Nine campers and two counselors journeyed into the wilderness of the National Park for two nights and three days last week. We stayed at a back country campsite that was called Gray Jay, which was about 5 miles up the East Inlet Trailhead on the Western side of the park. On Monday and Tuesday, we did some practice hikes to the Old Crags Hotel Site up in Eldorado Canyon and also did a distance hike out of the canyon to Dowdy Draw Trailhead. The campers did a great job on these hikes!
After learning a lot of back country camping essentials, like Leave No Trace ethics and group expedition behavior, the campers learned what kid of clothing to bring on our camping trip and how to fit their packs appropriately. On Tuesday afternoon, we packed all the packs with our clothes and all of our food for the trip, along with tents, bear boxes, and crazy creeks.
On Wednesday morning, all of the campers and the counselors headed into the van with their packed backpacks, and drove two and a half hours to the Western side of RMNP, through Winter Park and Granby. We had a quick snack of apples and headed out onto the trail. We had lunch about a half hour onto the trail, just when it began to rain. The Western side of the Divide and National Park are known for having a lot of rain, and we prepared for this. We put on our raincoats and trekked through the rain. It eventually stopped raining once we were closer to the campsite. We were ecstatic to reach our campsite after a 4 hour hike!
We prepared a dinner of Macaroni and Cheese and chicken, with a dessert of cookies. The boys separated into their two tents and the girls into theirs after cleaning their Sierra cups and drinking the leftover water. Everyone seemed to love this part of the trip (joking!).
On Thursday morning, we woke up to the boys getting really excited about a yellow-bellied marmot that lived near the pit toilet. We had a breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate and headed out on the trail with a couple packs for the whole group. We hiked further up the East Inlet trail towards a series of five lakes. We hiked to Lost Pine Lake, Spirit Lake, and Lake Verna. The campers really enjoyed hanging out on the beach and trying to cross the river. One too many wet feet later, we decided to enjoy the sunshine and eat some lunch. Tim, a counselor, lead an activity that lead us to sending a ship made of bark onto the water. We headed back to our campsite, and many campers wanted to continue to make bark boats! We made our dinner in the pouring rain, which consisted of pita pizzas and a surprise pudding dessert which was delicious. After a lot of bonding experience, we all headed into our tents.
On Friday morning, we found a surprise next to our iodine-treated water bottles! The yellow-bellied marmot left a smelly surprise in the middle of our campsite to tell us his opinion of our stay, he preferred that we left! We made a nice breakfast of egg burritos and some quesadillas for the vegetarians or people that didn’t eat eggs. We started to clean up camp and put away tents and pack up our bags again. When everyone was ready to go, we headed down the trail again. We saw a few foxes and some squirrels, but we never saw a moose like we were hoping. Everyone was exhausted when we returned to the van, and we decided to pack up quickly and eat lunch in the van.
We returned to camp and gave back all the gear that belonged to camp, like packs, tents, food, and bear boxes, and then it was time to go! Tim and Kiki had a few closing words about the trip, and let the campers go. Some amazing experiences were had on this trip by campers and counselors alike!
Tags: Backpacking, bear boxes, camping, hiking, Leave No Trace, Rocky Mountain National Park, tents, wilderness, wildlife