Eleven Mile Reservoir Weekend

Posted on April 4, 2026April 28, 2026 by jim

Colette booked us an excellent rental cabin for the weekend next to the Eleven Mile Reservoir outside Lake George.
Special guests: Donkeys
Other special guests: Tom & Shelby
We wanted another chill weekend with the kids, just relaxing with no timetable and exploring another little pocket of Colorado.
The original plan was that we would all bring our kayaks and spend some paddle time on the Eleven Mile Reservoir inside the Eleven Mile State Park, but the cold weather blowing in squashed those plans.
Backup plans – chill by the fireplace, get some hiking in, and just enjoy spending time with each other.

Fire Weather

Having a real fireplace in our VRBO made the cooler temps this weekend bearable.

The View

Tom stops on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Eleven Mile Reservoir

Terrain Features

The Coyote Ridge Nature Trail and Eleven Mile Park Loop trails take you through a wide variety of different terrain.

Lookout

One of the many gorgeous overlooks along the trail

Blending In

Shelby wore her upside down water and sky matching combo today

The Thinker

A perfect rock island for a time out

Social. Distancing.

You get your rock, I get mine.

Lumps

The northeast corner of the Eleven Mile Reservoir is by far the most scenic corner of the lake.

Ducks In A Row

Lots of the trail is dry and dusty, but the scenery makes up for it

Lunch Then Nap

Taking a snooze after lunch

Miniature Tahoe

This definitely looks like Lake Tahoe

The Bay

There are a ton of nooks like this around the campsites on the northeast corner of Eleven Mile Reservoir

Police Lineup

Errrr.. I mean Family Lineup

Tolerance and Grace

This poor kid has to put up with a lot from that old guy

Downtime

Tom looks like he’s been doing way too many home remodeling projects every other weekend.

Bonus plans – donkeys!
On the road up to Spinney Mountain State Park we saw people feeding donkeys on the side of the road, so we returned in the afternoon with a plate of goodies.
Apple chunks, carrots, triscuits, and cheetos.
No donkeys to be seen – except for one way, way out in the distance.
The minute I stepped out of the Jeep he started hee-haw’ing his fool head off (like THIS VIDEO and THIS VIDEO) while running straight for me.
A little freaky at first until you realize that he’s super-excited because he knows he’s about to get fed.
Unfortunately it all happened so fast that nobody got video of the rabid donkey charging me.
We spent a good 10 or 15 minutes there feeding him and taking photos.
He absolutely loved the apple chunks.
Until.
He got a Cheeto.
Then he immediately turned his nose up to ALL the other snacks on the plate.
Understandably so.
Once the Cheetos were gone he just stood there and gave us the stinkeye, so we dumped the remainder of the snacks on the ground and headed back to the fireplace.
As we were pulling away we watched him nuzzle through them with distaste, eventually eating them once he realized that was all he was getting now.
A fun little diversion for an enjoyable low-key family weekend.
We all drove over to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument for nice leg-stretch hike after we checked out of the VRBO Sunday morning, then made our separate ways home to do weekend chores before getting back to work on Monday morning.
No kayaking to be had this weekend, but sometimes Plan B works out just as well as Plan A.

First Hit Is Free

A friendly donkey gets a bite of my apple as we do a little area recon.

The Sniffer

Sniffing for tasty treats

Mine All Mine

Shelby guards her snack bag

Scritches and Scratches

The donkeys will accept head scratches if you don’t have any snacks

Smorgasbord

This donkey hit the jackpot with a plate chock full of goodies

Go Away

Shelby was a great sport dealing with hungry donkeys and snap-happy paparazzi

The StinkEye

What do you mean you’re out of Cheetoz???