5 days after our visit to Sportsman’s Warehouse to buy our camping gear we were able to put it to use.  We ended up picking Routt, in the Steamboat Springs area; our initial plan (as stated in a previous entry) would have taken us into a weekend of thunderstorms.  One of the many great things about our current situation is that we can fly by the seat of our pants.

Prior to leaving Palisade, I looked up a few campgrounds that didn’t require reservations since those that did were all booked up.  I found two: Meadows & Walton’s Creek Campground’s.  Both campgrounds were just a few miles from the trailhead and are first come first serve; they were both described as lightly visited and I figured we’d get a spot between the two.

Well, Meadows was full and Walton’s Creek was straight up non-existent.  Shit.  In our minds we knew this was a possibility; that we may have to just find a spot to camp by the trailhead in the wilderness, but when it actually went down like that – four hours from home – we both felt a little unnerved.

The ride to the trailhead was some serious off-roading (god bless the 4Runner), but our confidence picked up when we saw people camped out on the side of the road; we figured we would find something – and we did!

This picture is us setting up shop for breakfast in the morning.  We were more concerned about getting our tent setup and the fire going before dark to take any good pictures that night.

After breakfast we rode up to the trailhead and hiked the 3.5 miles  (7 miles at over 10,000 feet round trip) to see Fishhook Lake, Lost Lake, and Lake Elmo.  It was a super muddy hike and we had to break and find cover during a crazy thunderstorm that sat on top of us for about 30 minutes (it seemed longer).

So what!  The scenery was spectacular and we loved every minute.

Fishhook Lake

Lost Lake

The hike was a solid 7 miles, with the last stretch a steep incline.  Everyone was feeling beat after the hike – even the 4Runner saw some serious action.  I’m serious, the off-roading was no joke.

On our way up to the trailhead, earlier in the day, we came across another area that we picked to be the nights campsite.  Sweet!

Limited impact camping is a big thing; the parks service asks that you only camp at a site that has been previously camped.  So when there’s an existing fire-ring, you’re good to go.

We were pleased when we saw it wasn’t taken and set up shop. Grateful to be here.

The View

The only downer was that as soon as we got a great fire going – it took 45 minutes to make that happen – and were about to get into cooking up smores, serious clouds started rolling in.  We decided to pack it all up into the car and get the rain fly on the tent ready – it’s good we did.

It begins

3 minutes later!

While we didn’t get to make smores that night something about chillin’, us three in the tent, with the rain coming down was awesome.

If you’re asking: “Why the sunglasses if it’s raining”? Well that’s an annoying question, but relevant.  Answer: We took this when it was still nice out, but it was good, so we used it.  You get the picture…literally.  

Confession:  After an unspecified amount of time indulging in bourbon, we took advantage of the excellent phone service  – a rarity in the wilderness – and streamed episodes of Trailer Park Boys  (had to give this a shout out) on Netflix .  Modern camping I guess.