Missouri Mountain and Clear Creek Campout

With summer nearing an end, my husband realized we had yet to camp with our families this summer. We quickly called everyone and made a plan to meet up Clear Creek Road outside of Buena Vista for a weekend campout.

Justin's sister and I began plotting an additional adventure which required us to meet a day early and climb a fourteener, Missouri Mountain (14, 067'). Missouri Mountain is a ten-mile round trip hike with 4, 500 feet of elevation gain. We set a date, and met for the hike. My sister and two friends also decided to join, making us a party of 5 strong women and 2 dogs.

Our alarm clocks went off at 4:00 am, and we huddled around the stove to make coffee. We were on the trail by 5:30, making good time up to Missouri Mountain's summit. The trail was great and well-maintained; we even passed by the Colorado 14er Initiative Group working on the trail. Once at the scree field, however, the trail became steep with loose gravel. We took our time and made it to the ridge quickly. The ridge is exceptionally long and beautiful, and I enjoyed walking the spine until I saw the final scramble, which required a bit of climbing. The guidebook calls this a class 2 climb, and it didn't say anything about any climbing - or scrambling for that matter.

Unfortunately, Loki (my puppy) and I didn't feel like we could maneuver the climb together, so we stayed back and didn't reach the true summit that day. We did, however, enjoy the beautiful views on our very private "false summit," only feet lower than the actual summit.

After the hike, my friends left and my family arrived. The next day we took our stand-up paddle boards down the road to Clear Creek Reservoir and played around. My mom and mother-in-law took to the boards and had a blast. That night, we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed some family time.

Handies Peak

No matter how long I'm away, the San Juan mountains always feel like home to me. Their beauty is like nothing I've found elsewhere. While visiting family in Durango, CO this past weekend, we decided a bit of adventure was in order and we went hiking to the top of Handies Peak.

We all woke up at 4:00 am, and my step-dad drove us all to Silverton, up Cinnamon Pass and into American Basin. The drive was rough - four wheel drive was certainly required - and it took us nearly 3 hours!

Everyone was happy to get out of the car at American Basin when we arrived at 8:15 am. We began hiking right away. I imagine hiking this trail in July is spectacular, as it would be lined with wildflowers. Unfortunately we didn't see many wildflowers, but it is the end of August, so we were expecting that sad reality.

The trail is very scenic from beginning to end, and Sloan's Lake is stunning - especially as seen from above. We summited the peak at 10:30 am, and quickly drank our celebratory beers. At 14,048 feet, Handies Peak became my sister's first fourteener summit.

As we began our descent the storm clouds rolled in. My brother, sister and I shared stories and laughter while searching for geodes and spotting fat, happy marmots all the way to the truck. It was a day I'll never forget, and I'm so glad to have shared the experience with family.

Christmas in Moablandia

My mom and sister live in Durango, and I live in Carbondale, which means it take approximately 3 hours of driving for all of us to meet in Moab, UT (one of my favorite desert towns)! We decided to meet in the middle this Christmas for a little desert solitaire (one of my favorite Ed Abbey books)!

I try to make it to Moab twice a year to camp and hike, but on this trip we had a room at the Gonzo Inn, which was a nice treat. It gave us time to explore the town, which was completely dead because it turns out nobody goes to Moab in the winter. We didn't mind though. We walked around town until we found a restaurant that was open for dinner before heading back to the Gonzo to settle in for the night.

In the morning we went to Arches National Park to see the sights. Neither my mom nor my sister had ever been to Arches to my surprise. We begun by hiking out to Delicate Arch. There was more snow on the ground than I had anticipated, and there were lots of icy spots on the trail, too. We trudged on nonetheless and made it to Delicate Arch in good time.

My mom was thrilled to have made it to Delicate Arch, but she was even more thrilled to find the car and the heater. We drove around the park a while longer checking out several more arches before heading back into Moab for lunch.

After lunch, we went our separate ways, and vowed to meet in the middle again next year for a second round at desert solitaire. Until then...