I’ve had Hanging Lake trail on my list for a while and the planets aligned and some friends of ours and I

made it happen! We found a campsite about 40 minutes from the trail head (vs 2.5 hours from Denver!)

The campground was fabulous! No cell service, large campground – kinda weird, as in your tent will be next to your car and your fire…. But they were flat – woot! The idea of being disconnected was just heavenly!

Funny story about camping! I had a little bit of time to put stuff out for camping and then had to work on some other things and work away from the house the morning of our departure. I got home in time to finish up my bag and hop in the car. Hubby listed some things he put in the car, including our shade! Woohoo! As we near the 3.25 hour mark (camp ground is 3.5 hours), i say…  did you grab the tent? To which he replied… did you put it out? To which i shrug and think…  nope… Hubby considered turning around and returning to one of the small Colorado towns to obtain a tent, my thought went toward… we have a wagon, let’s sleep in there – since we had absolutely everything else, pads, bag, pillows and blankets…  So that is what we did! We did car camping the old fashioned way – we slept in the car!

The hike up to Hanging Lake is definitely not easy, but it’s lovely! We were able to get to the trail head by 7:30 am, only the second car there! We got onto the trail early and were able to take our time on the hike, get excellent pictures without the masses that would be coming later and enjoy the solitude and beauty of the lake and the falls that created the lake in peace! It was an absolutely wonderful way to see this beautiful place!