We went camping with some friends at Penitente Canyon on the suggestion of one of them. The idea was to go somewhere with no cell service, where we could actually disconnect from the world and enjoy the little things for a few days.

It almost worked. We had a little bit of cell service, albeit very limited. Just enough to be able to check in to real life way too much. But I digress.

This wasn’t the first time we’d been to Penitente. The beauty of it is, it’s almost always empty. It’s remote, it’s beautiful, it’s secluded… And yet, it’s close to things. At the canyon itself, there’s rock climbing, hiking, trail running, mountain biking, beautiful campgrounds… And in reality, it’s only about an hour to Great Sand Dunes NP and Alamosa and the cute little town of Del Norte is only 20 minutes away if that’s more your thing.

We headed out on a Sunday night after work. We had decided to just drive to Salida (a less than three hour drive) and just camp out under the stars there. We hadn’t done that in YEARS, and it did not disappoint. It’s always cool to just have a sleeping pad under your bag and be able to just look up and see the night sky… And the stars were BEAUTIFUL!

After a beautiful sunrise the next morning, we hung out in Salida for a little bit, driving up the hills outside of town to check out the views. We also found a random dirt road someone had told us about with more dispersed camping closer to town, so we checked that out as well.

We got to Penitente in the afternoon, said hello to our friends, and pitched camp. The evening then consisted of hanging out by a campfire and lots of chatting…

The next couple of days were full of quiet sunrises with coffee in hand, trail runs and mountain bike rides and gravel rides in the beautiful high desert, and fireside chats with s’mores.

A lovely three days later, we headed back home, refreshed and recharged from a few days away at a beautiful remote location!

Here’s the video: