This last weekend I joined some other guys on a scouting trip in Wyoming. A full solar eclipse will be over the US this August and not all that far from Colorado, so they wanted to go and have a look around to see what we might do for accommodations. As it is, all of the hotels and state park campsites are already booked, so the public land choices needed to be checked out first-hand. What a great excuse to get out and do some camping and go exploring!
The first stop was at Glendo Reservoir, just to check it out. We knew the campsites were booked, but we figured we might check out anyway. It’s such a large body of water I wondered if it would be a nice place to kayak.
The next stop was at Ayers Natural Bridge Park and while this place was nice we thought it might be mobbed by locals and might also have limited views. See my previous post about Ayers Natural Bridge Park.
Then we headed up into the nearby mountains. We traveled quite a ways on dirt roads, through some fine scenery as we headed towards this evening’s destination of a National Forest campground.
We arrived at Campbell Creek National Forest Campground around 6PM and discovered that it was still blanketed in snow. Fortunately, there was enough room to park our two vehicles right near the entrance.
We weren’t too sure where else we could go at that time of day, so we decided to setup camp in the unused sites, which apparently, at this time of year, are walk-in only!
Dinner and a campfire, and a bottle of wine brought by one of the guys made the evening complete. I personally liked the warming wine as opposed to the cold beer that was available. Since the area was still covered in snow a campfire was really safe, however, it was difficult to get the wet wood burning.
Though it was down to about freezing overnight, and the snow surprised all of us, everyone was prepared for sleeping in the cold and kept warm.
The morning brought lots of sunshine. My breakfast of ham, eggs and cheese on English muffins, served with coffee made from beans I ground right there was really nice.
Breakfast on my two favorite stoves, Coleman 400A (left), 1945, M-1942 MOD (right)
After we were packed up we planned to head down to Medicine Bow. However, the snow didn’t cooperate. We traveled down the road for quite a while and then got a to a large snow field which covered an uphill slope. I walked up the road in the snow for a couple hundred yards, and while it seemed passable we decided that our scouting time would be better used if we headed back and then explored a different area.
The snowy road was questionable
After lunch in Douglas, and some additional exploring to the southwest, we ended up in Esterbrook. It is a very small community with a National Forest Work Center.
Not too far from town you can get some terrific views with a little bit of elevation gain and . . . no snow!
We explored the area a little more, looking around for open camping areas, and then headed back down a dirt road to Glendo and then for home.
Back to Glendo and then back home
It was a short weekend, but it was great to get out and camp and have some fun and explore new places.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
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