State Forest State Park

Day 1:

We got up at a reasonable hour and had some coffee and breakfast. We finished packing up the car and headed out.

We got to Winter Park in what felt tlike record time and turned off US 40. According to the Googles, we were supposed to then turn off onto another road that we realized was gravel when we got to it… Which would’ve been okay, except that we really needed gas and the town of Rand was nothing more than a tiny sign and a farm or two.

We kept driving all the way to Walden, about 20 minutes out of our way – but. We had some lunch at the Rock Creek Lounge (???) at the Antlers Inn, which was delicious, and got some gas. All of us (Jeep included) fed, we continued on to the park.

We arrived a few minutes after 1:00, which happened to be check in time at our campsite, and pitched camp.

Our plan for the afternoon was to head to Lake Agnes, which I remembered from my run out here. It was beautiful. It’s a short hike (albeit straight uphill), and the small alpine lake has a tiny little island in the middle of it. Unfortunately, and much to Matt’s dismay, there’s no swimming, so we (and by we I mean he) couldn’t go explore it.

That little bit of land sticking out into the water is the tiny island. It’s SO cool.

We farted around the lake for awhile and then headed back to the car and drove back to camp.

I’m a sucker for wildflowers. Especially columbine.

When we started discussing dinner, my dumb ass realized I’d managed to forget a couple crucial ingredients for one of the dinners I’d planned. And syrup for pancakes.

We weren’t all that hungry anyway, since lunch had been huge, so we had chips and salami and cheese for dinner. SUPER healthy choices…

Sunset was pretty amazing at camp.

A little time with the LavaBox, and then bedtime. I think I made it till almost 9:00pm!!

Day 2:

I slept pretty well, actually. I usually do in a tent. It was a minute or two after 6:00 am when I got up and out – it had sounded like it was raining before that. I was wondering how wet everything would be, but other than a couple drops on the stove, hardly anything looked like it had rained.

Matt got up shortly after I did and we had some coffee and oatmeal before heading out for the day.

Today’s plan was to hike to Kelly Lake via the Hidden Valley trail, a part of the Never Summer course that I didn’t quite make it to. The AllTrails said the road was sorta rough, and by the time we got to the end of the 2wd section, we were wondering what that meant… It wasn’t THAT bad.

Of course, when the road went to 4wd, Matt wanted to drive it. We were in our Jeep Rubicon, after all. I probably made it a quarter mile before I started feeling queasy… My belly REALLY doesn’t like the bumping around.

We went back to the parking lot and started hiking up the road. Eventually we got to the actual trailhead and headed up the trail.

The trail split about two miles in , and we were so damned tired that we almost decided to go to the closer lake and say screw it… And then (thankfully) decided not to be lame and go to Kelly Lake after all.

It was beautiful out there. The ridge lines, the meadows, the wildflowers… It was almost dizzying, the sheer gorgeousness of the place.

The wildflowers were NEXT LEVEL.

Eventually we made it to the top of another saddle and we saw the lake below us. More spectacular-ness. This time, we opted not to descend all the way down to the lake. Neither of us particularly wanted to have to climb back up. In any case, we had a great view from where we stopped. We hung out for a bit and had a snack, then headed back down the trail towards the car.

The view wasn’t too bad, either.

Back at camp, Matt stuck his feet in the water, as he does, and we made some dinner (One Pot Tomato Basil Pasta). It was delicious!

That evening we were treated to a GORGEOUS sunset! Then, to bed!

Another spectacular sunset!

Day 3:

We have to go home today! Sniff sniff. I don’t love going home.

We took our time this morning, drinking our coffee and breaking down camp slowly. When we were ready, we started driving home.

The sunrise didn’t suck, either.

We stopped at yet another mountain lake on our way home (Zimmerman Lake), and took a short hike around it. We also stopped at a random picnic area somewhere along the river in Poudre Canyon and farted around on the rocks for a little bit… Sure was pretty!