The next leg of our journey to my sons wedding would take us from Amarillo to the Pueblo South KOA (details here), roughly five and a half hours from Amarillo. This would just be an over night stop for us since we couldn’t get into our next campground until the following day. However, now we are making progress because we are actually in Colorado!
I have never been in Colorado before and I have to say the scenery is just beautiful. The mountains are always on the left as we travel north and it is such a nice change from the relatively flat state of Texas. The weather is also getting cooler as we move north, but not drastically.
We left Amarillo a little before 7:00 AM and landed in Pueblo about 12:30 PM. There was ample opportunities for gas on the way, and the roads were nice. There was one long climb just before we got to the campground where I remarked to Tammy that the trailer felt heavier than normal; more about that in the next post.
One thing that was frustrating is that when we rolled into the campground, it was not even close to full; and our site was empty. Even so, the KOA decided that we should pay an extra $10.00 for arriving early. Obviously I paid the $10.00 because I don’t want my girls just hanging out in the truck for an hour. I want to say this is the first time this has ever happened to us at a KOA, and I think it’s a bad policy. How many times do people arrive at 3:00 PM or after the office closes? You can be sure that they don’t get a credit for coming in late. If the site is not ready, it’s not ready…in that case you are out of luck, but if its open why are you tagging on an extra charge? Bad move Pueblo South KOA!
On the flip side of their bad policies, this is actually a pretty nice KOA for and overnight stop. Our site was E3, a full hook up pull through site. The views around the campground are nice as you can see from the picture and there is a little grass for the dogs…but not much. There is adequate space between the trailers and its a nice quiet setting. The dog park is way up front so if you are back in the E section it is a bit of a hike.
The Pueblo South KOA is near a Railroad and the Amarillo International Airport so expect to hear Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. If you are looking at reviews of the campground on-line and see noise complaints, I would disregard them. None of the noise bothered us so much that we wouldn’t come back; besides it seems like we always hear trains at the KOAs we stay at.
The Pueblo South KOA also has a lot of rules – some spelled out in all CAPS. Most of their rules are just common sense but the way they are written on their handout, it really comes off as rude or condescending. For example:
COME TOMORROW AT 11 AM, YOU’D BETTER BE GONE OR WE’RE GONNA CHARGE YOU FOR ANOTHER NIGHT! and:
Your neighbor has gotta be quiet by 10 PM so you can get some shut-eye! And he can’t start partying again until after 8 AM
Maybe this is an attempt at humor; but given the long list of rules I’m not so sure. Overall its a nice campground, just not what I would call customer focused.
In any event we were there for only one night so it wasn’t a big deal for us. We just needed somewhere to crash for the night, and the dogs need a place to poop. The next day we would be leaving for Chatfield State Park near Denver. It would be a really short drive so we could actually take our time packing up in the morning.
To continue this trip click here
If you want to follow this trip from the beginning click here
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