All of our restrooms are really nothing more than pit toilets. We have them pumped out as needed throughout the season.
This is one of the earliest/oldest restrooms. They are very small…about 30” x 48”….with a women’s and men’s side. This one is probably 30 years old.
Then they built composting toilets out of cinder blocks and concrete. They are much larger and can accommodate wheel chairs. A basement of sorts contain the open holding tanks which Jim has to periodically add sawdust. There is a automated water sprinkler that wets “the stuff” down a couple times a day. This is all run by three small solar panels on the roof along with supplying energy to a motion detector that turns on an outside light when someone approaches the restroom at night.
The last couple of years the forest service has been replacing older restrooms with pre-fab fiberglass units. They come complete with a small storage area on the back side. But these cost about $28,000. Here’s two different models.
In Upper Beaver Campground there was a very, very old log cabin style restroom, that was actually a “four holer”. But back in 2007 someone put ash from a fire pit down the toilet hole and it solidified into rock and couldn’t be pumped out anymore, so we had to board it up and it couldn’t be used anymore. We thought we’d make it into a storage area for us one day. So it sat till last year.
All of a sudden we found out this log cabin restroom was one of only three left in the Rocky Mountain Forest Service Region (which covers Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota). So you could say we had a “historic crapper”. Whoppee, so what does that mean? Mostly it meant that it would be restored by forest service historic architect. Late last year they dug a new vault, then lifted the restroom up and moved it over on top of the new vault, then covered over the old vault.
Sure enough, when we arrive this year there was a restored, completed repainted, four-holer, historic crapper. We couldn’t put up any “permanent” signs designating “men's” and “women's” because it had to be “researched” to make sure they were historically correct. But look at it now….pretty nice!!!!!!
The inside has two partitioned stalls on each side…but we still refer to it as a “four holer”.
 What you see when you walk in. |  There are doors on each stall |  |
Bet you never thought you’d be reading about restrooms today, did you? Well, that’s why you check out our blog….because you just never know what I’ll be writing about.
Remember, you are loved.
