When I think back to our summer at Crawford State Park, it is almost perfectly separated into fourths: the move to our “permanent spot” and then the time after Pioneer Days, the time after Cherry Days/Fourth of July, and the time after the Delta County Fair.
We arrived in Crawford in late May, just in time for Memorial Day and the craziness of early summer campers. We started at a temporary spot in Iron Creek campground while the renovations to Clear Fork campground were finalized. Once construction was complete, Clear Fork became our home and Will’s camp host domain for the rest of the summer.
The campground opened the weekend of Pioneer Days, a weekend-long event with lots of booths, a parade, other community activities, and fireworks over the lake at the State Park. Given we had just arrived and were just starting to get settled in town, we were not really sure what to expect out of the parade, but we were certainly game for checking it out. Thankfully, Will was able to go with us to this one.
It was a nice, little parade, with much of the town showing up and representing (including a few already familiar faces from the State Park and the local coffee shop). It was Bird’s first parade, and the bar was set pretty high between the face painting before the parade, the large candy haul, and the notorious outhouse races that took place after the parade (the rules of which were surprisingly complex).
Once we got a feel for what the community had to offer, we were ready for the rest of the summer, because, as it turns out, Delta County loves a parade.
Our second parade opportunity came, unsurprisingly, on the Fourth of July, which coincides with the neighboring town of Paonia’s Cherry Days. The parade was much like the one we saw in Crawford (with many of the same floats and faces) but had an extra patriotic flair and a few nods to the town’s noteworthy cherries. After the parade, we ventured with the masses to City Park for some overpriced food and amazing people-watching.
Even though Delta County is quite small by population standards, we actually missed one of the summer parades and the Deltado Days celebrations, but we absolutely could not miss the final parade of the summer: the Delta County Fair.
While we did not partake in any other fair festivities (though we heard the rodeo is pretty entertaining), we were there and ready with our candy bags for the parade. However, the most exciting part of this particular parade was seeing the float from the community pool with all of the lifeguards that Bird had gotten to know during her swimming lessons. It was fun to see some familiar faces in the place we called home for the summer, and it was a relief they were spraying the crowd with water because it was a scorcher.
One of the joys of staying in one place for an extended period of time is getting to know the community, meeting locals, and partaking in the festivities. I had no idea our “thing” in Colorado would be parades, but there were no complaints here. I mean, who doesn’t love a parade?
Nurturing Adventure 