Ric and I took this camping trip in June 1997 but it is one that really sticks with me. We packed up our camping gear, and our dogs Keota and Champ. Champ was just a young pup at the time. We loaded up our brand new Toyota 4Runner to test out its grit, and headed to Lake City, Colorado.
Lake City is an 1870’s mining town, located in a valley formed by the convergence of Henson Creek, and the headwaters of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. The picturesque community is surrounded by majestic, 14,000 foot peaks, and tall, old growth Cottonwood trees line the highway through town. Lake City has an elevation of 8,671 feet.
On the way to our camp site we traveled through some beautiful country. I had to stop to take a picture of the "marmot crossing" sign. I had never seen such a sign and to this day I have never seen another one. You know you are remote when you have to stop for marmots!
We finally found our designated camp in a hard to find state forest campground and set up camp. When we stay in one spot for a week we like to set up the "circus tent" which is really just a huge LL Bean tarp that is plenty roomy for outside living when the unpredictable mountain weather gets rough. We learned long ago that it is not too fun to spend all day in a tiny tent with two dogs. It is our outside room with a view.
I will be continuing the story of our Lake City trip with more pictures in a future post. Stay tuned to hear about our 4wheeling adventure to Cinnamon Pass.
