State Forest State Park Colorado

Due to the devastation of the High Park Fire burning all along the Poudre Canyon, we had to take a round about way to get to our camping destination this weekend.  All along Highway 14 in northern Colorado is some of the most beautiful country in the state, and presently, it is either destroyed or inaccessible.  It it so tragic and at the moment, there isn't any sign of quick containment.

North Sand Hills, Colorado
We traveled north to Cheyenne and Laramie, WY and then dropped south back in to Colorado to the other end of Highway 14.  We had wanted to check this side out for awhile, mainly to check out the Sand Dunes!!!!

Sand Dunes with the RZR was a completely almost un-earthly experience!  The dunes stretched on and on and played tricks with your eyes so much that you really couldn't determine the rise and fall of the dunes until you were right on the slope.  The deceptiveness made some pretty fun swoops and jumps!  

 

The RZR did great in the deep sand, that is, if Kevin was driving!!!!  He flew up the steep hills, flooring the gas, and made it look simple!  Me however, well, I didn't give it enough gas, or not enough on enough, or I let up on the gas when Kevin's hat blew off, either way, I didn't make it over the top twice!!  The evidence was there: nice deep gouges in the hillside where my tires dug in, but then I had to back down!

But, I am so happy to announce that Kevin got stuck once too!!  a similar hill, okay maybe a little steeper, but he really dug in!  Nice picture!








We found some nice sized drifts to test ourselves out on and they were great places to catch some air. 



 


 Jadeyn was so anxious to get into the sand and play.  He had a blast burying himself as much as he could!  Betwen the breeze and the sand and everything, we got as dirty on the first day of camping than we normally do after a weekend of camping!!  Great first day!!







State Forest State Park
Our camping destination was the State Forest State Park.  We had never been there before but we so impressed: the whole park was OHV-friendly!  We could drive the RZR on any of the roads without having to trailer.   Nice.  Due to the fire, or maybe because we arrived on a Thursday, we felt like we had the park to ourselves.  It was so quite.  We spent two solid days on the trails and only passed one other vehicle on the trails.

Fishing was entertaining and charming all at the same time.  There is not much cuter than a four year old's creativity with a fishing pole.  Fish-wise, Jadeyn did great and caught some awesome fish, but during the other moments, h was waving his pole, using it as a light saber, throwing rocks, listening to the suction sound as he pulled his feet out of the mud, and overall being a boy!




One trail lead us to a beautiful peak where we got to experience the intense winds that can only be found above 11,000 feet.  The wind could practically hold you up!! 




















It amazes me every time I am up above tree-line and get to examine the alpine tundra up close.



We remembered our rule of thumb when it comes to RZR-ing.  We aren't as big as a Jeep, but we aren't as narrow as a 4-wheeler so we have to pay attention to the signs to see what types of vehicles are recommended for a certain trail.  We went on a beautiful one for OHVs (not Jeeps).  Fun and beautiful trail until we started to get deep into the trees. Here's where the designation is important.  When the ground is uneven, we of course tip a little making us less wide as our roof is more likely to hit the trees.  We didn't get stuck, but lets just say it took a little bit of time and maneuvering to get ourselves backed up out of the narrows.  Getting stuck is a lot easier than getting un-stuck!

The Alpine Sunflowers are always precious as their head optimistically follow the sun across the sky, but my very favorite are the minute Alpine Forget Me Knots clinging to the ground.


Wildlife! 
This area is known as the Moose Viewing Capital of Colorado and it is called that for a reason.  All in all, we saw 14 moose, several elk, white-tail deer, mule deer, pika, and one fox which we got to watch catch his dinner!
 
It is so exciting to see moose in the wild.  They are magnificent creatures and several of our encounters we up close.  One jumped across the road only about 20 feet in front of the Jeep. (I guess he waned to be sure w counted him in our tally!) We got to see a mother and baby moose, and a pair of twins!
 

We finished up the wildlife fun with a sweet fox that came into our camp a few times.  The first time he had already caught his dinner and had a huge catch in his jaws.  The second night we got to watch him stalk his prey, crouch and pounce on it!  Oh, we also had a friendly neighborhood hummingbird that buzzed us the whole time up close and personal!



















On our way home we checked out one more trail while running on fumes!  We didn't think that we would go quite this many miles on the RZR this weekend and figured as log as we had one "bar" of gas left by the time we reached the peak, we could make it back. (It turns out that when we got back we still had about a gallon and a half, but still, its better not to push your luck out in the middle of nowhere!)
 

 This trail wound through a beautiful aspen grove and then gave us a really good look at the pine beetle damage of the pines.  We investigated the little mining town of Teller which, in its heyday, sported 1300 people and 27 saloons! 





At the peak, we were met with some spectacular views of the peaks surrounding us.  Magnificent.  One small "adventure" on the way back.  On the switchback part of the trail with cliff on one side and sleep incline on the other, a Jeep had blown a tire.  And I mean, it really blew the tire.  The poor couple wrestled with an old tire jack for about 45 minutes until they succeeded.  We offered our help a few times and chatted with them while we waited, but it gave me and Jadeyn a chance to check out all the cool rocks!  Finally they were able to move out of the way and we hit the trail again.

 It was an uneventful drive back to Longmont except for getting to see the billowing smoke of the fire from three different sides as we circled it.

 Perfect evening for fishing

 

 Just how dirty can one boy get?

 Sunset over the lake

 Our little "Bacon Eater"

 Little Pink Elephant Heads - Another of my favorite flowers.  They are usually found snuggled near the edge of a creek or swampy area.

 Barbed Wire in the Sand

 Happy fisherman!

Olive Ridge 2012 Ouzel Falls

We camped at Olive Ridge Campground.  So nice to have a great campground so close to our house, only about 40 minutes.  Here's our little camper, happy in his hammock with his favorite book: Sharkopedia!

And reading by flashlight in the tent: Star Wars!!



We hit a few trails on our first day there and enjoyed bouncing all over the Rocky Mountains again. 

We got to an overlook at Storm Mountain and were able to see some of the devastation of the High Park Fire just north of us.  Devastating is a pretty accurate description.  Some of the most beautiful placed near us and some of favorite places to explore and gone or in danger.  Now over 90 square miles are gone and it is no where near contained.  We could see the smoke in the far distance and would have gladly taken torrential rain shortening our camp trip is it meant helping the fire.  Hopefully rain comes soon.




We decided to hike to Ouzel Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Last year we had wanted to so badly, but alas, I was still on crutches then, so our goal was to make it there this year!!!  Jadeyn was such a great little hiker: he did the entire 5.5 miles all on his own two little feet!! Not bad!!!

















Of course there were several stops along the way to investigate every army ant on the trail, every creek crossing, two jelly beans about every ten minutes for a burst of energy, but he did great!


















The hike had a variety of terrain to clamber over: smooth trail, rock obstacles, tree roots, and steps carved into the granite which were especially cool.















There are three waterfalls on this part of the trail each with unique qualities. Copeland Falls was a pretty standard waterfall but still exciting to see the massive amount of water rushing over the rocks.  Calypso Cascades was a very wide waterfall which split and spread itself out over quite a bit of area.  Lots to look.

 Here's the funniest part of the hike.  The ENTIRE way back, Jadeyn was non-stop chatter with stories about sharks and mermaids, dolphins and pirates and more mermaids.  We had finally asked him to try a different subject beside mermaids when I saw something in the dirt on the trail.  It was one of those smashed flat pennies.  I turned it over to see what impression was on it and I couldn't believe it.  Honestly, it was a Mermaid!!!!!!!  What are the odds of that!  Jadeyn was so excited about his new treasure!!!


 Finally, Ouzel Falls was our grand finale.  A high waterfall crashing down.  Hiking to the base showered us in fine mist and circled us in rainbows! 

 Success and a proud happy boy.

I was so happy to be able to finally able to do this hike.  My foot held up pretty week, but boy, did I pay for it in the morning.  A very stiff foot and pain again.  Hopefully its gone soon.

How dirty can one boy get camping?  Well, Jadeyn survived pretty good the first two days, but on the third day, this is what he looked like just in the time it took us to pack up!!