28 : 3pm start

- 3 hr drive to Whittington, IL

- 💜Gun creek CAMP spot 58 ok

- Waterfront 27-30 + 48 (81 by beach)

- Wild flower field inside the camp

- Watched a beautiful beach sunset 😍

29 : 9am start

- 10hr drive : Wilson state park CAMP in KANSAS (including stops)

- 💜BEAUTIFUL CAMP prime lake front spot 82 in big bluestem, walk down to the lake for a swim from the spot (best spot 78 big bluestem) , very quiet, FREE kayak rentals

- Jumped in for sunset swim and watched a beautiful sunset

- Sunset spots 76 to 83 big bluestem

- Sunrise spots 75 to 73 big bluestem

30 : 8am start

- 9hr drive with stops to Royal gorge

- Royal gorge east ridge CAMP

- First come first serve, dirt road up, No hookup, quiet, private beautiful! Cell network ✔️

- Hung out chill night

31 : 8:15am start

- Royal gorge train breakfast 9:15 am vista dome, pretty cool, terrible breakfast, would take the coach instead of vista and stand outside on open car. We spotted a group of bighorn sheep on the cliffs. They blend in very well.

- Drive Skyline drive - pretty cool short drive along a ridge line with dinosaur foot prints.

- Raft masters Rafting , big horn rafting - fun not too scary and jumped off a 6ft tall rock. First rafting experience! 😅

- 5pm Royal gorge tram and walked around there, watched a short movie about the bridge then walked the bridge. Super cool very high 900ft above the river!

- Chill night campfire

1 : 9am start

- Drive to Ouray

- CAMP Amphitheater campground BEAUTIFUL 😍 tricky

- Rainy day so we drove around checked other campgrounds

- Cooked and ate Ramen yummy

- Smoked sheesha

- Feeling the altitude, fast heart rate

2: 8am start

- Crossaint + coffee @Mojos coffee😍

- Ouray is such a cute fairytale like town

- Drive the million $ highway to Silverton

- CAMP Golden Horn dispersed camping😍, by a creek overlooking big mountains, (Anvil & Sultan not as nice, crowded, )

- Off roading @porphyry basin, stopped truck where we think gets too narrow for the truck then got out and hiked to Bullion king lake at 12572ft elevation! Short & easy 2.5 out & back hike, but feeling altitude sickness, heavy head, shortness of breath, heart racing. Good one to get acclimated to the altitude. Took lots of breaks and drank a lot of water!

- What a beautiful hike, wildflowers, waterfalls, streams, cliffs, old mine, mountain views and the Lake at the end, green waters and a tall waterfall 😍 totally forgot altitude sickness!

- Drove a little bit of Ophir pass off roading and went to this creek and crossed in the truck, because why not?

- Checked campgrounds : Kendall - ok, limited spots by the stream, Ophir pass - not great, by the road, not pretty. Anvil - one spot at the end or few end spots are nice. Sultan - cute but no privacy, by the creek, is on the opposite side of Anvil.

- Drove to Silverton town, very cute and fairytale like, just like Ouray.

- Camp for dinner and a good nights sleep.

3: 10am start

- Drive to Eureka town and walked into a waterfall on the side of an abandoned mining house.

- Alpine loop off roading trail, rough but beautiful scenery, cliff side driving, lots of waterfalls, old mining ghosts towns, some ice milky blue streams due to minerals, saw a bunch of sheep’s,

- Explored a mining ghost town in Animas fork, actually walk inside the houses!

- Lunch at lake fork river just before lake Cristobal

- 😍Lake San Cristobal in lake city was SO beautiful pretty, emerald green and set between mountains, Switzerland vibes. Future houses here?

- Engineers pass : was a rocky but pretty drive with lots of wildflowers, at the top is scary, super high drive on the cliff side.

- We got tired by the end of it driving rough roads for 7 ish hours but it was really cool. If on a truck maybe do half the loop at a time.

- Dinner in Silverton @theepitts, ok food but brisket was super yummy

4: start 9:30am

- West lime creek trail silverton 828 elevation wildflowers 😍

- Easy moderate climb but altitude was kicking my butt. It’s a good one to get acclimatised , we saw many wildflowers, hike along a creek, many waterfalls and wild raspberries.

- Then head to town for lunch, burger was good. Ice cream was yummy!

- Andrew’s lake trail .8 mile loop, super easy hike, beautiful lake, lots of people fishing by it.

- Back to camp and fished by the stream by us and I caught 2 trouts !

- Build a fire and hung out for a while

- Pretty bad headache from high altitude so took some pills and called it an early night.

5: 9 am start

- I’m not feeling too good. Terrible headache that won’t go away from altitude sickness.

- Drove down to Durango which is lower in elevation.

- Walked around Main Street and ate the BEST croissant ever! @Jean Pierre bakery and wine bar.

- Had lunch from Himalayan kitchen, friendliest staff, great yummy Mo mos.

- Headache still not better by evening and decided to get a hotel and sleep lower elevation to see if it helps.

- Now I’ve been taking aspirin every 4 hrs.

- By night I felt slightly better

- Had dinner at Fired up - ordered their superior pizza which was just ok for the price but their bruschetta was delicious!

6: 8:30 am start

- Woke up feeling so refreshed and so glad to be not suffering from migraine like the past two days.

- Got more croissants from Jean Pierre Durango for the drive up to Silverton.

- I fished a little by the stream in our campground in Silverton, golden horn and caught 3 trouts!

- And we decided to stay at lower elevation to fight altitude sickness I was getting

- CAMP : Drove to Ridgeway state park campground.

7: 7 am start

- Drove to Blue lakes hike trail which was about 40 min drive from CAMP

- Packed a lot of water, snacks, and sandwiches.

- Most of the hike was moderate uphill with elevation gain of 11000 to lower lakes , beautiful scenery along the way, lots of waterfalls, don’t forget to look up, lots of wild flowers

- 3 hrs later we reached Lower lakes, it was insanely beautiful like someone poured Gatorade into it and freezing cold.

- Had a sandwich and headed to the middle and upper lake

- It was pretty steep climbing up and some really rocky slippery bit where I fell on my butt haha

- Middle lake was more green than blue but it was still pretty. Someone was fly fishing there.

- Upper lake was also more green than blue.

- Stephen jumped in the cold water and said it was refreshing 🥰

- I’ve been wanting and saying I wanna jump in a mountain lake but I was bummed because I didn’t carry a swimsuit with me.

- So stephen gave me his only t-shirt so I could jump. There were some other people.

- I jumped! It was sooo fucking cold, I got out as soon as I got in and my whole body went numb for a minute but it was the coolest thing ever!!! So proud of myself and Stephen 🥰

- After that we warmed up in the sun. And hiked down to the lower lake, the blue one. And walked around and hung out for sometime enjoying the beautiful view.

- Then we started our hike down, it was easier and faster going down but steep downhill means our toes and knees were hurting after 2 hours to get to the parking lot.

- Since we finished our hike sooner than we thought and Telluride was only 50 minutes from the blue lakes trail, we decided to go there

- We took the free gondola up the mountain. It was fun! And walked around. Most everything was shut/ closed. So we took the gondola down to the town again.

- Then we walked around town a little and decided to get dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Empananza, man oh man it was soo good!

- Then drove back to Ridgeway campground

8: 8:30 am start.

- drove to telluride to get donuts and brekkie from Butcher & the baker and Baked in Telluride. Both were ok. We didn’t love it.

- Then we drove the Imogene pass off roading. It was a little more technical than the Alpine loop, but shorter. About 3-4 hours we were done and felt like that was just the right amount for off roading.

- Stephen said the pass was good enough to drive on truck, we have a Ford ranger. There were some bits which were iffy but as long as you go slow you can make it. He also said starting from Telluride and ending near Ouray is a better direction to go than starting Near Ouray, which is what we did.

- Imogene pass was the highest elevation we been to at 13411 ft. The views were pretty and there were more ruins of mining town.

- After the pass we were so close to Ouray we decided to go check it out again, maybe get a souvenir.

- First stop was Baby bathtubs hike, which is very close to amphitheater campground. Unfortunately it was very dry and we couldn’t swim in it. But it was still cool to walk up the dried up stream/ waterfall.

- Then we went to town, shopped souvenirs and decided to get a snack and plan tomorrow.

- We went to a cute roof top bar, we had Elote n chips it was SO good!!!

- We returned to Ridgeway to our camp then took our clothes to laundry that’s available in Po ca cha puk campground which is also a park of the ridgeway state park. We also took our fishing gear as laundry was right next to fishing ponds.

- I tried and tried and didn’t even get a bite.

- By the time sun had sat we were seeing lots of fish jumping and Stephen Caught 3 fish! We left because it was too dark and we didn’t want to bears to come eat us!

- Came home, ate left overs.

9 . : 10 am Start

- Start our to drive to Crested butte, but the direct route was closed for construction, alternative route would take us longer and through curvy mountain roads.

- So we changed plans and drive to Glenwood springs which is an hour and half away.

- After we get to Glendwood springs we heard that the our friends were meeting up that night at Copper mountains for a friends Wedding.

- We stopped at a winery on our way, it's a small family owned winery, highly reccomend ! -Bookcliff Vineyards

- So we change our plans for the third time and decide to continue driving to Copper mountain which is only 1.5 hrs away.

- Got Drinks with the gang

- Check in at the hotel for 3 nights. Airbnb copper mountain rentals, east village.

10 :

- brunch with the gang ,

- drive to Blue lakes Breckinridge, saw some mountain goats,

- Grab some food in Breckinridge

- Reception

11 : Stephen mountain bike crash, most beautiful and fun wedding, Holly Molly experience 😋

12: 10 am start

- Copper Mountain to Kremmling,CO

- Sugar lips mini donuts to die for ! Taste like funnel cake but they make it as they get the order and you can see it being made. My fav - Choc sauce w/ Oreo crumbles . Stephens fav - powdered sugar

- CAMP : pumphouse campground, spot 1 - it’s a popular rafting spot so there’s a lot of traffic and there’s a train that runs on the other side of the river. At night no traffic but we slept with ear plugs and slept well. There’s a parking lot near by too.

- Slept the afternoon

- Camp fire dinner : Paella

13: 10 am start

- went fishing around the campground, no luck, no bites for either of us.

- Went to town after lunch and planned rest of the trip at a cafe.

- Wolford reservoir campground looked a lot better! Camp right next to a reservoir surrounded by mountains.

- Camp fire dinner : Mexican corn + Trout Stephen caught (super delicious! )

14: 7:13 am start

- Drive to Estes Park through Rocky Mountains. (Pass required)

- Lots of trees burnt from wild fires this year.

- Medicine bow, cool but kinda scary drive

- Aspens slowly starting to change, pretty curvy mountain roads

- CAMP : Bobcat campground 39$ dry camping, spot B 10, tucked away in woods, very quiet, but not level at all! Spot next to us looked way better. Easy 21 min drive to Rocky Mountain park!

- Went fishing by the golf course

- I caught a small brown trout, released it.

- Saw an Elk cross the bridge right next to us.

15 : 7:30 am start

- Drive to Rocky Mountians, Wild basin area & Lilly lake area to explore today.

- Pick up burritos from Scratch - it was good

- Drive to Wild basin area is a rough road but not too bad

- Beautiful hike along the creek, climbs uphill steadily 2 hrs up

- Calypso cascade falls

- Waterfall , beautiful

- Lunch at Mary’s lake

- Fishing near golf course in the evening, Stephen caught a fish. I didn’t. - not great fishing for us.

- Elk bulging season, and all elks were hanging out in the golf course.

- Heard lots of mating calls and even saw a huge Male elk with huge antlers chasing another elk , it was pretty cool.

- Fought with stephen, cried a lot and slept only 3 hrs 😞

16: 5:30 am start

- Drive to RMNP to hike Dream lake

- Got there by 7 am

- Dream lake hike was slightly busy, climbs uphill, will huff and puff but easy overall.

- Even around 7:30 am dream lake looked pretty, with reflection of the peak on the lake. But would prefer to go a little earlier to catch the sunrise golden hour Colors.

- Then we did the hike to lake Haiyaha about 1.2 miles up, which is connected to dream lake.

- This hike has beautiful scenery on the way up, but it’s harder and pretty rocky, steep-ish uphill, some cliff side hiking

- At the very top before the lake you have to scramble through some boulders, pretty easy and the lake is beautiful with Emerald green waters.

- Then drove to Estes park for lunch

- Lunch are Claire’s - little expensive but great burger and even better fries! 😍

- Drove to a Forks park in Drake for fishing and both of us caught two baby trout and released them.

- Then tried fishing at a paid fishing area, lots of fish but we had no luck.

- I was so sleepy by this time and crashed after dinner.