Hello all! Excited to share about this adventure – it was a good one!
Colorado is a state that is – if not near, at least – dear to me. I fell in love with its mountains on a ski trip a couple of years ago, and I was considering moving out there before COVID hit. I decided in March to check off the National Parks there, and I was lucky enough to score some pretty awesome backcountry permits in RMNP and campsite reservations in the three other parks.
Despite my early bookings, things didn’t really come together until the week of the trip, in typical Sheraya fashion. I was really hoping to share the trip with someone (and avoid paying for a $750 rental car!), and I found an amazing travel partner and friend in Stephanie! Long story short, I know her mom, and she offered Stephanie up as a potential companion.
I flew into Denver on Friday, and we stayed in a hotel there before heading out to RMNP on Saturday.
The original plan had us backpacking up to Boulderfield Saturday, and we would summit Long’s Peak, the highest point in the park, Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the weather looked downright nasty, so we decided to forgo the summit and backpack to a much lower elevation campsite, Goblin’s Forest. Since the hike in to the site was just over a mile and we couldn’t get into the main park area until 3:00, we killed time by running errands, including, of course, stopping at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Once the park opened, we procrastinated on hiking in the rainy, cold weather by driving around.
We decided to drive the somewhat treacherous Old Fall River Road, a 11-mile, one-way gravel road. Unfortunately, clouds made it difficult to see much, but we still encountered some deer and a pretty waterfall.
By the time we reached the end of the road and drove back down, we decided it was probably time we hit the trail. Somewhat reluctantly, we packed up our stuff and left the dry warmth of the car for the cool, drizzly outdoors.
As we climbed up to the campsite, we quickly became grateful that it was only a mile in. Colorado’s elevation is no joke!
We ended up having Goblin’s Forest all to ourselves, so we had our choice of sites and picked the closest one to the stream. It was really pretty, despite being overcast.
Thankfully, the rain stopped shortly after we got there, so we were able to set up camp without getting too wet. We chatted a bit and made plans for the next day, then turned in.
Sunday we whipped up some oatmeal, then packed a daybag and began the 3 mile hike up to Chasm Lake. And man, those views were killer, especially once we got above treeline.
And that doesn’t even include the actual destination: Chasm Lake!
Stephanie and I agreed that we liked the views on the way just as much as Chasm Lake, though it was all beautiful. We ate a snack by the lake, then started the hike back before afternoon storms rolled in.
We got back to the campsite early afternoon, and Stephanie decided to hike back to the car for a phone charger, while I stayed behind and sat on the banks of the stream and read Lord of the Rings (still working on Fellowship of the Ring!).
We couldn’t stay up too late chatting, however, as we had an early Monday morning coming. Since we didn’t have timed entry passes to the Bear Lake section of the park, we had to enter before 5 am, which meant waking up at 3, packing up, hiking the mile back to the car and driving a half hour to that side of the park. We might have been crazy, but we made it!
We crashed in the car for about an hour before we roused again and began the hike to Sky Pond. Unlike the image below, we hiked over by Nymph Lake and Dream Lake so we could make a bit of a loop. In retrospect, we thought this was the best way to hike it, as it added some beautiful views without too much more mileage.
It was so pretty.
The terrain never got old, especially because there were so many lakes to stop at and several little side hikes you could do.
After a couple of hours, and some decent switchbacks, we made it to the base of Sky Pond. What we didn’t realize is the final climb to Sky Pond was actually a climb, up through a small waterfall no less!
I decided to go on ahead while Stephanie stayed back and recuperated a little bit. I was pretty glad when I got up and saw Sky Pond pretty much immediately!
….or so I thought. I overheard a family talking and realized that this was in fact Lake of Glass, and that Sky Pond was a little further. So I got back up and followed them the rest of the way there.
I liked them both about equally, but it was nice to say I made it to Sky Pond. Really, the whole area up there was beautiful.
After a little while enjoying the views, I scrambled back down to where Stephanie was waiting, and we got a picture by the waterfall before descending.
Thankfully, the way back was almost entirely downhill. There were some pretty spots, though less scenic than the way we came in.
After we got back to the trailhead, we headed for Glacier Basin Campground to see if they had any last-minute openings, as we were pretty pooped at the thought of backpacking to a site that night. We were in luck!
We set up camp and ate a late lunch, then drove into town for some supplies. We walked out with what I’d call some high quality dinner…
It was raining by the time we got back, so we holed up in our tents and fell asleep to a soft pitter-patter. It would have been nice, except that we also woke up to a soft pitter-patter. We quickly broke camp, stuffed the sopping tents in the back of the car, and headed out for Great Sand Dunes NP.
We made a stop for a couple hours at a Panera in Colorado Springs so Stephanie could knock out a test, and I got to try a bread bowl for the first time. Yummy.
We had some really good conversations on the way to GSD, ranging from silly to serious. We were pretty slaphappy by the end of it, and got really giggly when we saw this sign:
Like, okay, lots of things could exist on the road, right? We giggled even more when we saw this sign:
So water may exist on the road, along with a host of other things, but you know there definitely won’t be snowplows between 7-5.
Much to our amusement, a few miles later, there really was water “existing” on the road!
There had been so much rain that the road had flooded! Thankfully, within about 15 minutes, it had receded enough for us to drive on. We were still pretty tickled though. For the rest of the trip, we made it a point to look for silly signs, and we weren’t disappointed:
We finally got to the park, and though the weather looked awfully ominous, we got some awesome rainbows!
And we caught our first glimpse of the dunes!
We drove straight to the campground so we could dry out our sopping tents, and low and behold we found at our site…
The conversation went something like this:
- Me, the first one to see it: “Uh, Stephanie? You might want to see this…”
- Stephanie, walking up to see it: “Oh no…”
- Me, trying to find some positive in the situation: “Well, at least…”
- Stephanie: “At least what??!”
- Both: Dissolve into giggles
Thankfully there was enough space for us to pitch our tents around it.
We made dinner, which we also giggled about because it was chili and it had beans in it (can you tell we were pretty slaphappy?).
At sunset, we walked down towards the dunes to get a better glimpse. This picture really doesn’t do it justice.
There we met a women named Glenn. We quickly hit it off, and spent several minutes chatting before we took her back to our campsite to see our “built in pool”. To our chagrin, it had soaked into the ground, but we had something else to giggle about now.
Wednesday thankfully broke warm and sunny. We packed a day bag and headed for the dunes.
The whole time we were at this park, Stephanie and I just couldn’t fathom how all this sand got here. It’s literally these massive dunes (the tallest in the country!) that just show up randomly in the middle of the mountains.
Our goal was to get to the top of High Dune, the second tallest dune in the park. After an hour or so, we made it up, and the views were incredible!
To our great surprise, Glenn was also at the top of High Dune!
We decided to hike back together. As it turns out, Glenn was not a huge fan of going down the ridgelines, so we ended up taking a much more circuitous route than we would have otherwise. It definitely gave us time for good convos, more sights of the dunes, and lots of laughs!
We parted ways when we got back, as Stephanie and I had to go pack up the campsite. For our second night there, I had heard about camping on the dunes and really wanted to do that, so we headed to the visitor’s center and sorted out permits. We were pretty tuckered out from the morning hike, so we decided to eat, rest up, and then head out for the dunes closer to sunset so we wouldn’t need to take as much with us.
We got another really good laugh when we discovered that the two inches of skin between my socks and leggings (which I’ll admit, Stephanie had told me earlier to apply sunscreen to) were a bright fiery red from that morning. Hiker chic, amirite?
Hiking back up in the evening was a bit more challenging, as the wind was blowing pretty strongly. It was just as beautiful though.
The rules said only one group was allowed per dune hollow/pit, so it took us a while to find an unoccupied spot. We pitched our tents, put our packs inside them to keep them from flying away, and climbed the nearest dune to watch sunset.
We left the rain flies off our tents that night so we could see the stars. Unfortunately, my phone can’t take night pictures worth anything, but it was the kind of night where you couldn’t pick out constellations because there were so many stars. I counted five shooting stars. It was absolutely magical.
Thursday we got up in time to watch the sunrise, which was also beautiful.
We enjoyed watching various sand bugs for a bit, then packed up and started heading back.
We ended up on top of High Dune again, which had some nice early morning views.
There we met Ashton, another dunes backpacker. We hit it off and ended up walking down the dunes together. Ironically enough, he was supposed to have camped at Goblins’ Forest in RMNP one of the nights we were there, but his flight got delayed.
We parted ways at the parking lot, and Stephanie and I headed out for the next park: Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Stephanie had actually been to this park earlier in the year but didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time there, so she was really excited to go back.
If you’re adventurous, one of the biggest draws of Black Canyon is getting to hike down into the canyon. The fact that less than 30 people per day are issued permits to hike down in only makes it more covetous. We got to the park about about 2:30 and immediately went to the visitor’s center to claim our permit for the next day. Within the half hour, all 15 permits allowed for the Gunnison Route, the “easiest” route down, had been taken!
The route down is actually part of a designated wilderness area, meaning that there is no signage or trail markers. This isn’t much of a big deal on the way down, but it makes it more of a challenge going back up. Partly for this reason, we were required to attend a ranger-led orientation on going down.
After the orientation, we drove to the campsite and pitched camp, then drove around to catch all the canyon overlook views. Not going to lie, it was pretty stunning.
While driving between overlooks, we met two guys our age and hit it off with them. They were testing which overlook had the best echo, and we happily joined in.
Sunset, of course, was gorgeous, if a bit smoky.
We finally pulled ourselves away from the views, drove back to the campsite, and made dinner before turning in.
Unfortunately, some animal tormented Stephanie in her tent for hours that night, while I managed to sleep through the whole thing. Looking back, we think maybe it was a deer, but it was hard to tell in the moment.
Friday we packed up in the dark so we could get an early start down. Within 20 minutes or so, we had passed into the wilderness area!
The way down was a little treacherous at times, mainly because of the steepness and the amount of loose scree on the trail. The only man-made object from the top down to the bottom was an 80 foot chain on a particularly steep section.
In a little over two hours, we reached the bottom. Oh, it was so worth it!
We had a good time walking along the riverbank and exploring. If you’re wondering, the river is much too cold to do anything besides stick a hand in, though some people fish in it. After we’d gotten our fill of exploring, we sat down at the campsite to rest and refuel. Our friend Ashton from the dunes had mentioned backpacking down here on an even harder route and spending the night, and we just couldn’t fathom lugging a pack up and down that steep trail.
We finally decided to start heading back up, though not before grabbing a few more pictures.
Even though we had been careful to turn around frequently on the way down and look where we were coming from, we still managed to get off-route on the way back up. Thankfully, we spotted a landmark after a few minutes and were able to get back on track. Even with that mishap, it took us less time to get back up than it did to go down!
We refilled our water, then set out for our final park, Mesa Verde, the famous home of the Cliff Dwellings. This is the only national park in the US that’s primary purpose is to preserve Native Americans homes and communities; thus, we were disappointed to find out that several of the sites were closed due to construction, renovation, or COVID. I also hadn’t purchased tickets to tour one of the larger houses, and they were all sold out by the time we got there.
Nonetheless, we made the most of it. After picking out our campsite, we drove to High Point, where we got some awesome views of the park.
Next, we drove out to Chapin Mesa and explored the Mesa Top Loop. Apparently, the people were in the area for hundreds of years and started out in smaller, underground dwellings called pithouses.
There were two more stages of housing, each bigger and more communal than the next, before the people began to construct the cliff dwellings. Stephanie and I were amazed at how skilled, creative and resourceful they were.
A few other items of note:
- I didn’t realize that the cliff dwellings often are literally on the side of the cliff not near the valley floor. Wow, these people had guts! Lots of times they would farm on top of the mesa and use ladders or handholds to climb up and down.
- It amazed me how much archeologists had deduced about this group, and yet still had no idea about some aspects of their life.
- Natives throughout the region were part of an extensive trade network that stretched hundreds of miles, and they traded not only goods but ideas.
- People would often leave their homes, only to come back a few generations later and build on top of them.
As it started getting dark, we decided to try and enjoy our last camping dinner up at High Point while watching the sunset, but a fussy ranger crushed our plan. So we rebelled and drove to the next closest overlook and enjoyed our dinner there instead. Not quite as good of a view, but we still enjoyed it!
One of the best perks of the park was SHOWERS! Stephanie decided to take one that night, while I held out until the next day – I couldn’t get past the though of crawling back into my stinky sleeping bag after being all clean.
While we were driving back to the campground, we had a bit of a surprise: I spotted a mountain lion sitting on the side of the road. We turned around to get a better look at it, and it ran off. Towards the campground, of course. Gulp. We didn’t spot it again, thank goodness, but it was a little nerve-wracking.
Saturday morning we awoke to smoke. There was a fire just outside the park, though as far as we could tell, we were safe. There have actually been several fires at the park within the last 30 years, and it was amazing how long it took foliage to grow back.
Another thing we were surprised at was the amount of wildlife we saw here. On top of the mountain lion, we encountered deer, wild horses, a turkey family, and a coyote. The most we saw at other parks was deer.
We packed up our site…
…then headed out to Wetherill Mesa, specifically to see Step House, a self-guided cliff dwelling. It was neat, but we were bummed that part of it was closed off. Oh well.
We also walked around the Badger House Community, which was pretty neat, though not cliff dwellings.
At this point, our brains were about full of information, and we had a long drive to Denver ahead of us, so we decided I would grab a shower and then we would hit the road. I can’t tell you how nice it was to be clean…
Thus, we began the seven hour drive back to Denver. It was a long one, but we made it! And even better, Stephanie’s mom Lisa had decided to fly in and join us for the evening.
We checked into our hostel, which was absolutely gorgeous…
…then set out to find a place to eat. We found a good burger place a few blocks away, and I got a breakfast burger because it reminded me of NZ. We were all pretty tired, so we went back to the hostel after dinner. I hung out in the common room for a little while because I missed being in a hostel, but there weren’t many people, so I went to bed before long. And oh how good those beds felt! It was like sleeping on a cloud.
Sunday we drug ourselves out of bed to get breakfast at a cute little place called Jelly. We got a fun little donut sampler, and I really enjoyed the vintage cereal boxes on the walls.
Our last stop in Denver was a letterbox grab at a local cemetery. It was an awesome carving of John Denver, which I thought was pretty fitting considering I’d had “Rocky Mountain High” playing in my head the whole trip.
Stephanie and Lisa dropped me off at the airport after saying goodbye, as they had a 10 hour drive ahead of them back home. I had planned to check my bags and then go back out to explore Denver a little more, but I found that Southwest doesn’t allow you to check your bags more than 4 hours ahead of a flight. So I ended up spending the day at the airport, but I got to meet some cool people that way!
All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip. I was so so glad to have found Stephanie to go with me: I really don’t think we could have hit it off any better! Hoping we might be able to plan some future trips together.
Thanks for riding out another really long post! Not sure where the next trip will be – trying to decide between Florida, the Virgin Islands, Mexico, or SoCal – what would you choose? Until next time!
Ray of Sunshine Travel 