Buena Vista

When we left Colorado Springs, we headed west to the Buena Vista area. We were only able to get a campsite for Thursday night, but the kids enjoyed making and playing with new friends while we were there. Big Sister had a rock decorating party with her new friends, and they had lots of fun decorating and hiding rocks for others to find.  We spent Thursday at Mount Princeton Hot Springs, where they had a super fun water slide, that was heated with water from the springs (Little Bud was a big fan - he likes his pool water nice and warm!). Towards the end of the day a crazy storm blew in (with lighting and hail!), so they gave us a rain check to come back another day - the kids super excited about that!

Friday morning we headed to San Isabel National  Forest to look for a dispersed camping site.  We found the most beautiful site to camp, and we all had a great time exploring the area and enjoying the beautiful mountain views. 

On Saturday we visited the Chalk Creek Fish Hatchery. It was so interesting to see all the work that goes into making Colorado (and surrounding states) such a great fishing destination. The kids were able to feed the fish (all different sizes) in the hatchery, which was fun. Afterwards, we drove up to Twin Lakes (near Aspen) where they caught some rainbow trout. 

On Sunday we headed back to the hot springs for a few hours (to use our rain check), before heading farther west. 

 

 

The view from our dispersed camping site in the national forest (they are first come, first serve free sites in certain areas on national land - most of these type of camping sites aren't RV accessible, but this area had plenty of accessible sites off of a groomed dirt road)

 

View of our campsite from one of the hiking trails 

 

Big Sisters marshmallow made a smiley face when she roasted it :)

This was a short hike from our campsite   

 

  

 

 

Big Sister found this camouflage caterpillar when she was exploring. She also found a ginormous termite mound and lots of elk and moose tracks and scat. Little Bud spotted several deer walking by while we were eating dinner done night.