The idea of checking out gore creek- both the campground and the trail- came about in the winter of 2021 at mcdowell mtn park in Scottsdale az. Yes this is how my world works. I’d potted some little plants in old jam jars and felt called to give one to the super cute volunteer couple who often worked the gate there. I was leaving a van camping adventure, departing the park, and on my way out I stopped and gave them a little plant.

Somehow we got to talking about them being camp hosts at various campgrounds around the country and he said- hands down- his favorite place of all time where they’d been camp hosts- was the gore creek campground just outside of vail.

Well with that kind of endorsement I couldn’t NOT check it out ! So I added it to my adventure list for the summer and booked a campsite for a few days - June 2022 …

And then I got hit by a motorist in early June 2022 and 100% of my summer plans were immediately canceled. Including this one. I scrapped the camp reservation, ate the cancellation fee and kinda mentally moved on.

Until this summer … when I began adding adventures back on the books; I recalled this gore creek campground Recommendation and decided I still very much wanted to check it out.

Van camping for Ramsey and me in the peak summer months can be tricky as my van has a rooftop air fan but not an AC. Just the van itself has ac and I don’t like to run the van and have it idling just to keep us cool. Thankfully vail is at a higher elevation and as the trip approached I checked the weather to ensure we wouldn’t roast — the temps seemed doable esp with nice cool overnight lows so off we went :)

It’s such a lovely and small campground RIGHT at the base of the vail pass bike path/climb ! not sure how I never noticed this little gem in here before but what a hidden treasure. I could understand fully why it was so hard to find available sites here. (**Note: I booked this site MONTHS ago! No more days of winging it with campsites- too many people are also doing the #workfromanywhere thing these days to be spontaneous - plan ahead!). 🗺️

We settled in, set up camp, went for a couple walks, made a quick run to get some groceries and then I enjoyed an *evening of light yoga and meditation as well as reading one of the books I leave permanently in the van— The Fifth Agreement.

*With all the rain colorado has enjoyed this spring and summer, this is the first trip in the van EVER where we’ve had a really bad issue with biting flies. 😞 they made it impossible to focus during yoga and super easy to go to bed early.

Tuesday morning i woke up excited to finally check out the gore creek trail as well as one called deluge. We started on deluge as I assumed it would feature fewer humans given its “black” trail difficulty designation on trail forks - the trail was gorgeous but very overgrown, making me nervous about snakes/ poison ivy/ ticks etc.

We went about 1.5 miles up gaining almost 1000ft elev before I’d had enough foliage scraping my legs and we turned back. We only saw a couple humans— which was awesome — This trail made me 100% convicted about (finally) getting myself a pair of hiking pants asap.

We doubled back to the sign where the gore creek path started and went up that for awhile- it was not as overgrown and followed the creek, offering that lovely rushing water sound as well as several water crossings which give Ramsey a chance to get wet and cool down. Soooo pretty. I turned us back once I felt she was starting to run out of steam (ok and I was, too 😉) and we made our way back to the van.

At the end of both trails are lakes and while it would have been cool to see one of them by making it to the trail end, I was happy with our adventure. I don’t do efforting or muscling my way through things these days; when I feel complete, I shut it down. I let my intuition and what my body is craving guide me and while it leads to a fair number of “Incompletes” I also 100% do not give a damn ✌️

I try to soak up these adventures with Ramsey while I can before she isn’t able to or doesn’t want to anymore. She’s twelve and still hikes like A BOSS but I know it won’t always be like that 😞 🐶 ❤️

I’m in a major retraction phase (again) now after being really open, outgoing and energy-outputting for the last few weeks … a few folks overstepped some boundaries of mine, I felt over-asked and over-stretched really quickly, and I came right back into energy preservation mode… it’s really notable to me how quickly and desperately I needed to shut things down and go back within again.

It’s just showing me so clearly how deeply depleted and grief-filled I still am and how much healing there is to do yet. Grief works like that I think.One step forward and two steps back - for me that’s how it feels in this season anyways.

So I’m super thankful for this van outing where I don’t need to talk to anyone or summon courage or energy. I simply get to do whatever I feel called to do next. Moment by moment. 🙏🏼

On day two I (of course!) got the road bike out and rode vail pass - 3x. The first time I took super easy, the second I gave it some gas and then the third just took in the scenery. Not even close to my PRs from back in 2013 but 🤷‍♀️

I wanted to get four climbs in but started too late and needed to pack up the campsite for noon checkout (camp hosts take this very seriously I’ve learned in these years of camping!).

It was absolutely perfect out. A pristine bike path far away from any motorized vehicles and just a few other riders out. Slight cloud cover, ideal temps —- true slice of heaven out there. 🙏🏼

We left vail/gore creek (aka the land of pernicious flies) and with fingers and paws crossed (that the 🪰problem would not follow us) we made our way to our campsite at turquoise lake near Leadville…

Wow. In a word. At this even higher elevation (Approx 10k feet), Temps were nice and cool and with the lake right here the breeze felt heavenly - and it kept the flies at bay … thank GOODNESS. 🌲🪵 (although a few sneaky 🦟 found me and bit me up!).

The lake is breathtaking and the campsites are fantastic. I wasn’t choosy when i selected my spot here but once I got Ramsey put for a walk and did some recon I quickly learned the “beachfront property” spots are the ones to aim for next time.

Even better- no signal here. 🙏🏼 that’s always my goal when we’re out camping - to have my 📱rendered useless. I had just one bar of signal in vail which meant some annoyances found me there // that I was touching my phone more than I wanted to be.

Here- radio silence. Just the breeze and the absence of flies and quiet. 🐾 Ramsey and I are in heaven. (I use my iPhone notes app to draft my eventual blog post when I’m in places w/out signal).

We sat by the lake for a long time just… being.

It began to sprinkle so we returned to the van where I looked for another book and found “she- understanding feminine psychology.” I read it cover to cover as I have before on van trips (hence the reason i leave it in here). Something about sitting in the midst of tall trees with nothing to do and nowhere to be really heightens my reading experience.

Each time something new jumps out from this book — this time:

“A woman has a profound capacity to be still, perhaps the most powerful act any human being can make. She is required to go back to a very still inner center every time something profound happens to her. This is a highly creative act but must be done correctly. She is to be receptive, not passive.”

This book blows me away every time.

I highly recommend it. It’s 80 pages and will probably take you an hour to cruise through.