Colorado Camping: Side by Side Ride

Yes, it is taken me a sweet forever to recap our Colorado camping trip. I'm blaming an error with my google photos as well as football camp and back to school busyness. There's a lot of catching up to do y'all! 

On the 3rd of July, after our trip to Alamosa, the Sand Dunes, and Creede Co, we woke up super early in the morning through on some horribly mismatched junkie clothes and set out for a side by side ride in the mountains. 

Megan and I were in lots of layers. It was cool in the morning and we figured that as we got higher in the mountains that it would be cool too, but we wanted to be prepared just in case. Also, we were prepared to get really dirty or muddy. 

I have to be honest, this was the day I was looking forward to the least! But, it was also a day that was so much fun and one that ended up being our favorites! 

I also didn't know this either, but the roads were super dusty. When we saw other people on side by side rides the day before, they all had bandanas. And they all looked stupid. But, I ended up buying them last minute and I'm so glad I did because they kept the dust out of our faces. 

We were not even 5 minutes down the road and the views were already stunning. 

Eventually we crossed over a little creek. 

And had more amazing views. 

We stopped here to all catch up in our group together. My cousin had driven up with his girlfriend and his two boys. My brother & sister in law, and neice were with us as well. 

It was also at this point that Megan thought eating a dandelion would be a great idea! She ended up eating 6 while we were out on our drive, and I know dandelions are edible and I just assumed that these would be fine to eat since we were in the mountains and they wouldn't have been sprayed with round up........

More driving and more gorgeous views. There were chipmunks all over up here! 

We eventually found "snow"!

We made it to the continental divide, and look at all of the dandelions!!! 

Eventually the pass we were taking was blocked with snow. We had driven over the range all the way over to Silverton, Co- where we had been on our last Colorado trip. We were maybe 10 minutes away just couldn't get through. So, almost everyone walked across the snow to the other side. 

So the road on this trip was one lane, and once we got to the top we had to back down and turn around, which was terrifying! I was just praying we didn't roll off the road and somehow flip. The guys were all like "we've got this" and later admitted they were kind of scared too! And as we passed people, only one vehicle could actually get through. At one point we had to scoot over so far, we were nudged between aspen trees and once their side by sides got through (about 3 of them) we took the tree down with us as we were getting back on to the road. 

There were also parts that were super steep. At one point, our side by side got stuck, and DJ had to put it in reverse, and my brother was afraid we would back in to him! 

But still the views were just gorgeous. 

And eventually Megan convinced all of the girls to eat a dandelion. Adalyn and Gretchen immediately spit it out. Megan continued to munch away. 

We made it back to camp and spent the rest of the day relaxing. The boys took the side by sides back. We layed in hammocks and read. The girls played in the creek, and eventually Megan said she didn't feel good. At first, we all thought she had altitude sickness... until she threw up. Turns out the dandelions she ate didn't settle well with her at all! Tough mistake to learn when you're boondocking in the woods. 

Later that evening, Gretchen was all excited because she got to use Papaw's torch to light our campfire.