A few months ago, we decided one way to combat the quarantine doldrums would be to take up camping. We live in Colorado, after all, and there are no shortage of places to go in these parts. It’s a way to take in nature, and at least is a reasonably safe way to vacation in the middle of a pandemic. We are outside and spaced out well from other people.
So we bought a tent and various camping supplies, and as soon as Rocky Mountain National Park started taking reseverations again, back in May, we jumped online like we were buying Hamilton tickets to try to snag a campsite.
On Sunday, the date of our first reservation arrived. It would be our first family camping trip. So we loaded up the car (possibly overloaded the car) and made the 90-minute drive up to Estes Park.
Our first stop was at the Visitors Center, where we stopped to ask about possibly taking the kids to ranger talks. We were informed that unfortunately, the ranger talks are on hiatus due to COVID, but the park ranger had something else for the kids. She officially deputized them Junior Park Rangers and gave them an awesome wooden badge and a bag of supplies, including a magnifying glass, notebook for writing down observations, binoculars, and other goodies.
Now this may sound like a standard kiddie giveaway, but Amelia took this as a high honor. She is fascinated by nature and she was incredibly proud to be an official Junior Ranger. She wore her badge the rest of the trip.
We arrived at the campsite and she immediately started exploring and taking notes about the trees, the rocks, and the little chipmunks who hung around our site.
Meanwhile, Erin and I unloaded the car, set up the tent and got the camp ready. Before long, we were all set so we decided to take a little hike around our immediate area. There was a storm looming, but it was a beautiful hike, nonetheless.
We got back to the tent just in time for the storm to actually hit, so we hunkered down for about an hour. Having bought this particular tent in large part because of the good reviews it was getting in the area of waterproofing, I was very happy to see that the reviews were right on and the tent held up well. Consider me a happy customer.
Becasue it’s Colorado, and afternoon storms are common, it blew over by around 5:30, and we came back outside to an absolutely beautiful evening. I got some firewood and started our campfire, and soon we were cooking up some burgers and potatoes.
Afterward, of course, it was time for s’mores.
The kids were pretty tuckered, so they actually turned in pretty early. I wound up buying more firewood because I was so into sitting by the campfire. Night fell and the neighboring camps all turned in, too, and I found myself for the first time in that true darkness of being up in the wilderness with just a single flame lighting my surroundings.
It was incredibly tranquil. I had intended on reading or listening to music or doing something while sitting by the fire, but instead I was just pulled into the fire itself. It was very meditative and for the first time in I can’t remember how long, I was thinking about absolutely nothing excpect the moment I was inhabiting.
Erin came out and joined me a bit later, and we were treated to clearing of the clouds, so we had about an hour where the stars were so bright and close, you felt like you could touch them. Our view was a little limited by trees, but it was unbelievably brilliant.
I finally let the fire fizzle out, doused what was left, and headed into the tent to sleep. The kids were sleeping probably sounder than they do at home. Amazing what fresh mountain air can do.
