Hiking Colorado: Rifle Falls

Our second trip in our camping weekend was to Rifle to visit Rifle Falls State Park. This park is small, and out there, but it is very well maintained and has some of the best camping sites I've seen (very spacious and not on top of each other). This park is perfect for families, especially toddlers with short attention spans! The trail around the falls (and unexpected caves) is very short and has very minimal elevation. A stroller can be taken down to the falls, but the trail to the top of the falls and through the caves is not stroller friendly.

The falls are beautiful, especially to my 3 year old who LOVES waterfalls! And the caves I was not expecting to see but they were so fascinating! If you're out west and have even half a day to spare, I highly recommend coming to this state park!

Hiking Colorado: Hell Roaring Trail

Our first side-trip on our camping weekend was down to Aspen/Snowmass to hike to Williams Lake (or that's at least what was planned). The trailhead for the Hell Roaring Trail is a true 4WD trail so be prepared if it's something you'd like to try. As we drove up the road and approached the trailhead for Capitol Peak, the road on to the Hell Roaring trailhead looked a little intense so we decided to park and hike the last mile (but don't be fooled, there was probably a few hundred feet of rough terrain and then the road smoothed out quite a bit).

We hiked the mile and easily found the trailhead for the Hell Roaring trail. It is a beautiful trail with even more beautiful views! I wish I could tell you if Williams Lake was beautiful but we never quite made it. There is a turnoff on the trail to Williams Lake but we completely missed it (and apparently it's a quite common theme) so if you start complaining about climbing a lot of elevation then my friend you have passed the junction! We kept hiking and while we stopped for a snack break, a couple passed us that said we were hiking up toward the Hell Roaring Divide. And boy did we feel like it. With Carson on Reid's back and Cooper on mine, we truly got a workout that day. And wouldn't ya know on the hike out we noticed the sign for the junction to the lake! Sigh...at least it made for a story and a good workout!

After the hike we headed in to Aspen to let our kids play at a local park, but not before grabbing a bite to eat at 520 Grill (YUM!)

Family Camping Trip 2016

This was our first, and last, camping trip of the year! Let's just say camping with a one year old is stressful!

Last weekend we ventured out to New Castle, CO and camped at the Elk Creek Campground. We debated between dispersed camping and an actual campground, and since we would be out and about most of the day I felt more comfortable leaving our stuff at an established site. Over-all the campground was very nice. It was "off the beaten path" and although the campsites were close together (common theme for campgrounds), it was also right by a creek so the noise of the water was a nice distraction.

So when I made the reservation I was so excited for a "creekside" site....until we got there! It was fantastic for the three year old who threw rocks in the water the entire time. But the one year old didn't quite grasp the concept that there was a drop off down to the creek. Let's just say we never sat down and chased him everywhere! We chose this campsite based on it's location to surrounding things. You are 10 minutes from Glenwood Springs, 45 minutes to Aspen and 40 minutes to Rifle, all areas we explored during our stay.

This was the first camping trip for Cooper (one years old) so I did not know what to expect. I'm not quite sure what the deal was, but he woke up each night and wouldn't settle back down in the pack n play so he slept with me on the cot. Thankfully he fell back asleep almost instantly after I picked him up and only stirred a bit throughout the night.

Although the experience was a fun one to look back on, I think I'll leave all future camping trips for Daddy until the boys are old enough to go backpacking!