Camping Fun and Rain

I just have to say that the area we went to, the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, is absolutely beautiful.  We were literally surrounded by 14ers (mountain over 14,000 feet).  Because hiking all of the 14ers in Colorado is one of the items on my bucket list, it was hard for me to be that close to them knowing that I wouldn't be hiking any of them.  But, it's only a couple (or 5) more years until we can go hiking with our boys up those beautiful mountains.  Here are some pictures of the mountains we could see by our campsite.  I know, BEAUTIFUL!

We arrived at the campsite in the afternoon and the day was sunny and windy, but actually nice enough for just a small fleece jacket!  We decided to explore the area and came across a little hiking trail that eventually led up to one of the mountains.  The boys grabbed their walking sticks and off we went.

 




My husband and oldest son walking along the trail

Me and my boys! :)

A cool bridge that crossed the river.  And, of course, they each had throw 10 different sticks and leaves into it!

              My youngest heading up the trail.











Later that evening after dinner and smores it started to rain.  First it was a little sprinkle, then it quickly started raining harder.  We headed into the tent where we stayed for the rest of the night.  It rained ALL night long.  I was dreading the morning thinking about trying to eat breakfast in the rain and having to spend the entire day in the tent with a 3 and 5 year old.  Not fun!  One nice thing about the rain though was that it made for an amazing background noise and we all drifted off to sleep.

To my delight, when we woke up the rain had stopped.  The sky was weird though.  It would be cloudy, then sunny, then cloudy and windy.  We couldn't tell what the day was going to be like, but it was quite a bit colder.  We actually had to bundle our boys up in their winter jackets and we all put on our wool hats!  We ate breakfast then headed out on another adventure to find some good fishing spots.  As we were leaving our campsite we could see a light dusting of snow on the tops of the mountains that had fallen over night.  We hoped that it wasn't coming our way.  Finally, we came across a little reservoir that was a perfect place for our boys to "fish."  We didn't catch anything, but they still had fun!

 Here are my boys standing at the top of this little hill that overlooks the reservoir.  Can you see the sky?  It is a sign of what is to come.

We left the reservoir and headed down a road to a small stream.  My husband and oldest son got out to fish while I stayed in the car with my youngest.  While we were waiting for them a ranger truck pulled up next to us.  He told us that they had just gotten warning of a storm that was moving over the mountains.  The storm was bringing high winds, rain, possible hail, and snow.  Snow?

We headed back to camp, ate some lunch and debated what to do.  Another ranger came by our campsite and told us to "get prepared."  We decided to wait out the storm in our tent because there was no way we could get it all packed up in time.  No sooner had we got in our tent that it started to rain again.  Then, the winds came.  We could see the trees through the sky window in our tent and they were swaying back and forth crazily.  One nice thing about this storm was that it happened around nap time.  So, after awhile, again with the sound of the wind and the rain, we all fell asleep.

2 1/2 hours later, we woke up!  I cannot tell you how long it has been since I have taken a 2 1/2 hour nap.  It was soooo nice.  We stayed in the tent awhile trying to figure out what to do.  Finally, we decided that the rain and wind were not likely to stop and we should pack up and head home.  Again, spending hours in a tent is not fun for us or our boys, and we knew that if we stayed, that is most likely what we would be doing.  When we got out of the tent however, it was sunny again!  What is going on with this weather???  We actually stopped packing up and debated, again, whether we should go or stay.  But, one look at the clouds over the mountains told us we needed to pack up.  This is the same picture as the first one at the beginning of this post.  Do you see the new snow?  And the ominous clouds?

As we were packing up, the rain started, again.  Do you see a theme here?  We finally got everything loaded up and headed out.  Any doubts we had about leaving were soon crushed as we started driving through rain, hail, and then snow!  We are almost positive that it rained at the campsite for the remainder of the day.  And, the weather didn't get any better as we headed back to Denver.  It rained the entire time.  We finally made it home around 9:30pm, put the boys to bed, and left everything in the car to be unloaded in the morning.

Although we didn't get to stay two nights as planned, we still had a blast.  The boys had a great time hiking, fishing, and playing in the dirt.  And my husband and I had a great time just getting away for awhile.  We are already planning our next trip!  Except this time, we'll plan it on a weekend when it's not supposed to rain!