Perfect Colorado Weekend

Last week NPR said that last weekend was going to be best Coloradan weekend to see the fall colors...and they were right.

My pal Sarah, her husband, the ear doctor, two of our other friends and I went up to Guanella Pass above Georgetown, CO to go camping for the weekend.

As we drove away from Boulder and up into the mountains I was overwhelmed by how beautiful everything was. The yellow aspen leaves seemed to be glowing in the bright mid-day sun. Set against the deep green of the pine trees they seemed almost electrified. The aspens grow in veins down the mountain and make it seem like huge deposits of gold embedded in the sides of the majestic Rockies.

We got up to our campsite and much to our chagrin, the gates were locked. It turns out that the campground we were planning on using was closed up for the season. CRAPPY! We hemmed and hawed trying to decide if we were going to be rebels and laugh in the face of park rangers, or if we were going to submit to their unreasonable demands.

While we were waiting a very nice older couple drove up next to us. We asked them if they thought we'd be in trouble if we stayed in a locked up campground and the wife said, "Well, we're the Beckers. We do what we want and we say you can go ahead and camp there."

So, under the authority of the Becker's we decided to stay put.

The only problem was that we'd planned on car camping....which means we brought pretty much everything, including the kitchen sink. This was a problem because we now had to leave our cars outside of the gates and haul everything down the road to the campsite.

After about 3 trips each we finally had our camp set up.

We made dinners (the best tin foil dinner I've ever had) and made smores. We laughed and had the best time imaginable. As it turned colder we all decided it was time to get into our tents to the warmth of our sleeping bags.

In the morning we took a short hike up to Silver Dollar lake. As usually, Sarah took off with all the power of a steam engine, effortlessly steaming up the side of the mountain. I, on the other hand, rather enjoy a leisurely walk. I doggedly chugged my way up and made it to the lake in time. The view was breathtaking. There was actually still a bit of snow packed up above the lake from last year.

On the way home I slept as sound as I ever have. I woke up about 15 minutes outside of Boulder and looked at my friends. I realized I am one of the luckiest people because of the great people I know and love.