camping in steamboat springs, colorado

This past weekend we took a 4 day, 3 night camping trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As our friend, Dwight said, we are tired today from playing so hard ;-) Not to mention all that driving! But it was so worth it, and if I knew then what I know now, I'd do it all the same.

See, if you look at a map, the route which appears the most efficient from Longmont to Steamboat Springs is directly through Rocky Mountain National Park. We are now on our second yearly pass to RMNP, and we go there often in the summer and fall, but we had never actually driven through the whole park like that. It took forever! All the creeping along at 25 to 35 miles per hour, against steep drop-offs, winding up up up to 12,000 feet, over the Continental Divide, and back down (somewhat) again.

What exactly is the Continental Divide? Here is a map that shows you. West of the Continental Divide water runs toward the Pacific, and east of The Divide water runs toward the Atlantic. If Longmont were on this map it would be somewhere near the "R" in Rocky Mountain National Park.

So now that you see where we went, here are the photographs. First is Rocky Mountain National Park...

Above is right near where we went camping last fall.

Up up up...

Words can not explain how impressive it is...

...or how close the edge of the road is to the drop-off.

So much snow up there still in late June.

Coming back down we saw elk and later pronghorn.

Then, for a while it looked a little like Lake George in upstate New York.

...but with snow on the mountains.

And then, all the sudden it looked like the desert for a while...

...before it became very green.

...more and more green.

And then we were in Steamboat Springs -so Greeeeeeeen!

And it reminded me of parts of California.

First things first we got set up at our campsite on the river, at the edge of town. 

I had to take the classic Steamboat photograph on all the postcards (above).

Zoe, in awe, on our first night in Steamboat.

We went to the closest health food store first: Bamboo Market. It was adorable, and right on the Yampa River. We split our first pint of Coconut Bliss. About $6 dollars for four, ambiance included, -not bad;-) We also got fresh fruit for breakfast in the morning. (You can see more about eating gf/cf in Steamboat on The Spunky Coconut blog.)

First breakfast at the campsite on Saturday morning.

Am I crazy or does this (above) remind anyone else of California?

We took the gondola up to the top to go hiking and have a picnic lunch. 

It was crazy gorgeous. 

The pictures do no do it justice at all.

Happy Anniversary honey!

Coming back down.

Cherry in the gondola. Too cute.

Another health food store that was expensive but cuuuuute! All three health food stores were in walking distance from one another, and we felt very spoiled. (for more on that click over to the Spunky Coconut)

Eating more Coconut Bliss in the rain at the campsite.

Good morning.

On the way to Strawberry Hot Springs...

...and Strawberry Hot Springs. -Heavenly...

Chipmunk trying to get in my picnic bag. (and trying to eat the almond butter off my fingers when I shooed him away!)

Sooooo beautiful! I could totally live there! Hmmm... ;-)