This past week my parents came out for a visit/vacation in Colorado and house-sat for us while over the weekend Noah and I went camping with a group of friends to Ridgeway, in southwest Colorado (in total there were 10 adults, 2 babies, and 3 dogs on 4 campsites). I love a good camping trip, especially when that means no cell phone reception, which is exactly what we had!
Day 1 (Friday)
We left in the morning via caravan for the 6-hour drive (including lunch and gas stops) across the Rockies. We arrived with enough time to set-up and cook before dark and only had a few sprinkles of rain that night. Not much of a gathering, we were all pretty tired from the drive.
Day 2 (Saturday)
Noah and I woke to find air had leaked from our Aero Bed during the night and it now had the stiffness of a water bed. Not good. The day was spent laid back, as all good vacations should be. We all gathered together for our meals, spent some down time playing games or reading books. Noah, Ryan and I went down to the lake to try and catch some trout, but a rainstorm ended that outing shortly after it began (20 min maybe?). We headed back to the campsites and hung out in our tents for a good hour or two waiting for the rain to pass. I got in some good reading, Noah took a nap. Dinner was good that night (hobo stew!) but dessert was cut out of the menu as more rain sent everyone to our tent (we had the largest one) to play games and stay dry.
Day 3 (Sunday)
After breakfast most of the group headed down to Mesa Verde, but we and another couple decided we did not want to spend 6 hours of our day sitting in a car (3 hours each way), so we went fishing. Melina sat and read while Stan, Noah and I spent a few hours casting our lines. I had one fish eat the tail off my rubber bait, but it refused to bite the hook. When the ranger came along to check for fishing licenses he said that if we could catch a grasshopper we would almost be guaranteed to catch a fish. So, Noah and I set out to catching bugs (Stan and Melina had headed back to the campsite by now). Trout have a penchant for crickets. They did not like the grasshopper and I could not catch a cicada. It was not long after dropping a cricket in the water that we would have bites. Unfortunately we were trying to catch smart fish that knew how to steal the bait without actually biting the hook…even though it was a small three-pronged hook. Grr! I really wanted to head back to the site with at least one fish!
Noah and I finally gave up and headed back to the campsite after 4-hours of having bait stolen from our hooks. Stan and Noah headed into town to get some new batteries for our flashlight and get an extension cord to reinflate our bed, which now had the consistency of a hammock (the one hardware store in Ridgeway happened to be closed on Sundays, but Noah was able to borrow some cords from the camp host). We needed the cords since the campsites were walk-in and the one cord Noah brought was not nearly long enough to reach from the car/inverter to the tent. Meanwhile, Melina and I relaxed and read our books, and eventually started dinner. The other group did not get back from Mesa Verde until nearly 9pm, after we had already had our dinner and were starting dessert!
That night while eating we watched a lightning storm over the San Juan mountains and later that night the same storm blew in over us. I have never camped in a tent during such a storm. There was thunder, lightning and lots of rain. I was very glad Noah and I took the time last summer to add waterproofing to our tent on both the inside and out as we stayed dry. There were either three storms or three different periods of heavy rain. I’m also glad that the campsites had raised tent platforms and the ground absorbed the water. 😀
Day 4 (Monday)
We headed out around 11am, this time in two groups. One wanted to head straight back home and the group we were in detoured through Ouray to take in the scenery before returning. We finally got home around 7pm yesterday and last night relished sleeping on a bed that did not deflate!
You can see photos of the trip here.