Camping adventures began at a very young age in my life. My dad loved camping, and while my mom wasn’t much of a camper, they found ways to make it work. It meant we had a very rustic cabin (aka no running water or electricity) in the mountains in South Park County in Colorado. In high school, I expanded my camping horizons  by enrolling in a backpacking class. I can vividly recall my first trip. It snowed nearly two feet the night before we left. By the time we got to our spot for the night, I was wet and cold. I froze that night. My sweaty cotton shirt, and my wet cotton socks, did little to warm me. I didn’t know at that point that I should have stripped down to my skives, and crawled into my North Face down sleeping bag to let it slowly warm my body back to a normal temperature.

Despite that bitter cold experience, I still kept backpacking. In my twenties, I hiked a lot of trails, and even backpacked to summit some of the famous Colorado fourteeners. I haven’t done much backpacking since having kids, but we have taken numerous tent camping trips to the beaches to Lake Tahoe to Yosemite (see my picture of Yosemite valley above). I enjoy the opportunity to explore so many different locales that we don’t have just one favorite camping spot!! Stay tuned here for reviews of places we enjoyed exploring!!

© all images and writing by Cindy Ryan Albrecht 2014