The girls and I made it to the mountains! Jim opted to stay back and work on equipment. This gave us some great mom/daughter time to hang out and have fun. And…have fun we did!
I’ll try not to bore you with all the details but will give you as short a version of the past two days as I can.
We left late Friday morning with the Maroon Bells Mountains as our destination. Thursday night we did some searching online and without even talking about it, Jenna and I both found this mountain range. So, we decided that’s the direction to head the van. We loaded the tent, sleeping bags, and cooler filled with pop and sandwich makings. We opted against taking the cooking necessities since there was a strict fire ban.
Thank you’s to the firefighters in Manitou Springs
Our first day was spent making our way towards the mountains – stopping several times for photo ops.
When we reached the ranger station at the entrance to the Maroon Bells campground, we were told all three campgrounds were full. It was raining by now and the sun was going down fast. Now what? We decided we’d backtrack to a couple campgrounds we had seen previously down the road and headed for them. First campground…full. Second campground…not so good. Third campground…plenty of room but by now it was raining cats and dogs! Ok girls – now what? Do we go back over the mountain pass and find a reasonably priced hotel in Aspen (if there is such a thing) or pitch the tent after the rain quits?
The vote was to wait and see what happened with the rain. We waited and waited and waited. It was finally decided we would just pay for a camp spot, move all the items from the back of the van (without getting outside in the rain) to the front of the van and make a place for the four of us to sleep. Yes…in the van! “Girls, are you sure we want to do this?” Their answer was yes and it will be fine and it’ll be a forever memory. All the while we were preparing for the night, it continued to lightning, thunder and POUR rain. 
Getting settled for the night
The morning began with moving everything from the front of the van back to the rear of the van. Once we were finished with that chore, we headed back down the mountain and to the Maroon Bells Mountain range. Vehicles can only go to the mountain at certain times of the day (before 9:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m.). If you head that way any time during the hours of 9-5, you must take a bus. This mountain range is the most photographed in the state of Colorado. Because of the number of people and vehicles that were making this their destination, it was ruining the ecosystem. Therefore, the buses (and, yes, it costs money to take the bus). Once we reached our destination, we definitely were not disappointed in the view!
We decided we’d take the 1.8 mile hike up the mountain to Crater Lake – Jenna in her cowboy boots, Taylor in her flip flops and Callie in her Van’s. The entire way up and back, people would comment on both forms of footwear which made for fun conversation. What we did do was proved to the world that hiking up the mountain on a path with rocky terrain can be done in something other than $200 shoes/boots. We made it back to the buses just as a downpour began – perfect timing!
As we were making our way back towards Limon, as luck would have it I saw a sign on a corner in Glenwood Springs that said “Doc….grave”. I decided I better go back around the block and see whose grave it was referring to. When we saw the sign and it said “Doc Holliday’s Grave” you should have seen Jenna’s face! This was going to make her trip! The only thing that she was feeling bad about was the fact that she had left her “I’m Your Huckleberry” t-shirt at the cottage. Please remember, we had just made an almost 4 mile round trip hike up a mountain. When we read the sign that said the Pioneer Cemetery was ½ mile trek up another mountain, I could hear the sighs. However, we were not going to come this far and then not go the whole distance! What’s another mile hike?
We stopped in Idaho Falls for pizza at BeauJo’s Pizza and made it back to the cottage about 11:00 p.m. What a great time we had! And…one thing is for sure – the bed felt good…REAL GOOD!
Jenna headed back towards home this morning. It was SO hard to see her leave. I wish she could have just stayed with us the rest of the trip. Sometimes, it’s easier if Jamie and Jenna don’t come for a visit. My heart aches too much, too long after watching them leave again!! I hope she has an uneventful trip home and smiles every time she thinks of our night in the van – in the mountains.
As for the rest of us, the afternoon was spent cleaning equipment. We will be making the first trip northward tomorrow morning. Ready or not Montana, here we come!
