Ouray Camping Trip & Tour De Colorado!

This past weekend I went on a big camping trip to Ouray, CO! About 17 of us went and we had such a great time! Ouray has been on my Colorado Bucket List for a while....it is gorgeous and already can't wait to go back. :)

This is the first big road trip that I took my car on-go big or go home right?! 

{the geeky space-planner in me was really excited to see how much 3 girls could fit in car! turns out, quite a bit!}

Ouray is 5.5 hrs away from Denver. LOTS of scenery along the way!

Emily, Christy and I decided to drive straight through and do a smaller hike once we arrived. Some of the other cars stopped to hike in Buena Vista.

{Emily, Christy and I a little giddy at finally being in Ouray!}

Darling little shops, restaurants and mercantiles lined the street. Every mountain town seems to have a blend of these.

We took a hike to a 'scenice view' but it was a little tricky to find. The view was worth it!

So thankful to have a car that doesn't break on long road trips!

This is the view from our campsite. Absolutely gorgeous and ridiculously, ruggedly Colorado!

{Glow stick bracelets and campfire.}

Heading up to the Blue Lakes Trailhead, we ran into some cows on the road taking in the view. Why not?!

This was the first of much snow. Not planned and a couple of us had on shorts!

{Bear Paw track!}

{one of my favorite shots of the weekend}

So we crossed this big snow field. To be honest, this was the least scary part of the snow. There were areas we were thigh-deep in it!

Lower Blue Lake! We made it. Emily picture. :)

We had gotten a later start than we would have liked but as you can imagine, getting 9 girls up and ready to hike was not a quick process. ;) The clouds had rolled in by the time we got up there and after hiking through so much snow (and anticipating the climb back down), we didn't stay long up there! Brrrr...

Another shot from the campsite.

This is Sophie. She stole my heart. The dog of our friends who came. She's a rescue dog-4 years old. Poor thing had a hard 1st year of life and her docile nature and old soul tell her story. SUCH a sweetheart!

On the way back home, we decided to drive back a different way in order to stop by Hanging Lake to hike. This meant we drove through the very arid western slope. It's amazing to me how many different landscapes Colorado has. This area looks like Arizona or Utah...not your typical Colorado mountains.

Hanging Lake!

I am so proud of my mud-caked car! We earned every speck of dust and mud on this thing. I love Colorado!!

You can click on this link to see our drive through Colorado! Sorry can't get the image to cooperate.

Overall, we had 17 people camping this weekend and it was a blast! Feeling so blessed and happy to get to explore.