A month in the life: Twin Lakes

Twin Lakes, Colorado //

We have two days to make our way to the front range for Overland Expo, so today we pack up and work on inching our way east.  The drive back to Buena Vista is exquisite.  Cottonwood Pass, topping out at 8,000 feet, is a favorite of mine.  Anywhere in the state that you can get above treeline, you can expect to be rewarded with breathtaking panoramic views of the Rocky Mountains.  If my belly wasn’t so ready for lunch in BV, I would have voted to stop at the summit of the pass to go for a hike.  

In Buena Vista, we grab lunch, refill our water, and do a load of laundry.  These were all attempts to kill some time during the heat of the day before finding a place to camp.  But it’s still pretty toasty at four o’clock when we’ve run out of things to do.  Instead of staying on the dry, deserty east side of BV like we originally intended, we head north and enjoy more time in the air-conditioned cab of the truck.  

A half hour north is the town of Twin Lakes and a beautiful, albeit popular, dispersed camping area I’ve always wanted to try out.  It’s a Wednesday, so I feel like we should have a good chance of finding a spot.  When we crest the hill and see RVs lining the rim, I think we might be out of luck.  We can see an unoccupied fire ring atop a hill in the distance, so we decide to drive through the neighborhood of RVs to see what we can find.  Past the RVs is a short but steep hill that has effectively cut off the trailers and fifth-wheels from going any further.  At the top of the hill, we find a handful of unoccupied campsites with unobstructed views of Twin Lakes and the Sawatch mountains.  

This is precisely why I was interested in leaving our travel trailer behind this year.  Colorado is a popular place to camp during the summer, and traveling in just the truck opens up our options, allowing us to access so many more places.  We’re not interested in four-wheeling through difficult terrain.  We simply want the option to overcome the single obstacle that stops 90% of campers from continuing any further.  We’ve said for years, getting past one obstacle on any given road is all it takes to get past the crowds and find better camping options.

Our campsite sits on the edge of an exposed hillside and offers some of the best views you could ask for.  It’s one of those places that’s impossible not to be in awe of your surroundings.  I have a hard time putting a camera down at a place like this.  After soaking up every moment of sunset, I retire into the camper for the night.  But the show was hardly over.  Mark ends up staying outside for hours, enjoying an unexpected meteor shower.  Every few seconds, he sees another shooting star cross the sky.  From the moment we arrive to the moment we go to bed, we’re captivated by the environment.

We could easily stay here for a week; however, tomorrow we need to continue east.  I think it’s safe to say we will most definitely be back.