2016 4x4 Trip Day 2 - Silverton

Day 2 started with a lazy morning of watching the shadows move across the land before a quick breakfast and a return to pavement by 9:00am.

Morning at Camp

The Adventure Duo in the lead

Colorado here we come!

We stopped off for fuel and a quick picnic lunch - where we were approached by a European woman who drove up asking if we might have a wine bottle opener in our kitchen.  We actually didn't - she needed it to open a bottle to give some to her dog, it apparently helps her pup from having panic attacks otherwise it freaks out in the car.  Well what works for women should work for fur friends too I suppose.  Then we hit up the Honeyville Co. for some whipped honey and wine in Durango.  We continued on towards our staple stop of Silverton.  I know we said we were hitting up the Colorado Springs area and we are after a short stopover in our favorite area.

Back down to Lower Mineral Springs to grab a camp spot by the river to enjoy for today and tomorrow.  As we got further down the trail we came across roaring waterfalls and even a snowdrift that stopped others from continuing on, giving us hope that neighbors would be sparse.  The FJ was a trooper and after a couple of tries we made it through.  The adventure couple were just happy that they got to use their winch for the first time.

1 waterfall of many

3rd time is not the charm

The jeep can not pass - will the FJ

The FJ is KING

Please keep in mind that portions of the video are sped up for comfortable watching purposes, we were not going that fast!

Look at the size of this grasshopper

We ended up getting the spot next to an old mining building and runoff, right next to the river with amazing views of the mountains and even a beaver dam and den.

Camp was setup by late afternoon allowing us plenty of time to relax and enjoy the area before making dinner.  The kiddos and the fur babies continually enjoyed playing in the river even though the water was frigid.  The men got out the horseshoes and played a few games. While Amanda and I tied a guide line to a bottle of wine and anchored it into the water to chill.  

That's not the shadow figure of an old miner in the picture - that's my man

The Adventure Couple - How Sweet

Mineral Springs Mining Campsite

We made Potato Soup for dinner this evening and it turned out well, we need to soak the diced potatoes for a little bit longer on the the next run but otherwise it came out tasting fine.  We added sour cream,shredded cheese and diced green onions - yum!

Everyone but Ivan took a shower, it felt good to wash off the red dirt of Utah.  TheMan had ordered a couple sets of quick dry microfiber towels for our canoe trip later this year so we decided to try them out - they dried really well and dried out quickly.  You just have to get used to the way they feel against your skin - not bad, just different.

 We made a campfire and sat around enjoying the descending
 darkness before bundling up in our respective tents for the night.  It was nice and quiet with the back drop of white noise provided by the river.

The Adventure Wife

2016 4x4 Camping Day 1

The time has finally come!!! After months of waiting and planning (sporadic get together's and Pinterest surfing) it's time to take off to cooler climates, rocky roads and the peacefulness of quiet solitude.

This year we opted to head back to Colorado but after a couple of years of exploring and enjoying the Silverton area we opted to try something new and head towards Colorado Springs.

Our morning getaway was delayed by an hour due to our camping buddies desire to try and help rescue a skittish dog in the Fry's parking lot, the dog had obviously been homeless for quite some time and would not allow anyone close to her.  Hopefully she will be helped and homed.

Once on the road it was a long day of driving....

After hitting construction delays just outside Flagstaff where we had pulled off to make a quick picnic lunch, we continued northward on into Utah.  This was the first time that the kiddos had been to the Valley of the Gods!!

We had camp set up by 7:30pm and it was 90 degrees outside, thankfully there soon was ample shade to help keep us cooler.

   

While trying to setup the stovetop to cook dinner it wasn't "getting a secure connection to the propane tank". Mike said "If it won't go deep enough spit on it and stick it back in." - This became a running joke through out the entire camping trip!

Amanda (The Adventure Wife) and I opted to try Thrive dinners (freeze dried foods) this go round.  We haven't figured out how cost effective it is but doing this certainly saved on campsite prep time, clean up time and saved enormous amounts of space in the dry food storage as well as the ARB fridges.  Tonight we gave the Gumbo a try.  I found the recipes for all the dinners via Pinterest - search -Thrive, meals in a jar, freeze dried, dehydrated.  The gumbo recipe called for canned clams and we opted to trade that out for canned chicken, mostly due to the cost but also because we all like chicken!!  Aside from the can of chicken we used canned diced tomatoes (due to Thrive being out of stock on their Freeze dried ones) or rather Tomato Sauce for this one cause the cans looked exactly the same when Amanda pulled them out of her pantry to pack, lol -  and 1/2 lb of frozen shrimp - which defrosted by the time we got to cooking dinner, another reason why we decided we were having Gumbo tonight.  I cut back on the spices (peppers) due to the fact that none of us are big into SPICY food.  Even with cutting back on all the peppers it will need to be cut back even more, cause it was still SPICY!!  The flavor was wonderful and we all agreed that we would add this recipe to the camp cookbook!

Bubba stood still long enough for me to get a couple of decent pics but the SweetPea was a moody teen that barely smiled and made a point to try and avoid the camera as often as possible.  These were the successful photos of the day!  I love the one of TheMan he pointed his finger at me but was too quick for me to get a pic so I told him to do it again - LOL!

The night was hot enough that we slept with all the windows open on the tents, on top of everything and at 5am we threw a sheet over the two of us.  The only sounds in the night were those of the crickets chirping the dark sky lullaby.

If you'd like to see more great pictures and about the day from someone else's perspective head over to:
The Adventure Wife