It was getting chilly already, long before dark. Thunderstorms coming!
Yesterday we took Emily on her first camping trip! She seemed to really enjoy being outside, watching the trees, listening to all the new sounds, etc. We stayed at Kelly Dahl campground, between Nederland and Rollinsville. The campground is beautiful, well maintained, and close to civilization. That’s the one drawback I guess – you could hear cars on CO 119 just a quarter mile away, and lots of trains came through just one mile away in Rollinsville. Still, in the middle of the night it was still quieter than Boulder, so we were clearly “getting away” in a real sense.
There was rain in the forecast, but it barely got in the way of fun. It started to rain just after we’d set up the tent and before we went back to Nederland for dinner, and then it rained a bit in the middle of the night. But after that it cleared up enough to see stars.
We spent one night at the campsite and drove back down the next day, counting the trip a success, even though the grown-ups only got about 2 hours of sleep (I think Louis might have gotten a bit more). So it was a really quick jaunt up into the mountains, all told, but still so worth all the effort and planning and preparation! And indeed, there was a hefty amount of that. Surely, our next camping trip might be a bit quicker to organize.
Ready for a night under the stars!
Someone remarked that we were “brave” to take on a trip like this with such a little one, but I think the hardest part was really the logistics, and the research, and the ordering of outdoorsy stuff for a tiny human, most of which we did not use (the sunblock, hat, and shades for instance – although those will come in handy some day).
By far and away the best purchase was four (4!) different sleepsacks for Emily. I’m in love with all of them – so cozy! One is fuzzy and fleecy, one is luxuriously silky and padded, one is a “winter weight” quilted, and another is extremely poofy and looks warm. So we had lots of options for keeping her warm by layering any number of these (plus backups if she barfed on one).
The irony, I guess, is that the thing that prevented me from getting any sleep was still hovering over her imagining that she was getting hypothermic (it got down to 46F overnight). She was fine. She was sleeping like an angel. Yet still, I couldn’t rest!
Food time
I think the altitude was getting to Emily. So groggy!
The grownups went to Backcountry Pizza for dinner. We’ll save campsite cooking for when we’re ready to rough it just a bit more.
The headlamp family. Emily needs a little headlamp though!
So peaceful…
Zonked out in her cardboard box, complete with socks as arm warmers. Her mittens did arrive from Amazon the day we left for the trip, of course! Next time…
Sunrise
My best good morning face after 2 hours of sleep.