Colorado Help

[blight1234]

Hey guys,

Me and a few buddy's are heading out to Ourray do to some wheeling for a week, but before that my girlfriend and I will be getting in a few days earlier than the guys, and are in need of 1 or 2 amazing camp spots that are not far from Denver. (I need to stay kinda close to Denver so I can put her on a plane when the bro's come).

(For time reference) Arrive Aug 10, Pick up my truck on the 11 and plan on camping the 11 and the 12th. 13th get hotel and morning of the 14th put the girlfriend on a plane home and I will drive to Ourray to meet the guys. Then driving home on the 20th.

Would also love to wheel with some new T4R's when we get out to Colorado!!

 

[RonJR]

The Denver airport is quite a ways east of Denver, and all of the good camping is west, so you can't really get very close. You're looking at 1.5-2 hours from a good campsite to the airport.

I would suggest going to the websites for Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest (NW of Denver) and Pike National Forest (SW of Denver) and looking at what's available for campgrounds there.

Aug 11 and 12 are a Friday and Saturday night, which means campgrounds will be busy. I'd make reservations early (you can do that from the FS websites.) If you don't want to camp in an established campground, there is distributed camping available in many national forest areas, but it's kind of hard to tell you where. And again, anywhere close to Denver the good spots will all be taken by Friday noon or earlier.

Things will be a lot less crazy around Ouray. That's a fantastic area.

 

[Jimmy_D]

If you wanted to sample some wheeling in other areas of Colorado we have a Monday 4-wheel group in Crested Butte that goes out each Monday during the summer and fall months. If it worked with your schedule you could drive to CB on the 20th and head out with us on the 21st, which is a Monday. By that time in August all the higher trails will be open so we'd doubtless be hitting something really scenic.

 

[blight1234]

That's awesome but we are heading back to Atlanta on the 20th. Thanks for the tip tho!!!

 

[theMayor]

Trail Damage

Just pick a trail on here... and camp where you want. Most of the trails end up at a meadow or pass campsites. There are some good ones near Georgetown (Argentine Pass is one). Maybe 1.5 hrs from the airport. The elevation will keep you cool too.



Question, you said "pick up your truck"... are you shipping it in? I ask because I'm moving to Charleston, SC next month, but plan to come back to CO every year for off-roading.

 

[blight1234]

thanks for the help!!! Ill look into those spots tonight.

Yes I am shipping my truck out there one way and driving it back. I am using a local guy thats in our 4runner group. He's putting it on a flat bed or a trailer behind a 3500 and towing just my car one way. No extra stops or anything. 2 drivers also so he said he will have my truck waiting for me at the airport if I wanted. its gonna be a pretty penny tho since its just my truck. $1 a mile pretty much but you pay for what you get. A 18 wheeler transport can take anywhere from 1-3 weeks and there is NO guarantee that your truck will be there when you want it. I heard to many horror stories about cars not showing up on time or they blew out a tire in Tennessee and are gonna be a few more hours which then turns into days.