Planning a camping trip

[Mtn.man]

Nothing like sling a stick with a stick at something you want to eat but your chances are about 2%.

[Inconel710]

Ronin - I've backpacked in the Lost Creek Wilderness Area several times. The trails are excellent and not overly challenging. Lots of interesting places to camp. Very easy to hike a long loop and make it a multi-day trip. Nat Geo Topo map 105 covers the area well and you can find it at REI, Barnes & Noble, etc. The trickiest part is driving to the trail heads - I've used Goose Creek Trailhead, Spruce Grove Campground, and Twin Eagles Campground as entry points. You do not have to use the campgrounds - in fact there are no "official" campgrounds inside the Wilderness. The area around the abandoned shafthouse is good spot to camp and pretty popular.

These websites may be useful for you -
http://dualpineclub.org/news/backpac...ek-wilderness/
http://www.summitpost.org/lost-creek-wilderness/178676

I always call the Forest Service Ranger district before I head out to check on any fire restrictions or other issues.

[ghettodub]

Gonna be heading up past Carbondale to camp this weekend. Can't wait...

[Ronin13]

Ronin - I've backpacked in the Lost Creek Wilderness Area several times. The trails are excellent and not overly challenging. Lots of interesting places to camp. Very easy to hike a long loop and make it a multi-day trip. Nat Geo Topo map 105 covers the area well and you can find it at REI, Barnes & Noble, etc. The trickiest part is driving to the trail heads - I've used Goose Creek Trailhead, Spruce Grove Campground, and Twin Eagles Campground as entry points. You do not have to use the campgrounds - in fact there are no "official" campgrounds inside the Wilderness. The area around the abandoned shafthouse is good spot to camp and pretty popular.

These websites may be useful for you -
http://dualpineclub.org/news/backpac...ek-wilderness/
http://www.summitpost.org/lost-creek-wilderness/178676

I always call the Forest Service Ranger district before I head out to check on any fire restrictions or other issues.

That sounds like a great area to go! Of course we're going to check fire restrictions both the week prior and the day we leave just to be sure. My brother mentioned up near Echo Lake as well, but that might be just a bit too close to civilization for my tastes.

[rockhound]

jeez you guys, use GOOGLE or YAHOO

http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/recreation/camping/#dispersed

everything you need to know about dispersed camping in colorado and the local ranger district contact info should be there


ONE rule to live with, file a trip report with the local authorities or with a friend/family member. otherwise no one will miss you until you are a corpse.

aslo bring warm clothes, it is august, i have seen more than one below freezing night in august in colorado.

IN fact that is the reason we bought our first RV, mmmmmm 30k btu furnace, mmmmmmmm

[BushMasterBoy]

You can pan for gold here. Just bring a shovel and a plastic gold pan. Mt Princeton Hot Springs is 25 mins away. Aspen is an hour away and great fishing at Twin Lakes 10 minutes away. Then there is the Arkansas River. Campground is west the town of Granite. I heard somebody got a 4/10 ounce nugget a couple years ago. Then there is the Cottonwood Hot Springs to soak in. Lots of rafting companies around...

http://www.hookedongold.com/cachecreek.htm

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo/minerals/locatable_minerals/placer_mining/cache_creek.html

[Ronin13]

Thanks for all the great advice (and Rockhound, of course, I learned a good lesson from Aron Ralston ).

Update- I had a nice long chat with the brother last night and now our group has expanded to about 5 or 6 confirmed. The general consensus now is that we want to go to an actual developed campsite complete with fire pit and all that. http://www.recreation.gov/ has a lot of great info, including dates and an interactive map of all the locations around the state. So I guess now it's just figuring out where we want to go that isn't overtaken by beetlekill. I was really looking forward to roughing it in the wild, but now since it looks like we're going to an actual campground (mostly due to the amount of stuff we're going to have to bring in for 3days) it'll still be fun.

Might even want to just make this a sticky and call it the camping thread.

[tmckay2]

Doesn't get much better than lost creek wilderness for backpacking. Not sure on camping though.