Mt. Elbert / Mt. Massive Camping Trip – Day 1

August 2nd 2010


The following day after returning from Cripple Creek I packed up my truck with all the essentials you need when camping. I had way too much camping gear and didn’t use half of it. I keep the camping gear for the family in plastic boxes in the garage. It was just easier to load the boxes so I was to make sure I had everything I needed. Didn’t need four rain ponchos but I needed one, stuff like that.

I hit the road about 10:15AM and was in the campsite I had chosen by 1:00PM, so I made pretty good time. I had to stop at the Coyote Cantina in Buena Vista to get a burrito. They have some decent Mexican Food and worth the stop. I can’t think of a time that I hadn’t stopped in, if I was coming or going that way.

I camped in the Half Moon Campground and had spot #1. It was a decent spot and was kind of surprised that no one had claimed it. It was a Monday though. The only thing that was a bummer was that I had to carry my stuff down a hill about a 100ft. I thought of it as a decent way to work out.

By 3:00PM on Monday I had camp setup and was ready to start enjoying the peace and quite and being unplugged for a while. Well the peace and quite didn’t last long!

I made one big mistake and I won’t make it again. I took our littlest dog Mable with me. She has done great on the trails around here and is overall usually a great dog. But OMG, all she did was whine and whine. She would stop at night when we were in the tent and for the most part of the trip she spent her time in the truck. I put a pillow and towel down for her and she would finally stop and sleep. I’d be sitting on the bank of the lake and she would just sit there and whine. Just sitting around camp she just whined. Very annoying! She did stop when we were on the trail hiking so that was a relief.

After camp was all setup and the wood stacked, I drove down the road to check everything out. Even for a Monday, I was surprised at the number of campers and hikers. It was actually pretty active all four days I was there. Both the Elbert and Massive trail head parking lots were full and you had to use the overflow area. It started to sprinkle so I decided to head back to camp and get the fire going. By the time I was back the light sprinkle and turned heavier. So I grabbed one of the four rain poncho’s and put it on. With a little work in the rain, I got the fire going. The rain letup to a sprinkle again which was nice.

The meal for the evening was bratwurst. I cooked four of them, ate three and gave one to Mable. That shut her up for about 60 seconds. After just kicking back by the fire in the rain and having a few cold ones I headed into the tent around 8:45PM. Didn’t take long to crash, but the old ears were pierced for any strange sounds. I didn’t have to worry about that to long as it started raining harder and I think it finally quite about 2 or 3 in the morning.

Mt. Elbert Trip

I left the house about 10am on Wednesday and headed towards Leadville. It was snowing as I was going through Woodland Park, but once past the pass the snow cleared and it was just overcast. Found a decent campsite, unloaded and setup camp. Built a fire and checked out the surroundings.

Made it up to Mt. Elbert and had a great time. It was cold, damn cold. I about froze to death at the top of the Peak and couldn’t wait to get down. The wind was blowing and a couple of time it just about pushed me over. The snow was fairly deep in area’s that had drifted over. Didn’t have a need for the snow shoes

I made my first attempt of doing a video documentary of my trip. Unfortunately I still have some bugs to work out as the camera I was using didn’t pick up the sound to well. I will try again in the next couple of weeks.



After doing Mt. Elbert and being in the cold, I decided to put a hold on Mt. Massive until summer or at least a day with sunshine.

Going Camping

I have scheduled time off work for this Wed, Thu and Friday. I have already gotten everything together and will just need to hit the store to pick up some food and get some firewood. So the plan is to head out early AM on Wednesday up to Half-moon Creek by Leadville and hike Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive.

Of course it will be fun to see if the weather is going to cooperate for this. It looks like we may have some snow dustings Monday and Tuesday up where I’m headed. I doubt that there will be much, but may prove interesting once I get up on the peaks.