A Colorado Rocky Mountain Experience

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Kathy's nephew,Forrest ,told us about a place up in the mountains where he hunts. We have spent the last two weeks enjoying the area. We went off route 34 and took a small dirt Arapaho National Forest road, 139, and about two miles back we found a campsite near Keyser Creek. It was a perfect outdoor spot with the rushing waters bubbling over rocks to keep a constant music playing.

Will fixed the awning that had blown off in a sudden wind burst in NM; it now rolls in and out like new with the instulation of the $40 piece we got from Fimma, the awning company. The man Will talked to descibed exactly how to put it in and it worked great. Will also fixed the locks on the cargo doors with some aluminum we got at the hardware store. He fashioned new clamps and they catch just right.

We collected willow stems along the creek and Kathy made willow trays, a craft she learned outside of Whitehorse in Yukon Territory in 2003.

Days past with lazy mornings, watching the water flow, the butterflies flutter, and the bugs swarm. We sipped coffee and played scrabble, chinese checkers and maliki. Puzzles, word searches and reading passed away more days.

Not much wildlife in our little camp, but we did see a mule deer with its big ears on our way in. A grey squirril runs on the rocks across the dirt road. Downy woodpeckers dill the dead trees just up the road and small grey birds dip and dive in the waters edge. A hummingbird trills going though our camp. Kathy tried making a feeder from a coffee jar and colored tape. She hung it in the pine tree at the edge of camp. One morning we heard the trill and it stopped sitting on a thin twig near the feeder examining it for a long momment then flew off not to return to it again to the feeder, but did zip through camp from time to time.

Will picked Kathy some wildflowers which we kept in a can on the table. The bees and butterflies came to have their morning nectur while we sat sipping coffee.

Vehicles went up and down the dirt road so to keep the dust down, Will would throw buckets of water on th road in front of our camp. To keep the nagging flies and biting bugs away he kept a smoke fire going in the little chimney. Both worked perfectly and we had a great camp area.

The pull off was large enough to pull the roadtrek in at a slant that ave us privacy from the passers by. The area was curved with the creek running along the back. Across the creek was a tall hill with a large rock outcropping to one side. Our little spot had a few green pine tres, most of the forest is rust colored with dead pines, killed by the pine beetles. On each side is a little forest area as it curves back to the road. Across the street is a narrow level area followed by a steep hillside.

Each day we take our walk along the dirt road. Up about a mile is a large pull off where people camp. One group had ATVs and dirt bikes for an army, but from our camp we never heard them unless they went down the road which was seldom. About two miles up the road is a dirt road going up the mountain.

One day we drove out of camp and continued on the dirt road toward Frazer. The road lead us up to a beautiful meadow with beaver dams. We looked for elk, but only found places where the grass was matted down and droppings as evidence of their exsistence.

We returned to our camping spot and spent more time there. It was a wonderful place to call home for a time.

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