Sara and I took our first non-honeymoon vacation together as a married couple last week. Ever since moving down to Louisiana for graduate school and then on to Dallas to start my career, I have badly missed the accessibility and views of mountains that East Tennessee gave me. So, I have been planning a trip to Colorado to get back into the mountains for a long time. The plan was to go to Colorado and camp and hike and do whatever else interesting and fun we found to do. We were mostly winging it with the loan goal of enjoying the mountains and scenery. While I was very excited, I'm not sure Sara quite shared the same excitement. She enjoys to camp but I think 7 days, 6 nights of camping on the road had her a little nervous.
The only plan that we had set in stone was to meet college friends Jameson, Paul, and Jenna (who were coming down from the Denver area) near Salida, CO for the first couple of days. We spent the majority of Friday after work making sure we had everything we need packed and a proper stash of groceries for the road trip. Saturday morning the alarm went off at 5:15am and we were off for the 12ish hour drive to Salida. The drive was mostly uneventful. Not a lot going on in the Texas panhandle believe it or not. We did make a stop in Amarillo to check out Cadillac Ranch on the recommendation from some friends in our small group. Really strange display of public art.
We drove through some thunderstorms as soon as we got into Colorado (much needed to combat the wildfires) and finally got to Salida around 6pm. Jameson met us in Salida and we immediately took off for the Angel of Shavano campground about 10 miles northwest of town. The campground was our base camp for a couple of days. After getting camp set up, Sara whipped up a delicious batch of chicken fajitas on the stove. We had hoped to take advantage of campfires but there were fire bans almost all week due to the widespread forest fires throughout the state. Pmount and Jenna showed up around 9 in there newly purchased conversion van, which is awesome. We spent the night enjoying some cold beers and admiring the abundance of stars in the sky.
Sunday morning Paul cooked some egg and bacon breakfast burritos. After getting motivated we decided to go for a hike. The Colorado Trail runs right through the Angel of Shavano campground. We walked from the campground around the base of Mt. Shavano (a 14er) for about three miles out and then back. We briefly considered making the hike up Shavano but it was too late in the day to get started. The hike included great views of Shavano and the surrounding mountains, meadows, and lots of aspen forest. Jameson had to leave after the hike to head back to Denver for work on Monday. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around in camp.
Monday morning we had another fantastic breakfast of eggs and bacon. Really solid meals the first couple of days. We enjoyed the beaming morning sun in camp for a couple hours before saying goodbye to Paul and Jenna around lunch time. Sara wanted to head back to Salida to check out the small town. Very typical Colorado mountain town...lots of small shops, art galleries, and restaurants with people walking and riding bicycles everywhere. We ate lunch in Salida and then headed west towards the Gunnison and Crested Butte area. We had no specific destination, just wanted to see the town of Crested Butte area which was close to the peak of its wildflower season. Monarch Pass was the highlight of the hour drive.
We did a brief internet search on our phones on the way and found a campground called Cement Creek Campground (a Forest Service CG) and decided that would be our destination for the night. When we arrived the campground was full. Blessing in disguise. We continued up Cement Creek Road which is on National Forest land (meaning we could camp almost anywhere we wanted). The farther we went up Cement Creek, the more beautiful it got. We finally decided on a spot and set up camp for the night.
Part II to follow...
Awesome Shots
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