Painted Rock Campground Near Woodland Park, CO

Date of Trip Sept 1st – 3rd, 2007

Wonderful Weather

The weather this trip has been great. Last night the temperature was perfect for sleeping. We had a beautiful sunny morning. Right now, I am writing this inside the van in the middle of a thunderstorm. We see lightning. We hear thunder. The rain is heavy. This little storm will test the Maggiolina. We left the Maggiolina tent up on our van. We left the changing room up. Due to the lightning, no one is up in the Maggiolina tent above the van.

Larkspur

Saturday morning we left the house at 9:40 AM and arrived at our friends in Larkspur, CO at about 11:30 AM. We were surprised to be in stop and go traffic before driving by Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. Then, more traffic between Castle Rock and Larkspur. Thanks to our friends for a yummy lunch with an excellent Amaretto Pudding cake. We really enjoyed our fun chat with them.

Larkspur to Painted Rock Campground

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Thanks to our friends’ advice, we took an interesting route from Larkspur to Painted Rock Campground. Painted Rock is 8 miles north of Woodland Park, Colorado. As the crow flies, the two locales are reasonably close. But those mountains get in the way. So we winded our way down some blacktop, some dirt road, and many tight turns. Finally, we were in Deckers, Colorado driving on flat blacktop heading straight toward Painted Rock Campground.

Camping at Painted Rock

Painted Rock campground is a bit rustic, but listed as one of the 100 best campgrounds in Colorado. Check out my post on the book Colorado Campgrounds: The 100 Best and All the Rest. Even though there are no perks at Painted Rock, the vaulted bathrooms were clean. The campsites seem the perfect distance apart, not too close, not too secluded. The rocks dispersed through the campground are fun to look at and climb. Luckily, we ended up in one of our favorite sites, number 14. We like the site because it is close to the bathroom, has a rock view, and has shade above the picnic table. Also, site 18 looks fun with a rock in the site and plenty of shade. Our next round of choices would be site 13 or site 15. At site 13, we would need a canopy to protect us from the sun. Site 15 had a slight hill with a rock to play on beyond the hill.

Morning at Manitou Lake

About 10 AM Sunday morning, we packed up our water bottles and started jogging the biking trails down highway 67 toward Manitou Lake. After about 25 minutes we arrived at the lake without our park pass. The camp host had instructed us that our camping pass was good at Manitou Lake. The attendants were nice enough to let us in without the fee. I think they figured we didn’t look crazy enough to have run all the way from Woodland Park. The lake was busy with fishermen that did not appreciate rocks dropped in their water. We learned this the hard way. We watched the fish and ducks navigate the spillway and enjoyed a distant view of Pikes Peak.

Labor Day in Colorado Springs

At some point before day break, we heard coyotes howling. At least that is what we think we heard. Just a little reminder we were sleeping in the wild. The morning broke sunny, but cold. We ate breakfast, packed up camp, and headed into Woodland Park. In Woodland Park, we stopped at Java Junction to make a Bookcrossing book release. Next, we drove a bit toward Colorado Springs and made plans to meet friends at Chilis. They agreed to meet us even though we hadn’t bathed for over two days. It was great catching up on everyone’s activities and families. Of course seeing how the children have grown is always a treat. Finally, we wandered around Chapel Hills Mall looking for a blouse for school picture day. We were basically lost in this mall that used to be very familiar when we lived here over ten years ago. Off for home, we drove through some beautiful scenery and experienced another thunderstorm.