Karen and I are in agreement on the perfect fall camping trip: the days must be cool enough to warrant a daytime campfire, the nights must be COLD for cozy sleeping, there must be sufficient time for ample laziness, and it must take place beneath a grove of yellow-leaved aspen.
We visited Pitkin for the first time, drove over Cumberland pass to Tincup, then continued into the Taylor valley trying to find a spot to camp under some Aspens. After two nights of camping in spots that did not meet our ideal (though admittedly still pretty awesome), we ended up driving all the way through Crested Butte and up Kebler pass, because I KNEW there was some good Aspen action up that way.
We eventually found a wonderful spot under some huge just-turning-yellow Aspen off the Kebler pass road. Man, it was busy with people up there — I guess leaf peepers primarily? Granted, it was gorgeous so I can’t blame them, but I don’t remember that much traffic on Kebler when I lived in CB in the early 2000’s. My mistake for senselessly hoping that things would be the same as they used to be.
Regardless, it was a beautiful spot and the boys had a great time. We parked our butts there for three nights, and the boys never tired of “searching for Big Foot” during the day. We had maps, clues, weapons, footprints, sightings, video footage. Apparently, we were in prime Big Foot territory.
We ate some great improvised fire-cooked pizza, felled a dangerous, dead, widow-maker of a tree leaning over camp, slept cozy in near-freezing night-time temps, and otherwise just sat around the campfire in the woods enjoying the peace and quiet and autumn and family, fire, food…
