#southern Colorado is the loml

[maddygoesthemiles]

I went on the most amazing camping and hiking adventure in Colorado this weekend! Super long post and beautiful pictures are under the read more.

On Thursday, three of my friends and I packed up the car and drove up to Silverton. We set up camp and then went for a big meal at a local establishment. Gotta carb up to prevent altitude sickness!

We were all expecting it to be chilly and wet, but it was actually a bit too warm in the tents.

On Friday, we hiked down to the Animas River. This was a great warm up hike! I loved getting to hear and see the train while we were hiking! It was a tough hike back to the top.

We got back, showered (our campground had hot showers!!), and grabbed some pizza and beer!

Saturday morning started out earlier and chillier. We had to get up early, as Ice Lakes is the most popular hike in southern Colorado (according to a ranger we met on trail on Friday).

I felt disheartened and nervous. The hike on Friday was so hard that I got nervous about the steeper hike on Saturday. I was way more in my head and psyched out than I normally get. I was grumpy until we saw a waterfall and took a super cute group photo.

The trail got steeper and harder when we hit the forest and beyond the tree line. I kept thinking, we’ll take a real break after the next hill is over, but the hill never really stopped.

Finally, we made it up to Island Lake. As everyone on their way down assured us, it was totally and completely worth the climb! It was so incredibly gorgeous. The pictures turned out beautiful and it’s always twice as pretty irl.

We hung out there for a few minutes before traversing the short route to Ice Lake. I came around a bend and started crying at the view. It was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen and I had worked so hard to get there. I couldn’t get over it and probably walked about a mile with a stupid-huge grin on my face.

The connecting trail took us over an exposed cliff face. Those don’t bug me, but I had to pull out my patient, calm teacher voice to coach my friend across. We all made it!

Ice Lake was just as pretty as Island Lake. The color of these lakes was unreal! We stopped to fill up our water bottles and eat some snacks.

The route down from Ice Lake was very steep. I’m so glad we went counter-clockwise! There was a steep, granite section and a creek crossing (one of many of the day). It started raining and thundering right as we hit the basin.

Ridiculously, people were still climbing up at this point. Some wearing jeans, some with only one water bottle, and all of them who didn’t understand the danger of being above tree line in a thunderstorm. It reminded me of the tourists on Camelback.

Sometimes I wish I could just teleport back. Just as I was hitting that point, we saw/heard a marmot (my favorite animal) and I remembered why the hike back is worthwhile. Did you know they chirp like a dead smoke alarm? I didn’t!

We were well below tree line before it started really pouring. My new raincoat worked great, but at this point, my knees were trashed and I was grumpy. I speed-walked the rest of the way back!

After the hike, we showered and warmed up and broke camp. We drove down to Durango for dinner. All I wanted was nachos but when we got to the restaurant, I found out they were sauerkraut and corned beef. Massively disappointing. I ended up with overcooked wings.

On Sunday, we dilly-dallied around Durango and hit up the Durango Coffee Company. I love it there!

None of us were ready for our time in the mountains to end, so we really took our time driving back. As we were driving through New Mexico, we stopped at this place called the Bisti Badlands! It was a mini badlands. We didn’t have the time or the water to go far, but we stuck it on the list of places to explore. Pictures definitely don’t do this one justice.

We were welcomed back to the valley with a beautiful rain storm! Desert rain smells so much better than mountain rain.

I had the best group ever! We laughed so much and never got tired of each other. It was cool to pair off in different ways depending on the car, the trail, or the tent. We came back with tons of inside jokes, which is the mark of a lot of fun.