Daniel's birthday always seems to fall at peak foliage color. It happened again this year!
We arrived at sunset. As usual, we had a few ideas of where to stay, including some BLM options, but nothing set in stone. After a dusky scramble up a 4x4 road that ended up going nowhere, we turned around and headed back to Erickson Springs Campground. It was closed for the season. Or so we thought.
Flashlights streaked through the woods and adolescent voices shrieked. A middle-school group who had rented the entire (normally closed for the season) campground. One of the teachers told us we could stay if we didn't mind their late-night rounds of Capture the Flag. We didn't. It was actually pretty cute, hearing those kids running around scaring themselves and stumbling into our campsite. Bronte can seem like a pretty ferocious guard dog by flashlight.
Not too shabby, eh?
The next morning we headed off to Camelot Orchards. Paonia is crammed with orchards and vineyards but we really love this family-owned and -operated one. And when I say family-owned, I mean it's essentially this couple's (large) backyard, complete with organic apple and pear orchards, goats, pigs, chickens, and a huge garden. I can sort of see us in a place like that. Sigh.
1 comment:
gorgeous photos!!
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