Wednesday, June 8, 2011

6-8-11

I posted yesterday about hoping to camp at Maroon Bells next month for my birthday.

This morning I woke up to an email from Mom saying I might want to check into space availability . . .  that was her kind way of telling me, forgetaboutit.

Turns out there are three campgrounds nearby: Silver Queen, Silver Bells, and Silver Bar. Queen is the most desirable and closest to the peaks. Queen and Bar both take reservations. And the next weekend available at either of them is . . . pretty much next year. It doesn't help that Silver Queen has exactly FIVE, and Silver Bar has exactly FOUR camping spots. Sigh.

You can make online reservations 180 days out from your dates, and clearly everyone else in the world decided 6 months ago to fill up every weekend all summer. And yes, I have January 26th 2012 marked on my calendar so next birthday I can actually do this.

(Silver Bar is walk-up only. You show up and take your chances that someone is leaving one of only fifteen spots the same day  you want to arrive. Otherwise, you've driven over three hours only to turn around or aimlessly wander about with a car full of gear and hope you can find somewhere to stay. No thanks.)

So that left a whole lot of research and map examining and online availability checking, before finally deciding to go the other direction. As in south and west (ok, further west).

Colorado Vallecito Creek
Ok, so that was nice.

But this.is.cool:


So we are now reserved at campsite twelve right by the creek!

Make sure to have the "pictures" option on here.

So that's the five hour drive set for weekend before the birthday in July.

Now to spend the evening finding some a little closer to home for this weekend!

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