As you might know my family prefers to stay out of Houston over the summer. As the school gets into summer vacation for our kids, we typically take two or three weeks off and go somewhere out of town. This year we decided to do something different. Since my wife works remotely, it doesn't matter where she works from, and she always wanted to spend an extended summer in high elevation Colorado. So we decided to rent a house in Winter Park, Colorado, and about 9000 ft, for a month and my wife and kids stayed there for the whole month. I did a bit of weekend fly-in back and forth, because I had some work in town in Houston and I also wanted some kid free time (wink, wink!)
However, during the 4th of July week, I stayed there for the whole week and we decided to go camping with the family. Lately we haven't been camping that much, in fact last time we camped was during 2022-23 in the middle of Covid. It is always a good idea to keep some bag-nights under our belts!
The place we chose, is near Walden Colorado, Ranger Lake Campground. That is a part of Colorado that even in the height of summer travel season remains less crowded. It is part of the State Forest State Park on either side of US highway 14, between Walden and Fort Collins, CO.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FXBRyZEc6w9Exkx68
The state park has a nice visitor center, not far from the Ranger Lakes, shown above, and it is a peaceful quiet place. They have stock the lakes with Cutthroat Trouts. Trouble is, we didn't bring fishing gear and the place was remote enough to rent fishing rods on demand, a big opportunity missed. Fishing will have to wait for the next trip.
The campground itself is on the northern bank of Michigan River. This area was affected by recent forest fires about 10 years back and you can see the evidence in the new vegetation and burnt trees that are still visible near the campgrounds and up on the hills.
There are trails all around the lakes, and Lake Agnes trail that originates from the next campground called Crags.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xpbTfPhf9DDFvK1BA
There are many other hiking trails to choose from in the area and one can spend days hiking while keeping a base camp at either Ranger Lakes or Crags campground. The most impressive thing that I remember is the night sky though.
Since the area is so far from the city light and very sparsely populated there was no light pollution. I didn't have any good camera. This picture of Milky Way, is just my iPhone on long exposure, set on the campground picnic table at wide angle. I don't know about you, but I can print this picture at 20*30 inches and can get reasonable result. I was lucky that moon was setting right past midnight during that week and it was perfectly clear sky. I will remember this night sky for a long time.
