The weekend we planned to go camping in July finally arrived! The weather was perfect. We left Denver, CO around 5:30pm after work, deciding to eat at the campsite. Then we encountered I-70 traffic. We finally arrived in Dillon at 7:30 hungry and cranky. Did I mention we had not reserved a campsite? Don’t you just pick one at random that’s available? NOT SO! Unfortunately, a major bike race was scheduled for that weekend. We drove to nearby campgrounds and all sites were taken. Now really hungry and cranky at 9, we admitted defeat ending up at Arby’s deciding we would just go home majorly bummed. Honestly, we were frustrated with ourselves for being unprepared. We should never have left this camping trip up to fate!
Heading home, fully fed, we decided to not give up. My phone GPS indicated a campground on the way to Winter Park 25 minutes away. Driving halfway up the pass, instead of a campground, was a steep drop off the side of the mountain! It is dark and late and we turn around feeling very defeated.
However, other idea surfaced. We were near Jones Pass-a well known dispersed camping area. But at 10pm and darkness, how in the world would be ever find a spot? Thats when we decide we are already invested so let’s try. We start driving up a 4 wheel drive road. Did I mention this road is rough and probably not the best idea to drive in the dark? It looks as if all spots are taken, until by some lucky chance I think I located a spot with the headlights of our car. We head for the spot and unfortunately high center the car. Site open or not, we are stuck there for the night! Now we are praying the site is vacant!!! At 10:45, we set up our tent in the pitch black with use of our headlamps. At this point, we start laughing because this whole night has been such a mess!
Thankfully for us it somehow worked out and we found that spot. But honestly we were so lucky. Lucky or not, it was beyond stressful and not the weekend we had planned. I share this story as a reminder-Don’t leave your campsite up to fate!
Let me suggest a few tips.
- Reserve your campground site in advance on recreation.gov or state campground sites
- When planning a dispersed camping trip, plan to arrive early before dark in order to find a site
- PREPARE! PREPARE! PREPARE!
