Saying goodbye to Colorado again

Well, that’s it for Colorado. I got to spend some quality time in my home-state this year and I am thankful for it. Since I began this nomadic life I have failed to explore my own state as much as other states. It doesn’t help that the time of year I usually come around here is summer, and very hot on the front range. This year, however, it was planned to spend a fair amount of time at higher elevations to stay in more mild temperatures.

After our month on the front range we jumped up the mountains to spend the entire month of June, and the first 9 days of July, at 8000 feet or higher. First a week boondocking just outside of Buena Vista, CO at 8,000 foot elevation…

…then a jump over the continental divide for two full weeks at 10,000 ft elevation in the National Forest outside of Crested Butte, CO. Washington Gulch is an amazing place to camp with all the vegetation and wildflowers blooming. I have wanted to camp here for years, and happy to have finally done so.

A weekend car-camping between Marble, CO and Crystal, CO provided us with just enough zest to keep things from becoming ‘normal’ – always a concern for us both. Kerri and I are having such a great time backpacking and car-camping. We talk about it often, and are always working on coming up with a new place to camp, beyond our daily life in the Airstream.

We spent another week camped outside of Grand Lake, CO (nearly 8000 ft), making it a fourth full week of free camping. It was very nice to balance out the 4 weeks we paid for camping down in the city before “going high”. I finally got to show Kerri the West side of the West side of the National Park and explore a trail that I had long wanted to hike.

Finally, with the July 4th weekend coming, we took the option to cut one of our planned stops out and stay two weeks at our final destination in Colorado; just outside of Steamboat Springs, on top of the continental divide at Rabbit Ears Pass. We arrived the weekend before the 4th and stayed to the weekend after. This prevented us from having to move – and find a new camp – on a big holiday weekend, and kept us far enough away from the weekender crowds to have some much needed peace and quiet. Again, we arrived here just as the flowers we beginning to bloom. Our two week stay saw a huge change in the hillside colors.

That makes 6 full weeks camped at cooler summer temperatures thanks to being at 8000 – 10000 feet, and no paid camping during the entire time. The time in Colorado’s high country was so unique and exciting that I went ahead and set it up as a Road Trip that can be easily accessed in the future. We still have at least one more week unpaid camping in Wyoming before things become a bit unknown with a small trip into Nebraska then to South Dakota before returning to Wyoming for our next big backpacking trip.