The Fabulous Buffalo Peaks Wilderness Area

For the final week of summer, we decided to journey to a place in Colorado to which we have never been. On foot. Fortuneately, Hunter and Emmett are kids who love this sort of thing. And so our adventure was born. The Buffalo Peaks Wilderness area is located to the northeast of the town of Buena Vista and thus east of the Collegiate Peaks (well known 14ers in the area). After driving along a long forest service road, part of which Hunter described as a "footpath", and narrowly avoiding confrontation with women on ATVs, we arrived at the trailhead. A wilderness area has no roads in it, so we were excited to be alone with the beauty of Colorado. Upon signing in, we discovered that a group of 14 hikers had begun their journey on the same day. But we were too excited to be upset by that, as this was our first ever two night backpacking journey as a family!!!! Onward ho!

Imagine my surprise when I realized that Emmett, who was in the lead, was not doing a fancy hiking dance, but rather expressing surprise as he happen upon a snake relaxing in the middle of the trail. I'm sure he was there just for me! Anyhow, we ambled up the trail for about 45 minutes to an hour, all in good spirits despite the snake's greeting (he was just a garter). For those of you who conjure images of a dry, pine and juniper landscape as typical Colorado wilderness, reimagine. We followed a creek the entire way, punctuated with beaver-created pools. The foliage was dense and lush and so green you could just lick it all up. Being from more humid climates, we tend to just fall in love with these environments when we discover them. Fall in love we did. As the terrain opened up into a valley, we discovered large beaver ponds created by what must have been the busiest beavers ever. I mean the expression is really quite accurate! The slew of felled aspen trees could have been mistaken for Paul Bunyan style workman ship if I had not known better.

We got to set up camp along one of these ponds, nestled in pine trees. Hunter and Emmett were in childhood heaven! The smiles never left their faces, even when "nature called". Everything was an adventure: eating, cleaning dishes, going to the bathroom. Ryan and the younguns even took mountain man baths with the rainbow trout (pictures to follow, don't worry)! The second day we left the bulk our our gear at camp and went higher, in hopes of making it somewhere near West Buffalo Peak at 13,326ft. Keep in mind we camped somewhere around 10,000ft all you flatlanders. Although we didn't quite make it all the way there, we basically reached treeline and had fabulous views of the taller mountains to the west.

I realize how fortunate we are as a family to be able to enjoy each others company with no diversions other than sticks, fire and food. I had moments when I felt that we should just stay away from the other world and remain here so that the kids could remain just that. But I reminded my self, that this beautiful heaven exists all around us, we just need to see it.