Colorado State Park Cabins Trip

This may be the last Big Trip Out West for a while.  For me, camping is a chance to de-domesticate myself, return to nature, get out of my comfortable routine and remember that I’m a flexible, versatile, uncomplaining, adventurous man.  Kids don’t need any of that.  They’re already adventurous and necessarily flexible because they live in an adult world where someone else controls the food supply and sets the schedule.  They aren’t domesticated enough yet to need or want a return to a natural state.  And everything is new and wonderful, so they don’t even need a break from their routine.  Next year, Tracey and Quinn will plan the trip.  I think we’re going to the beach.

Last year, we rented a popup camper.  It was great, but a fair amount of work picking it up, setting it up, towing it, etc.  RVs are the way to go, but expensive.  This year, we rented cabins at Colorado State Parks.  Except for moving our stuff in and out, they were very convenient.  They didn’t have bathrooms, so it still felt like camping, and they were situated in the most beautiful places, so you still got to wake up in nature. 

Day 1:  Wed, July 4, 2007

We left home at 4 am on July 4.  We reached Cheyenne, WY by noon, and headed south on I-25 to Ft Collins.  As we drove into Poudre River Canyon, I got a speeding ticket going 62 in a 45.  Thought it was 55.  Oh, well, we arrived safely at Colorado State Forest State Park near Gould, CO.  The setting was beautiful, but the cabin was something 4 guys fishing would like.  Tracey wanted something a little cleaner.  The kids were a nightmare getting to bed, but after that night we let them stay up until they collapsed and that worked better.  Tracey had prepared frozen meals in advance, so she got busy making dinner and we made it through our first night.  Quinn and I sat on the deck under the stars and agreed that it was all worth the trouble.

Day 2:  Thu, July 5

My original plan for this day was to stay at the lake and hike, eat, sit around and read.  I thought the kids would catch tadpoles and play with sticks and frolic.  After the first night, though, we knew what would really happen.  They would fight, cry, whine and complain about being bored. (By the way, it particularly irks me when kids are bored in glorious settings.)  So, ever flexible, we changed plans.  First, we had to maximize car time and minimize cabin time.  The kids actually love being in the car.  They settle right down and we can let them watch a DVD if they get bored.  Second, we had to go out to eat.  So, we got in the car first thing and headed out.  Anywhere. 

We stopped at an overlook overlooking North Park.  We almost overlooked it.  But, overlooking this giant meadow would have been a mistake because the overlook was fabulous.  We saw 2 moose grazing in the distance, then they started galloping away.  It's awesome to see megafauna thriving in places like this.  Reassures me that we might still have time to save our planet from human activity.

We took some advice from a local and went to the town of Hot Sulphur Springs.  We had lunch, then went to the spa.  We needed a success, and this was the first big home run of the trip.  There were 24 pools nestled in the hillside.  We loved it.  The kids were great and I loved standing under a 104 F waterfall with hot mineral water from deep in the earth pounding on my shoulders.  Heaven.

Back at the cabin, Tracey thawed spaghetti and we had a much better evening than Day 1. 

Day 3:  Fri, July 6

We had an easy drive to Steamboat Springs, which turned out to be our favorite place on the trip.  As we drove into town, we saw a sign for a hike up Fish Creek Falls, so we headed that way.  We had lunch up there, then headed for our cabin at Steamboat Lake State Park.

Day 4:  Sat, July 7

Now things really started to get good.  We drove the 30 miles from our cabin to the town of Steamboat Springs.  Quinn, Tate and I did the Alpine Slide.  Expensive but fun.  Tate wanted to go again as soon as we got done.  Then, we drove back up Fish Creek Falls Road to Strawberry Park Hot Springs.  OMG, this was probably the best hot spring I've been to.  The setting was perfect:  natural, tranquil, luxurious and great for families.  After dark, it's adults only and clothing optional, but during the day, there are lots of kids and it's Eden.

Everywhere we went in northern Colorado, the Mountain Pine Beetle had devastated the lodgepole pine forests.  It turns out that this is part of a natural cycle, but I'd say 3/4 of the mountainsides we saw were orange and brown from the dead trees.  Catastrophic forest fires are a real possibility in the years ahead.

Day 5:  Sun, July 8

This was a day I really looked forward to.  A bit long for one day (340 miles), but the kids are great in the car and it allowed us to see some canyonlands without camping there.  Tracey hated camping in Moab last year.  Too hot.

Our goal was Dinosaur National Monument.  Not the famous dinosaur quarry in Jensen, Utah.  That building is closed indefinitely due to structural problems.  We were headed for the eastern half of the park, where the Green and Yampa rivers carve gorgeous canyons and converge at Echo Park.  We made good time on US 40 and turned north 2 miles east of Dinosaur, CO.  We drove 30 miles of paved road across upturned strata providing a matchless glimpse of ancient history.  The road stops at Harper’s Corner.  We saddled up, putting the little ones in the Kelties and did a 1 mile hike to the overlook.  There’s a sign that says this is the most beautiful view in the National Park system.  Those are fighting words, but I have to agree that it’s in the top 5.  And that’s saying a lot.  (Grand Canyon and Yosemite are in the same category.)

We left Dinosaur about 6:30 pm and headed southeast on CO 64 to CO 139, then south through Douglas Pass to I-70.  The roads here had names like L 3/4 Rd.  (what's 3/4 of a letter?) or 63 3/10 Rd.  I loved this drive.  Colorado has so many different types of geology and ecosystems, I never tire of it. We got off I-70 at CO 65, which heads for Grand Mesa, the tallest flat top mountain in the country (according to Gary Wallace, our earnest campground host at Vega State Park).  This wound along a river at the bottom of high, sheer canyon walls until we reached CO 330.  By this time, it was getting dark, and we did the rest of the drive through Collbran, CO to Vega State Park in the dark.  I almost enjoy that because in the morning you get to wake up and see where you are.  It's a little like Christmas morning.  As long as you have reservations.  When I was a kid, I remember driving around in the dark with 8 people in the Ford Country Squire while dad got out only to find that there was no vacancy.  When we did find a spot, we still had to pitch camp in the dark.  No fun.  I'm a planner.

Day 6:  Mon, July 9

If day 5 was Penn, this was Teller.  Quiet, at high risk for being boring, but we needed a day to slow down.  We stayed around the cabin, I made it through several more chapters of The Assault on Reason, Al Gore's latest book, and we all took showers.  We did a little Kelty hike, then drove into tiny Collbran, CO and dined at the Cattleman's Grill.  Vega State Park is apparently an OHV mecca.  In Iowa, we call them ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) or 4-wheelers.  I asked Gary what OHV stood for and he said Off-road vehicle, then Off-highway vehicle. 

Day 7:  Tue, July 10

On this day, I had planned to drive straight to Sylvan Lake State Park, but  Tracey had the great idea of adding a loop through Aspen.  As we left Vega State Park, we took the Silt Road cutoff rather than backtrack to DeBeque on I-70.  This was a good choice because it took us on a dirt road through the White River National Forest.  We saw 4-wheelers, deer, and vast forests.  After arriving in Aspen, we shopped and rode the gondola up the mountain.  Glorious view of Snowmass and Aspen.  Went to the John Denver Sanctuary, where they have carved many of his songs' lyrics into boulders.  Best part of the day was driving through Independence Pass.  This is Tracey's favorite kind of Colorado:  cool, crisp mountain air, pine forest and majestic mountains.

The cabin at Sylvan Lake State Park was one of the best, and the setting was perfect.

Day 8:  Wed, July 11

This was our day for our Fulford Cave (lots of pics here) adventure.  We had planned to do it last year, but axed it, so I was pumped to finally get around to it.  I love spelunking, and this cave is a rarity.  It's a wild, unregulated, un-vandalized cave at 10,400' that's relatively easy to explore.  Awesome.

Day 9:  Thu, July 12

We had one more cabin reserved for 2 nights, but I was losing my crew.  They had no excitement left, no anticipation for what was next.  Even I had had enough beauty, adventure and time away from home.  The great thing about this day was that Tracey's BFF, Jane, was in Colorado with her family, so we all got together at her brother, John Geske's, house in Commerce City, CO.  On the way, we stopped by Red Rocks Amphitheater.  What a stunning venue.  Quinn and Tate had a blast running up and down the aisles.  When we got to John's, his wife, Monica, whipped up a fabulous, fresh meal and we all talked non-stop while the kids tore around.  It was a nice, homey break from camping, but not enough to rekindle our enthusiasm.  We drove to Golden Gate Canyon State Park in the hills above Denver in the dark. 

Day 10:  Fri, July 13

This park is gorgeous, thickly wooded and isolated, even though it's 30 miles from Denver.  When I stepped out of the cabin, 3 large elk sauntered by the cabin.  It would have been a great place to linger, go for a hike and enjoy a meal by the campfire, but not this day.  Perhaps earlier in the trip, but we were all ready to go home.  We slept in, then took a minute to gawk one last time at the mountains at Panorama Point.  Then, it was in the car, find a McDonald's for breakfast and point the car east.

2900 miles in 69:30 hours of driving made this one of the lowest-average-speed trips we've taken.  It was all those mountain passes and side roads.  Totally worth it.  For years, I'd looked at the Colorado map and wondered about the mountain highways I hadn't traveled yet.  It's taken about 10 trips over 40 years, but now I finally feel like I've seen Colorado. 

Here's our route.