletries provided.

The view of Conchas Dam built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression can be spectacular as the sun sets. Read more about the history of dam and the cottages at http://karlfmoffatt.blogspot.com/2011/07/cottages-at-conchas-lake-make-for.html

Wildlife viewing opportunities are excellent as deer, turkey, osprey, tarantulas, turtles, various waterfowl and other critters can be found on the grounds of the Adobe Belle Resort and surrounding U.S. Army Corps park.

Sightseeing viewing is enhanced by thoughtful amenities such as these stout rocking chairs found on the screened porch of unit 400 West.

Contact the Adobe Belle Resort managers Machell and Gregg Adair at http://www.conchaslakeadobebelleresort.com/ for more information abouot renting a historic cottage at Conchas Lake - the state's top bass and walleye fishery!

Upper Crossing Guard Station - A Great Southern Colorado Get Away!

Upper Crossing Guard Station outside Saguache, Colo. is available for rent year round and offers great accommodations in a rustic, rural setting. See www.recreation.gov for more info.

The cabin has a good propane heater as well as a wood stove in the fireplace. Electric lighting, running water and a shower in the bathroom make a stay here downright comfortable.  

The kitchen features a good sized refrigerator, electric stove, a microwave oven and a coffee maker. Just add groceries and enjoy! 

The cabin has two bedrooms with a couple of bunk-beds in back room and a single bunk-bed in the front room. The futon mattresses on these beds are always a little too thin so we bring self-inflating camping mattresses to add for a better night's sleep.  

Leave your cell phone, radio and laptop at home, there's no signals to operate any of them out here. Consider bringing alternatives such as newspapers, magazines and books instead.   

Sheep Creek runs through the property and is chock full of trout eager to take a fly.

This is cattle country so it's best to watch your back while beating the bushes.

Nearby Dome Reservoirs offer stocked rainbow, brown, brook and Snake River cutthroat trout in a remarkably scenic setting. 

Back at the cabin life is good just hanging out on the front porch.

The backyard offers spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

Western sunsets replace the nightly news.

And breakfasts are always better out out here.

Jackson Guard Station Makes for Stunning Fall Vacation in Southern Colorado

The US Forest Service's Jackson Guard Station rental cabin at Silver Jack Reservoir in the National Forest between Gunnison and Montrose in early October 2014.  

Nearby Silver Jack Reservoir.

The cabin at Jackson Guard Station features a wood stove and propane powered refrigerator, stove and a single light. Visitors need to bring water, supplemental lighting and bedding.   

A trail behind the cabin leads into the woods at the base of nearby cliffs.

The cabin's kitchen is well equipped and  visitors will need to turn on the gas behind the stove to fire it up along with the fridge and light. Visitors are urged to bring several additional  battery powered lanterns, flashlights and head beams to help illuminate the fairly dark interior of the cabin.

The local scenery around the cabin prompts frequent hikes. 

The cabin features two bedrooms with bunk beds in the rear room and two stand alone units in the front. An inflatable camping mat laid atop the mattress improved its comfort considerably.  

The US Forest Service's nearby Silver Jack campground provides access to water and even more incredible scenery. 

The outhouse is located behind the cabin as is a well stocked wood shed and another building awaiting restoration.

Nearby Rowdy Lake offered more great scenery and the possibility of of some good fishing.

Visitors to the cabin will find plenty to do in the area including a highly recommended visit to Black Canyon  and a drive down to the river. 

Cooking while staying at the cabin was made all that much easier due to the presence of refrigerator and stove. Visitors will need to bring plenty of additional battery powered lighting to thoroughly enjoy evenings inside the fairly dark cabin.

As expected during fall in the mountains of southern Colorado snow and rain can roll in without a moment's notice.

There was plenty of firewood on the cabin's porch to keep the wood stove fed but after a few days it ran out requiring replenishment from the wood shed so there'd be plenty for the next guests. Photo by Wren Propp.   

Jackson Guard Station provided solitude, recreation and scenery and is highly recommended for those to seeking to recharge their batteries in a very comfortable setting. 

Heading home through Gunnison's requires a stop at the W Cafe on Main St. where a great breakfast  can be had including corned beef hash and eggs with crispy hash browns smothered in a great green chile sauce. The stuffed hash browns feature sautéed diced ham, green & red peppers and onions served over hash browns with cheddar cheese. This is an old school diner where they do it right and it's worth every penny spent.

Back in New Mexico where a classics like this was seen at the Mesa Diner in Ojo Caliente off US 285.