Colorado / Four Corners Van Loop

The Route

Colorado out · ruins · San Juans home

The loop itself is gentle — under 2 driving hours a day across the 14 in-region days, with one real repositioning leg (Chaco → Silverton). The grind is the cross-country haul, so it's broken into ~6-real-hour legs leaning on lakes and state parks, threading around every metro but the one unavoidable Chicago brush.

Transit / camp stop Hot spring Ancestral ruins

Fuel & Cost

live · tweak any number

Fuel by segment

Van MPG

Gas $/gal

Segment	Miles	Gallons	Fuel
Transit out
The loop
Transit home

Total mi · gal

CO ~$4.10/gal right now (up ~33% YoY); Midwest transit legs run cheaper (~$3.35). Drop the MPG and watch fuel climb.

Camp, passes & food

Item	#	$ ea	Sub
Transit camp nights
Valley View (wild soak)
Gallo @ Chaco
Town nights (shower/laundry)
Food / day
America the Beautiful pass	—
Chimney Rock tour	—
Misc / incidentals	—

All-in

Camp & Soak

free dispersed · paid · the water

Free dispersed zones

Medano Pass primitive road Great Sand Dunes

4WD sites right in the preserve — your rig's terrain.

West Fork dispersed Pagosa

Sits at the Rainbow Hot Springs trailhead. Also Turkey Creek Rd & USFS 667 (East Fork).

FSR 631/633 Pagosa

Toward Williams Creek, near the Piedra River hike-in.

South Mineral Creek / Ironton Silverton–Ouray

Along the Million Dollar Highway corridor.

Arkansas River BLM Salida

Hecla Junction and nearby; last loop night.

FR-88 off US-550 Chaco staging

Sandy — turns marshy even in light rain. Dry days only.

Pay nights

Valley View / Orient Land Trust ~$40

Reservation required; clothing-optional; dark sky + bat cave.

Gallo Campground (Chaco) ~$15–20

Inside the park; at the backcountry trailheads + certified dark sky.

Transit lake parks ~$8–25

Indiana Dunes, Lake Macbride, Branched Oak, McConaughy, Lake Pueblo, Warren Dunes.

The ruins

Chaco Culture NHP centerpiece

Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl + backcountry great houses. Dry-day access road.

Mesa Verde · Hovenweep · Aztec · Chimney Rock core

Cliff dwellings, towers, the Great Kiva. Reserve Mesa Verde cliff tours on recreation.gov.

Oregon Trail (return) W. Nebraska

Scotts Bluff NM, Chimney Rock NHS, Ash Hollow — landmarks to break the drive home.

The soaks

Valley View (wild pools) San Luis Valley

~7–12 natural rock ponds in alpine forest.

Rainbow (hike-in) ~10 mi RT

Weminuche Wilderness; the big Scout day-hike.

Piedra River (hike-in) ~3 mi RT

Foot-only; easy half-day; 95–105°F.

Pagosa resorts rain-proof

The Springs, Overlook, Healing Waters.

Ouray cluster San Juans

Ouray pool, Orvis, Wiesbaden, Box Canyon.

Mount Princeton Chalk Creek

Creekside rock pools; last loop soak before the northern run.

Glenwood / Iron Mtn / Penny return

Glenwood corridor — huge pools, riverside, free roadside Penny. All drive-up.

Strawberry Park Steamboat

Reserve ahead + cash only (no ATM); short walk from the car; 7-mi no-cell road.

Hobo Hot Springs Saratoga, WY

Free, in-town, 24/7, drive-up — the last soak.

Scout Shot List

field test = the trip

Every anchor doubles as a Scout scenario. The footage to grab:

Dune-field GPS at Great Sand Dunes — does it hold a fix with zero landmarks?
Offline routing on the Rainbow + Piedra hike-ins — no cell, foot-only trails.
E-paper readability in bright high-altitude sun — the real selling point, shot at a trailhead.
Backcountry track-logging at Chaco — Pueblo Alto / Peñasco Blanco to the supernova pictograph, fully off-grid.
Dark-sky GPS + night usability at Chaco and Hovenweep.
Million Dollar Highway — mounted device, elevation-profile logging over the passes.
The rig as B-roll — the lifted Sienna at a dispersed site, gear out, Scout on the dash.

06Reservations & preptap when you're ready to book

Most of this trip is walk-up and free. Only a few things need booking ahead — and a couple need checking the morning-of.

Book ahead

Valley View / Orient Land TrustSan Luis Valley

(719) 256-4315 · olt.org

Reservation required (limited capacity). A cheap "Friend" membership lets you book a month out; non-members only 24 hr ahead. ~$40 overnight. Clothing-optional — know that going in.

Gallo Campground — Chaco2 nights

recreation.gov

Reservable on a 3-month rolling window; remaining sites go first-come after 11am. Sites 12–16 are RV-only. Cash for any walk-up.

Strawberry Park Hot SpringsSteamboat · return

(970) 879-0342 · strawberryhotsprings.com

Reservation mandatory (2-hr window, ~$20) and cash only — no ATM on site. Hit a Steamboat ATM first. Short walk from parking; 7-mi unimproved road (fine for your rig in autumn).

Mesa Verde cliff tourstimed

recreation.gov

Cliff Palace / Balcony House are ticketed ranger tours — reserve in advance, they sell out.

$80 America the Beautiful passdo first

any park entrance or REI

Covers Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, Aztec Ruins and Chaco — pays for itself by Mesa Verde.

Check the morning-of

Chaco access road — only run the 13-mi washboard on a clear, dry forecast (clay, no traction help from 4WD when wet).

Download MVUM maps offline (San Juan / Rio Grande / Uncompahgre) — they show where dispersed camping is legal. 14-day limits, pack-out, no services.

Water/dump cadence: plan a town stop every ~3–4 days (Pagosa, Durango, Salida).

Colorado /
Four Corners Loop