Pawnee Buttes – i found a page about this place in a book about best places to camp in Colorado. It was east, we never go east to camp, so figured why not try this place out.
I had originally gotten a campground reserved here 3 years ago in june. As we all know the hubby doesn’t like to potty anywhere but in a structure. Said structure can be over a hole in the ground, but it provides privacy. So i book most of our campsites between december and february for the summer. Unfortunately when things come up closer to… well, we’ll be camping..
That year hubby found out the WWDC ended the friday that we would have left to go camping. Since he puts on a separate conference in the same location, i figured he’d be tired. So i haraged a girlfriend to come with and we could do nature, no problem.
As time approached i received info from the camp host that the nearby reservoir had been too full so they released some water that flooded the campground, but they hoped it would dry up… hmmm…. The week prior we got another call that the water was somewhat receding but alas the standing water and drawn the mosquitos and that if we wished to cancel, we could do so with no reprise.. we did so!
Finally this was the year to try this place out! As the same girl friend and i were deciding on when we could camp (letting the hubby join in) we thought of this place! You can start camping in April cause it is towards Kansas and gets super hot faster than other locations.
Turns out it is only 1.5 hours from home to the campsite which is not actually in the grasslands but “close” (Crow Valley camp ground – on the left by briggsdale, buttes are in the middle)
As the years pass, we keep going bigger for camping! We upgraded to the family sleeping bag at christmas (thanks mom)! Queen sleeping bag on queen air mattress.
We als got a tent for the boys for christmas (thanks melissa), someplace they could go when the sun was out or they wanted a rest from the dirt. Paco immediately took to it after we set it up, in the house and was always in there, till we had to put it away, but winston wasn’t so sure. He’s not really a dirt kinda dog. But he did end up enjoying it while we spent the weekend camping!
Saturday was our day to hike the buttes! I was kind of excited, first hike of the season with an elevation gain of a mere 300 feet or so! Win!
It took 45 minutes on mostly terrible roads to get there,but we did it! Then it was off the explore nature
The trail is flat and pretty straight forward, there is a surprising bit of down to get into some of the valleys between, but not too terrible!
Suman took the lead with paco! He was raring to go! I was a bit concerned when i was chatting with the ranger and asking if there was anything particular i should look for and she said – “Watch out for snakes”. Oy. Thanks for that. We didn’t see any snakes – thank goodness, but i also kept the boys close!
We got out to almost the farthest butte when the boys decided the lack of shade and the nearly 3 miles one way was too much for their little selves! I knew we were probably getting into a pickles as they actually sat and asked for water along the way (winston generally refuses water – i provide them water by squeezing my camelback bite valve and they get a spray of water to partake)
We took it easy coming back, enjoyed the backside of the buttes and then took a break under a tree for a snack and some relaxing!
It’s a crazy landscape and such a weird thing to be out in the flat lands and then have pieces of land just jutt up and be there!
We almost made it back to the trail head before both boys completely boycotted and had to be carried back to the car! Of all the weekends to forget my baby bjorn… Turns out Winston had a cut in the middle of his paw, but i think paco being shorter was just tuckered out!
They and we relaxed the rest of the day, reading and enjoying the great campsite! Sunday was packed up, that was definitely a treat to try and figure out how to get the sleeping bag back into the sack… it took 2 of us! (Later at home, after letting it air out, i figure out the best way to stuff it in the sack was to unzip it all and stuff in in like a regular sleeping bag! Great way to start the camping season off!