Western Road Trip [Colorado - Granby/Fraser]

For the rest of the year, instead of taking another travel assignment, we have decided to take a road trip around the USA and travel to an international destination this winter. 

on our way to Colorado!

We left Georgia on the 1st of this month and headed to Colorado, we drove about 15 hours and camped at a WONDERFUL location near Lawrence, Kansas. The best thing about this place was that it was very well maintained AND free!

camping in Kansas!

 We had a restful night and started our drive early the next day at 5am. With a few stops and breaks, we made it to Granby, Colorado at about 3:30pm. We were able to find another free campsite at Stillwater Pass, just north of Granby. We set up our tent and turned in early due to the heavy storms coming in. 

free campsite at Stillwater Pass, Colorado

The next two days had rain in the forecast, so we used this time to roughly plan more of our journey and get some photo editing done as well. 

We stopped at a coffee shop that we really enjoyed last year, Rocky Roastery Cafe in the town of Fraser. This coffee shop has another location in Granby that we also really like. They have the best vegan burritos and sausage sandwiches! 

The rain finally stopped for a few hours. We decided to take advantage of the break in weather and bike the Fraser River Trail to move our bodies and get acclimated to the elevation here in Colorado. The bike path was about 5 miles one way. It was not a long bike ride considering it being an all paved trail, however the scenery it goes through is beautiful!

The next day was still a bit cloudy for hiking in the mountains, so we opted for another bike ride. Heading back up to Stillwater Pass to ride some forestry roads.

Stillwater Pass is a well known area close to Grand Lake, where many ATVs, snowmobiles, and mountain bikers come to ride. Unfortunately due to the bad forest fire back in October 2020 (190,000 acres/ nearly 400 houses were burned!) many of the trails were closed. It was pretty surreal to see no green for the most of our bike ride. The trees and ground were charred black. The East troublesome wildfire was Colorado's second largest forest fire in history. The whole town is under fire restrictions so we were not allowed to have any camp fires as well. There are still forrest fires in the area unfortunately. We have been watching helicopters fly back and forth for the majority of our stay here.

Aftermath of the East Troublesome Fire

helicopters flying daily

For our last day in this area we decided to hike on part of the CDT (Continental Divide Trail) from Berthoud Pass to Stanley Mountain. It was about 8 miles total and it was fairly easy to get to because it was right off highway 40 coming into Winter park.

The hike starts out with a decently steep climb right out the gate. Within a mile we broke tree-line, opening up our view to some amazing vistas of the valleys below and mountains surrounding us. After climbing almost 2,000ft of elevation, we made our way for a few more miles (much flatter) along the ridge to Stanley Mountain.  Here we enjoy our breakfast, which consisted of tuna salad, an apple, and half of a lemon poppyseed cookie. The Summit of Stanley sits just below 13,000 feet. We definitely felt the elevation! The hike back down to the car was much more enjoyable. Getting to enjoy the views of the trail zig-zagging back forth of what we had just previously hiked up.

We are now on our way to Steamboat Springs, CO!

**How to find free campsites? here are couple of the resources we use:

 freecampsites.net, The Dyrt - Pro version