Camping in Fruita, CO - June 2009

We had this great idea that it would be fun to go camping with the kids; that it would be easy. But it ended up being a little harder than we imagined. The first challenge came when we realized we had a lot less room in our car with 2 car seats, so a lot of things that we normally bring camping with us didn't make the cut.

The second challenge occurred when we tried to get some sleep. Audrey woke up Clive and Clive woke up Audrey. Both of them woke up me and Adam. We got very little sleep.

On Saturday Adam biked the Edge Loop, a long and challenging mountain biking trail on the edge of the Bookcliffs. That left Audrey, Clive and me to do some exploring on our own. We visited the Dinosaur Museum and hiked the Alcove Nature Trail at Colorado National Monument. The Dinosaur museum was surprisingly worth visiting. They had a water table and a sandbox that were perfect for Audrey. The animated dinosaurs were a bit scary for her, but she has been reading her dinosaur books and talking about dinosaurs a lot since, so I suppose they didn't scar her for life.

The Alcove Nature Trail was the perfect hike for Audrey. It was a 1 mile round trip walk that did not overlook any great precipices. I kept her going towards the end of the hike by encouraging her to look for the next numbered nature walk sign post.

After all of that fun, it was nap time, challenge number three. The wind was picking up, and it sure was hot. We tried napping in the tent, but it really didn't work at all. It was way too hot and way too windy and Audrey wouldn't even try to sleep. So we drove. We drove north of Fruita near the Bookcliffs. We drove through Colorado National Monument. We stopped at the Glade Park Store so I could get a soda to keep me going. And then we drove back to camp via Grand Junction. The scenery was beautiful and thank goodness the kids got some sleep, but I was so tired.

We packed up and left the next morning driving straight through to Lyons after stopping for coffee and gas. We made it home in 4.5 hours. The kids slept most of the time. We were really glad to be back at home getting some better sleep and giving us more time to get ready for our next big adventure.

Here are some pictures from our camping trip: