COVID threw quite a wrench in our summer plans for 2020. We’d originally planned for a week at Acadia National Park in Maine around the 4th of July, but that got cancelled and we ended up in the BWCA for a week. Thankfully the annual Land Cruiser Destination Club (LCDC) remained. So in an effort to socially distance ourselves as much as possible, we spent two weeks exploring remote parts of Colorado.
We’d made campground reservations at the Great Sand Dunes National Park to start, but we were able to get out of town a bit early, which gave us an opportunity to stop at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs for a few hours along the way.
We had stopped at the Great Sand Dunes before on our way from Mesa Verde to Santa Fe. At the time I thought they’d be like Kitty Hawk, NC – something cool to see for a couple hours and then move on. But after visiting in 2018 we decided we wanted to go back and explore more than just the foot of one of the dunes.
After the dunes we drove northwest to the Flat Tops Wilderness in White River National Forest, our campsite nestled between pine trees just below 10,000.
For our last stop we stayed in the Roosevelt National Forest, along Poudre Canyon (pronounced Poo-der).
We did three days of off-roading at the LCDC. Day 1 I led a group up Moody Hill and across Old Flowers Road
Day 2 we tackled Kelly Flats, which started with Heart Attack Hill
Day 3 was further south along Storm Mountain.
Saturday evening we met the whole group in the park for a picnic dinner, and then packed our gear in preparation for the long drive home on Sunday.
Total trip: 3450 miles, 8.2 MPG, 36 mph average.