Summer Trip 2026 - Colorado / Yellowstone / Tetons

After a trip to California for our 2025 summer heat escape, we returned to Colorado for 2026 - with an extension to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Here is our route plan:

Summer 2026 Trip Route Plan

We departed a few days after our Winnebago Travato 2022KL turned 5 years old. The first two days were long drives to power through Texas and eastern Colorado. We stopped at St. Vrain State Park on the doorstep of the Rocky Mountains. Colorado was experiencing a heat wave, but at least the humidity was lower than home. 

We spent the next four nights in Rocky Mountain National Park at Moraine and Glacier camprounds. Wildlife sighting were a little sparse compared to past visits as the heat had driven many animals up higher in the mountains. 

Elena & Paul in Rocky Mountain National Park

Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park

After traversing the highest continuous paved road in the continental US across the park we stayed a night in Stillwater on the west side before beginging the trip up to Tetons and  Yellowstone. On the way we stopped at Sinks Canyon State Park near Lander, WY. At some point the creek found a soft spot in the limestone wall and cut an underground path through the wall. It re-emerges a bit downstream. 

Water sinking at Sinks Canyon

We stopped for a whitewater rafting trip on our way into Grand Teton NP. We rafted on the Snake River. We've rafted many rivers and this was the first time either of us got tossed overboard in a rapid. We hit a double wave at the Big Kauna and Elena was tossed out into the river. We got her back in and she was fine.

Just after Elena's rescue, she was paddling again

We hiked around at Grand Teton, but our best wildlife sighting was going to/from our campground. We saw a large male Moose twice, and a female once.

Sunset behind the Tetons

Bebop at Jackson Lake.

Paul & Elena at the Tetons

Paul & Elena at the Tetons

Our next destination was Yellowstone. We booked five different camprounds around the park so we could take our time and visit many areas.  

After Yellowstone, we made our way back south. We stopped at Flaming Gorge and drove the Sheep Mountain Geologic Loop. And we visited Dinosaur National Monument. 

 

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

In Colorado, we stayed a couple of nights at Rifle Falls State Park. Our daughter flew out to Denver and drove in to spend a few days with us there and in Glenwood Springs. 

Rifle Falls, CO

Elena at Rifle Falls

Paul & Kendall at Rifle Falls

In Glenwood, we hiked to Hanging Lake and did a rafting trip on the Colorado River. We did the double Shoeshone Canyon trip where you raft the rapids, drive the raft back up, and raft them again. Elena stayed in the raft this time.

Paul, Elena, and Kendall at Hanging Lake

Hanging Lake

We headed down to Carbondale and hiked Red Hill. We also visited my energy efficiency mentor Amory Lovins and his wife Judy at their home in old Snowmass. 

The following three nights were spent in the Silver Queen campground in the Maroon Bells Wilderness. There is no connectivity in there - just beautiful mountains and streams. Elena and I hiked to Crater Lake, which is more like Crater Puddle this year. Lakes and streams were way below normal on most of our trip. The next morning I challenged myself with a 9.5 mile RT, 3,000 foot elevation gain hike up to Buckskin Pass. The hike STARTS at 9,500 feet elevation, so that last section feels a little light on oxygen. It's such a beautiful view from that pass, that's it is worth the effort. 

Elena & Paul at Crater Lake

Elena at Maroon Lake

The Maroon Bells at Sunrise

Paul at the top of Buckskin Pass 

We added a new town to our list this year - Marble, CO.  On our way to Marble we stopped and soaked in the free roadside Penny Hot Springs. We arrived in Marble and ate at one of only two restaurants there - Slow Groovin' BBQ. It was delicious, and they even had menu items for dogs. Bebop scarfed down a small bowl of brisket.We also hiked to the Yule Creek Falls.

Paul & Bebop at Yule Creek Falls

The next morning we took a jeep tour to the old mining town of Crystal. The primary desination is the old Crystal Mill. The mill was built in 1893. The remaining structure is the water turbine penstock that powered an air compressor to run jackhamers for silver mining. The river has the cleanest, most beautiful water I have ever seen. Crystal is an appropriate name for it. We saw a bald eagle on a pole about 5 minutes into the tour, and turned around to see a juvinile on a wall about 20 feet behind us.

Elena & Paul at the Crytal Mill

The Crystal Mill

Bald Eagle on pole

Juvenile bald eagle on wall

From Marble we headed to a stop we always make in CO - the town park campground in Telluride, CO. We often stay for 4 nights, and the van gets to rest. Everything is walkable - trails, the town, etc. The weather finally changed and the monsoon kicked back up. We had rain and clouds for most of visit, but the high temps stayed in the 60s. We hiked a few old favorites - Cornet Creek Falls, Bear Creek Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls (on our final day when the sky cleared).

Bear Creek Falls

Bear Creek Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Looking back toward Telluride

Elena

From behind Cornet Creek Falls

After Telluride, we camped along the Uncompahgre River near Ridgway, CO. We drove the million dollar highway through Ouray to a bit north of Silverton. We boondocked at the start of the Ophir Pass Road in the mountains at about 10,000 feet elevation. The photos are from a stop at Crystal Lake, which is nearly empty. Everything is so dry.

At Crystal Lake north of Silverton, CO

At Crystal Lake north of Silverton, CO

To begin our final week I took on another challenging hike. This was another 3,000 foot climb to 12,500 feet. The destination was Columbine Lake. And it was worth it, as I've never seen an alpine lake with such a deep blue color. I did an entire blog on that hike with many additional photos. Blog Link.

Columbine Lake

Columbine Lake

We stayed the next night at 10,500 feet at Molas Lake. We had a nice lakeside site, and Elena paddled around the lake in a kayak.

We departed Molas Lake and drove to Pagosa Springs for a couple of nights. We have many friends who live there full or part time, so we cna always find a driveway to camp in. The river was very low, like all the other rivers, creeks, and lakes on our trip. Tubing was not possible, but we did enjoy some nice soaks in the free riverside hot springs. 

We then headed to Echo Amphitheater and Abiquiu Lake for a night before the driving trek home - where the temperature is still outrageously hot (106ºF). At least we had a nice 6-week break from the heat. i just hope my neighbors haven't melted.

Stormy Skies

Echo Amphitheater

Pedernal with a glimpse of Abiquiu Lake

Bebop watches the sunrise on Pedernal

We plan these trips over 6 months in advance and everything ran smoothly. We had no issues with campgrounds, the van, bad weather, roads, . . .  So many things went well. You have to have the right partner to be cooped up in a van for six weeks, and I do. Elena is a delight to travel with (and to be at home with), and that makes the trips so much more fun. Bebop is a perfect traveller too, and she serves as a campground and trail therepy dog for people who couldn't bring their dog, or recently lost their dog. 

The trip highlighted several concerns. First, the climate chamge impacts were very visible with significantly reduced river/creek flows and depleated lakes. Temperatures were well above average everywhere. Continue to find ways to reduce your climate impact, and boycott the companies responsible for the large impacts and continued denial of the issue. And vote for people who get it, and are prepared to take action.

The continued attack on our shared park lands is also very visible. From reduced staffing to deferred projects, the parks experience is being compromised. Theft of the park service funds by the current administration, and the reductions in staff, are having a very negative impact on our parks. Vote in November to help reverse this tragic period in our nation's history. 

Now, for the data fans, here's our trip summary in endless detail:

DATA

Miles Driven: 4085 miles
Average miles/day: 95
Time Driving: 99 hours
Avg Speed: 41 mph

MPG: 17.1(vehicle calc); 16.3 (actual)
Gas Used:  251 gallons, average of 5.8 gallons/day
Gas Cost: $997 ($23/day) - avg of $3.97/gallon
Campground Cost: $1,337 (avg $31/day)
Food Cost Total: $,1084 (avg $25/day)

Total Trip Cost: $79/day

Paul

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Columbine Lake Hike

On our final week of our 6-week van trip, I was searching for one more challenging hike. I’ve hiked to Ice Lake before, and it was beautiful, but I read that Columbine Lake was even nicer. The trailhead is on a narrow, rough road, so we chose to boondock at Ophir Pass Road, which is just under a mile from the trailhead. We had a great site by a creek. We were at nearly 10,000 feet in elevation. 

Here's a sneak Preview of the Lake

Paul at Columbine Lake near Silverton, CO

I headed out about 6:40am toward the trailhead. The temperature was 33ºF. The road hike also added another few hundred feet of elevation gain to the 2,700 that the trail provided. When I got to the trailhead all I can say is one word - steep. This trail was designed by bighorn sheep or mountain goats. Bipedal creatures should think twice.

I started the climb. By 1/4 mile up I was stopping to peel off several layers and saw a young female hiker coming up. I had not seen anyone else on the trail, so I said “Nice to see another human out this morning.” She said, “Oh, did you see the bear at the trailhead?”  I must have just missed it. I was singing my bear warning song, so perhaps it was hiding when I passed. The song goes, “Well I hope there’s not a bear on the loose, or a mountain lion, or a wayward moose.” I’ve used this on several lightly occupied trails and it has a perfect success record of avoiding unwanted encounters.

She let me go ahead, and I didn’t see her behind me after a short bit. I saw no other people for the entire climb. The climb has three major sections of roughly equal distance. I first had to go 1 mile and a few hundred feet to reach the trailhead. On the official trail, the first third (1.3 miles) is a set of many steep switchbacks through the forest with grades up to 28%. The second section is 1.2 miles with a very steep path (grades up to 31%) up the open mountainside - capped with a sketchy section of scree to get across to a pass. That section gains about 1,700 feet. Finally, after the pass, the final 1.4 mile section is relatively flat - even some downhill for a bit, before the final climb to the lake.

I questioned my ability several times as I was breathing hard and could feel my heart pounding. Goal one was to make it to the tree line, and once there I had a nice rest and snack to boost my energy. The mountain climb section was the hardest. It started with me picking out landmark boulders and reaching them, followed by a rest to catch my breath. This digressed to goals of just getting to smaller and closer landmarks. However, once I crested the pass, I was reinvigorated. Though there was a good deal of distance remaining, the vertical challenge sections were done.

There were great mountain views all around, and a few wildflowers were hanging on late into the summer. I made the final push along the creek up to the lake edge. Oh my goodness. I’ve not seen water that blue before. If you didn’t know better you would think it was dyed that color.

I went up and down the sides of the lake taking in the views, then stopped and had a lakeside sandwich. There was no one up there but me for the first 15 minutes. Then, a trail runner and his dog came up and joined me along the shore.

Columbine Lake

Columbine Lake

Columbine Lake

Columbine Lake

The climb was nearly 3,000 vertical feet over 4.9 miles. It took me 3 hours to reach the summit, including several nice rest breaks. The lake elevation is 12,700 feet above sea level. I stayed about 30 minutes, and as I was about to depart the girl I saw early in the hike made it up. We visited a bit, then a couple and their two dogs made it up. I wanted to stay longer, but I thought it would be slow going down with the steep terrain, and I didn’t want Elena to worry if I got back late. 

Trail Route

Hike Elevation Profile

My heart rate

The terrain was so steep, that I had no choice but to run in several long sections. If you tried to walk, your feet slid out from under you. They should have installed some of those runaway truck ramps, because once you got running, you couldn’t easily stop. Fortunately I made it back to the van safely in about 2 hours.

Steep and narrow trail

A few remaining wildflowers

Small rocks, large rocks.

The view on the return hike

The steep hill to climb (and descend)

The stream from the lake

An interesting side note. We happened to be in Telluride for the Mushroom Festival. Most of the campground was occupied by people in interesting clothing and hats - like a 60’s flower child throwback. Many vehicles had mushroom and fungi related bumper stickers. It was an interesting crowd, and we even saw some out doing wild plant foraging when we were on our hikes. I say this because the Columbine Lake Trail was loaded with mushrooms - very large and colorful mushrooms. No one had been on a harvesting walk to Columbine Lake. 

Many mushrooms

Mushrooms quite large

When we reached our next campground, Molas Lake, I put on my swimsuit and sat in the cold lake for a bit to relieve my tired legs. Molas Lake is at 10,500 feet elevation. Fortunately, we could just drive right up to this lake - no hiking required. Elena got out in a kayak for a paddle, while I rested.

Elena kayaking on Molas Lake

Our tiny red camper van on the shore of Lake Molas

Columbine Lake is spectacular, and was worth the effort. Hiking two challenging hikes on this trip made me feel good about my fitness. In early summer (at home) I felt like my fitness was in steep decline, but maybe it was just the heat and humidity. Being able to hike a pair of challenging 3,000 foot climbs (Buckskin Pass and Columbine Lake) has me feeling better.
 
Paul

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