We have loved living in Colorado for three years, and this baby girl over the past 9 months has made us love living here even more. She brings us so much joy and we love being a part of introducing her to Colorado living. The first weekend of August we met up for a camping trip and 14er (mountain over 14,000 feet in elevation) hike with Krista, Daniel, and Gabs. I was going to spend the day in the beautiful outdoors with baby girl while the rest of the gang hiked to the summit of Redcloud. Well, the camping happened, but the 14er hiking.....ehhh, not so much.
The camping was an adventure all in itself. We got to our campsite, if I remember correctly, about four in the afternoon. It looked like a potential for some rain so we got our tents set up and the rain started. It wasn't "some" rain like we expected. It was rain, rain, and plenty more rain all evening and into the night. I thought it was still a nice evening all together. It was fun and cozy tucked away from the rain in Krista and Daniel's tent. Caleb affectionately named their 6-man tent the Marmot Mansion. We talked and laughed, played Farkle, were entertained by Gabriella and waited for the rain to stop to get some dinner cooking. The rain would not cease. It would only let up for a few minutes at a time so we managed to grill our dinner with the assistance of an umbrella.
One of my favorite moments was holding Gabs in the tent and humming to her as she fell asleep in my arms. So precious! While we were warm and dry in the tent and I was comfy holding baby girl, Daniel was out working hard in the sprinkling rain trying to make a campfire that Krista and I both wanted so badly. How can you go camping and not have a campfire?! Even if it is raining! The rain let up enough for Daniel to get some flames going and to dry out some wood. He had a nice campfire going for us to enjoy even in the sprinkling rain. Caleb and I went to sleep to rain wondering if we'd wake up soaking wet because the amount of rain accumulating on our tent fabric. Thankfully, we did stay dry since the rain stopped shortly after we got in our sleeping bags.
Caleb and Daniel woke up at 5am to assess the weather conditions for hiking the 14er (which can be tricky considering it's still dark out at 5am). It appeared to maybe be cloudy and cause for a potentially wet hike so the decision was made not to hike. The guys both later said they laid awake for a while wondering if they should just go for it anyway and maybe it'd end up being good weather. It was beautiful clear blue skies when we all woke up later in the morning. It would have been a perfect day for hiking to the summit of the 14er Redcloud. Their was still some talk amongst Krista, Daniel, and Caleb of wondering if they should still start out on the hike although it was later in the morning but ultimately decided not to go. They all want to try again so next week will be TAKE TWO on hiking the 14er , weather permitting, while Gabs and I hang out for the day.
It was a relaxed morning around the campfire cooking breakfast and loving on baby girl. She slept really well in the tent with really only waking up once during the night crying but Krista got her back to sleep after a few minutes and all was well.
After everything was cleaned up and packed, we headed farther up the 4WD road higher into the mountains. We found what I would say is a hidden jewel of Colorado. It may not be that hidden really, but I had never heard of it. Krista and Daniel had been up here once before and remembered where the turn off was to find this area in the mountains. I felt like we had driven into another world. This other world was American Basin. We were mostly above the tree line so the trees were scarce, but everywhere we looked was covered in grasses and wildflowers.
This video gives a 360 view. Sorry for the loud noises from the wind. It was a little chilly with the breeze and with being close to 12,000 feet in elevation as you can tell with us wearing jackets.
There were a few waterfalls we spotted as we looked around the basin. One was flowing from a much higher elevation down the steep mountainside. The one in the picture below flowed into a river which ran by the field of wildflowers we were in.
There's a feeling you get when you are out in the mountains far from any town or city. And then when you come upon a place filled with so much beauty then that feeling is expounded on. Relaxed is the best word I can use to describe it but that doesn't give a complete enough description. You feel relaxed and free and spirited and peaceful with the beauty of the mountains and the wildflowers surrounding you. Like you could spend hours sitting in this field perfectly happy.
Maybe the face of this little one shows this feeling. Or maybe she's just excited because she's been sitting in a field of flowers picking them and the grass which is way more fun than playing with a toy.
I could keep posting picture after picture trying to give you a sense of the beauty we were surrounded by, but as we know pictures truly don't do justice to being in the beauty yourself. So my solution is each one of you should come spend some time in Colorado with us. We'll take you out to see the Rocky Mountain beauty for yourself.
Stay tuned for what's to come with this week's TAKE TWO for Krista, Daniel, and Caleb making another attempt at hiking Redcloud.
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