On the Road with Maya: Back in the Saddle...

Chalk Creek near the Colorado Trail

The Colorado Trail runs from Denver to Durango.

With Silver all serviced and brand new house batteries, we said goodbye to Denver (for an hour or more – the Denver metroplex is huge!) and headed back to the forest to spend the Fourth of July away from the crowds. We found a great camping spot at Buffalo Springs Campground in the Pike National Forest. This was a place we had scouted a week ago when we were in the area and it turned out to be perfect for us. There were only five other campsites occupied and since there was a fire ban in place because of dry weather, no fireworks. We talked to some of the children campers and they were disappointed that they couldn’t have a campfire but marshmallows were roasted over camp stoves and they were almost as good. All in all, it was a peaceful and quiet holiday, if a bit on the dusty side. The summer rains will be welcome when they come.

Crossing a creek in the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness

It was a bit dusty -- both the campground and the roads in the Buffalo Peaks.

We took Maya into the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness the next day for a hike. She has been doing really well and we planned to go slow and turn back when she got tired. The trail was mostly downhill in the beginning which made it easy but meant we had to consider that Maya would have to climb back out. We stopped for a picnic and rested about an hour and then walked a little more before turning back. We took our time climbing out and Maya made it fine. It turned out that we hiked almost 4 miles, the most Maya has done on this trip. We rewarded her with a big dinner and an early bedtime.

Sego Lily

A 'Rose Pine'

This wild rose was climbing up a pine tree.

We didn't see any moose, but lots of 'moose sign' in the wilderness.

(Thought you might be tired of flower pictures...)

The next day we moved on to Cascade Campground in the San Isabel National Forest south of Buena Vista. This campground was in a beautiful canyon cut by Chalk Creek. Some of Colorado’s ‘Fourteeners’ (peaks over 14,000 feet) are located here, Mt. Princeton, being one of the better known. The Colorado Trail also runs through this canyon.

The Chalk Cliffs, which give this area its name, are not really chalk but kaolinite

'Mountain Mask"

This formation in the Chalk Cliffs looks like a snowy owl

We didn’t try to climb Mt. Princeton, but we did hike a few miles on the Colorado Trail one morning while Maya took a day off. The section we hiked was very steep and we were worn out after that little climb. Maya went on two short hikes with us, one around Chalk Lake and one on the Agnes Vaille Falls Trail.

On the Agnes Vaille Falls Trail

Chalk Lake

We also visited the ghost town of St. Elmo near the end of the canyon. St. Elmo is an abandoned mining town that is being restored and people have turned some of the old town structures into summer residences. About the only thing we didn’t do in Chalk Canyon was soak in the hot springs but there will be other opportunities to visit hot springs later – Colorado is full of them.