Mother’s Day Camping

On Mother’s Day weekend, we took Friday off work and drove to a campground halfway between Salida and Buena Vista, CO. We’d been planning the trip for quite a while, since we really wanted to get out camping! Unfortunately, many of our favorite campgrounds were still closed for the season, at least until Memorial Day. Hardly anyone was camped at Cascade, where we ended up—probably because the weather forecast was pretty crummy. It looked like it was going to be cold and wet most of the weekend. We brought warm coats, rain gear, and our trusty Noah’s Tarp, just in case.

We found a great site, and Dave managed to get the tarp and tent set up in a light rain. We climbed back in the car and drove to Salida to get some lunch. We stopped at the grocery store for dry wood (the campground host had some wood for sale, but it was clearly wet). The weather was reasonably nice in Salida, if chilly. I was hopeful that we’d have a spell of clear skies so that we could cook dinner back at the campground. As we drove farther and farther into the mountains and toward the campground, the snow started to fall. Snow! We were soon driving in a blizzard. There was nothing to do but make the best of it, so Dave started a fire and we put together our little pizzas with our gloves on. It ended up being a lot of fun to eat dinner huddled together under the tarp.

We put Phoebe to bed in the tent wrapped in a sleeping bag we’d tied with a piece of string to make it shorter, her fleece bear blanket, and her fleece pajamas. When Dave and I went to bed, not much later, we could hear the snow falling on the tent. After a while we couldn’t hear it anymore and figured it had stopped, but it turned out that it had just gotten deep enough on top of the tent that the old snow was muffling the new. Of course, we’d brought our “new” tent, which is a 3-season model. But we were warm enough in our sleeping bags, and we shook off the snow each time we woke up. Phoebe woke up crying in the middle of the night, so I pulled her into my sleeping bag with me. I was warmer that way, and she went back to sleep with no problem.

In the morning, Dave got up and made eggs for breakfast. It was a beautiful day, clear and sunny. The snow sparkled on the trees and was dripping off as it melted. Here’s a video of snow falling from the trees around our campsite.

We took a bunch of photos.

Sometimes kids have to suffer being interviewed by parents hoping to get a cute video for the blog:

After spending some time at the campsite, we headed back into Salida to find a hike. First we stopped at the outdoor store to look for a headlamp for Phoebe. We were in luck! They had a headlamp designed for kids. We put Phoebe in the backpack and walked from town up the “S” mountain, which has a road that spirals around it all the way to the fire lookout on top. It was a beautiful day for a hike—we could wear shorts and short sleeved shirts. Phoebe slept almost the whole time in the backpack. When we reached town again, we stopped for some ice cream and then drove back to the campground. It rained a little bit, but was much warmer than it had been on Friday.

We were able to make our bratwurst and mashed potatoes. Dave and I could even sit around the fire and read after Phoebe went to sleep. Sunday morning we had some oatmeal and packed up.

Here Phoebe plays with the pole that holds up our tarp. She’s wearing a sweater Dave’s grandma made him when he was a baby!

We were in the car before lunchtime, so we went into Buena Vista to eat lunch at the Eddyline brewpub, one of our favorites. We remembered the time a baby Phoebe cried so much that we had to ask for our food to go and then eat it in the car! This time she was more interested in sharing my lemonade and eating her own little pizza. We tried to play outside for a few minutes afterward, but it got really windy, so after checking out some kids working on their trials riding, we got back into Luna for the 2.5-hour ride home.