Article Contributed on: 7/16/2006 7:40:18 PM
We camped in many parts of the U.S. and Canada, but nowhere have we found more history, beauty, and adventure than in Colorado, a real camper's paradise! While camping in Colorado, our family has frolicked in the sands at Great Sand Dunes National Park, rode the narrow gauge train between Durango and Silverton, and crawled through Mesa Verde's ruins.
We found it easy to converse with the children while sitting around a campfire. There's something magic about a campfire's slowly fading embers, its crackling noise, the hearty wood aroma, and the warm glow that creates warm, close "fuzzy" feelings.
We romped through the woods and heard twigs snapping under our feet. We marveled at the sunsets and sunrises... the smell of pine trees...the chirping of the birds...the frisking of the ground squirrels. We hiked through forests, walked in the gently falling rain, fished in ponds, streams, rivers and lakes....and just enjoyed being together.
Our courage, ingenuity, and wits were tested many times while camping, like when a creek suddenly roared down a dry stream bed in the mountains after a hailstorm in Phantom Canyon between Canon City and Cripple Creek. One of our four children was on the other side of the creek bed, and we had to throw him a rope (which we always carried) to guide him safely across the rising stream.
The winding, narrow road in scenic Phantom Canyon once boasted a narrow gauge railroad that carried ore to the mills from Cripple Creek to Florence and then connected to the main line of the Denver Rio & Grande Western. This 24-mile canyon has been called 'phantom" since the early 1900s. The name originated from tales of people hearing stagecoaches and horses splashing through the creek bed or high waters rushing down the canyon with no visible floods.
Our kids enjoyed romping in the giant 57-acre sand pile at Great Sand Dunes National Park. Thousands of years ago streams dropped their sandy loads on this valley floor and formed sand dunes, some over 700 feet high that are among the tallest in the world.
Camping not only gave us pleasure in learning more about nature and each other, it also taught us history. While exploring Mesa Verde National Park, we realized how small these ancient peoples were when we crawled through a narrow crack in the cliff. The kids passed through quickly, but it took more time for my 200+-pound husband and I to crawl through.
While riding the historic narrow gauge railroad between Durango and Silverton, we saw incredibly beautiful and rugged mountain scenery. This historic coal-powered train runs along the old 45-mile section of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad track in the San Juan Mountains. The original over-stuffed seats were changed to bus benches to accommodate more people, but the ash-wood interior of the concession car and the coaches remain intact.
It's hard to beat the scenery and fishing while camping along the Conejos River in southern Colorado. In the town of Conejos, we attended Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, the first permanent church in Colorado. According to a legend, a mule chose the site of the church when a colony of Spaniards from New Mexico were traveling with ox carts and burros in 1854 to new lands in the area of Guadalupe, then a part of New Mexico. When the mule balked and refused to move, the early Catholic settlers decided this spot (now Conejos) would be the site of their church.
We found camping to be an ideal family vacation. Looking back, we recall when our four children were so enthralled with seeing lighting bugs for the first time that they spent the evening catching them and quietly putting them in our tent trailer. When my husband and I entered the trailer to go to bed, they giggled with delight at their "bright" surprise. Laughing, we remember when the boys fell in the creek, our caged pet mouse almost suffocated in the trailer, Dad lost his shower clogs, and Mom missed a step and fell off the train at an amusement park.
During our many years of camping, we divided up our chores and developed our own camping rules and regulations about many things to make for happier camping for all of us. Now our four children are grown, and two of our married children now go camping with their youngsters.
To help others learn how to pack more fun into camping, I wrote a book based on our ten years of experience. I filled the book with packing and camping tips, games to play in the car, plus quick 'n easy recipes for more carefree camping. My book, "Camping Circus: An entertaining and informative guide to family camping," is available for $9.50 postpaid from Beaumont Books, PO Box 551, Westminster, CO 80036
Margaret Malsam
3323 West 55th Ave.
Denver, CO 80221
303 477 4349
MomMalsam@msn.com