Overland Camping Roadtrip Blog
Travel Day 19:
Total km driven to date: 4104km
Total km walked to date: 151.69km
Elevenmile Canyon, CO – Fourmile Recreation Area, CO
103km drive
11.34km on foot
Today was planned as a short travel day since I have only 1500km to go in 17 days and there is no sense in showing up early. I am also loving the Colorado Rockies and not in a huge hurry to get to the hot and dry desert that awaits me in Utah and SoCal. We left our camp site and stopped down the road a ways to take a some pictures at a lake/dam that are near the entrance to Elevenmile Canyon. All of the rain has caused the water to be extremely high so the Rangers were posted near the trails keeping everyone from going further into the canyon, which was too bad since it looked really interesting and like a great spot for some hiking. We jumped back in the truck and had a good laugh at “Granny’s Hash” in the middle of tiny Lake George, full of tie-dye in the window and a huge pot leaf on the side of the building, ah Colorado. We headed west on US-24 and shortly came to Warren Pass at 9507ft, as we crested the pass the snowcapped Rockies were all we could see on the horizon. US-24 runs straight as an arrow down and across some fields between the mountains we were on and the ones in the distance. I can just imagine cowboys riding across the range 150 years ago heading towards the mountains.
We passed through another tiny town of Hartsel and then climbed up into the San Isabel National Forest. Seeing multiple brown signs (another clue that there is parks/recreation areas around) we took a turn onto County Road 307, a dirt road heading into the back country. Eventually we came to a sign calling this the Fourmile Recreation area and showing all the trails and roads (I have attached a pic below). We figured out where on the map we were and then headed towards Castle Road Gulch, eventually finding a spot off the road tucked into the trees. On the way in we say tons of huge rock formations that looked perfect for exploring and since it was so early still (only 1:30) I decided to go for a nice long hike and take some photos and do some exploring with Axel. We followed the road for a while and then set out overland, climbing multiple rock outcrops and following game trails across the scrub. In total we walked for over 11km before getting back to camp and making an early dinner and sitting down to work on some Dirt Riot photos. Tomorrow hopefully we will find some WiFi and can upload some race photos for everyone. Another short travel day planned for tomorrow, maybe we’ll even make it to Aspen!
