First Harvest Host and camping at 9,000 feet

We stayed at our first Harvest Host last night and it was quite an experience. 

On our last night at Lake Scott, a small, but intense storm developed in the area and ended up missing the campground by just a few miles. It was nerve-wracking to watch it head straight for us and watch the NWS alerts become increasingly alarming. (Golf-ball sized hail!!??) Then at the last minute, it veered south, and pretty much missed the campground completely. On Friday, on our way to our next stop, a similar storm system appeared. Could we get lucky twice? 

Most of the Harvest Hosts seem to be wineries or breweries that are just off the highway and you basically overnight park for free in their lots, in exchange for buying something from them. This one was a little different as it was advertised as a farm. When the host confirmed my reservation she sent turn-by-turn directions with pictures....it was all unpaved roads...and dire warnings to not use GPS or we would end up in the middle of a cow pasture. We were a little nervous, as the RPod is not exactly an off-road vehicle, but it looked flat at least. As it turns out the directions were very good and the road was in decent shape, a mixture of gravel and dirt and it was well-graded. When we arrived at the farm, she directed us to pull in behind a windbreak of trees. The storm wasn't a tornado, but could have 60 mph straight line winds. Not ideal in a 20 foot travel trailer! She also showed us their underground storm shelter. It felt a little tense, but we chatted with her and two other travelers who had pulled in for the night while she monitored the storm. After a little while she announced that she thought it was going to miss us, and in fact it did. 

The farm was littered with piles of debris, which we later found out were piles of various types of recyclable or reusable materials which they were cleaning up from all over the grounds. Even shards of broken glass were gathered up to be melted down.  The barn contained an astonishing number of ducks, rabbits, chickens, sheep and goats. One of the hosts was a blacksmith and he ended up firing up his forge to show Marko how to worked! They also showed Max how to dig for fossils and let him take some that he found. It turned out that they had only recently purchased the land and while they had big plans for it, were just at the beginning stages of execution. They were also very new to Harvest Hosting, but I thought, every good at it. When we woke up in the morning, the farm was shrouded in fog and the coyotes were howling. It was a wild place, a completely delightful and unexpected stop. 

We left in the morning to beat the afternoon storms and are now camping in the mountains at 9,000 feet, just west of Denver. There are snow-capped peaks all around us! Colorado is another new-to-us state. We will just be passing through on our way to Utah tomorrow, but we can possibly come back on our return trip.