The road is long and rough to Piney Lake, Colorado. Dispersed camping spots are few and far between, therefore, one must hit the road on a Thursday or early Friday morning in order to nab one. Going in the off-season is also a good idea. As you can tell from the photos below, we camped in early October before the snows closed the road.
I’m not going to tell you exactly how to get there as you likely have a phone. I will tell you the dispersed sites don’t start showing up until about 3/4 of the way to the lake. Like all dispersed sites, these can look just OK when you drive up on them, but once your camp home is finally set up and there is a drink in hand, these sites become beautiful.
We had camped in the area when our oldest was six months old and we hadn’t been back since. So, 11 years. On that trip I had gotten extremely ill in the middle of the night, the car battery died, and we froze. Our family unit does not even look the same today and we are essentially professional campers now, so we were at least confident and prepared this time around. As we bounced along the road, a bull moose trotted in front of us and we stopped to watch him in awe. They are massive animals, and this one was rutting hard, grunting and being a typical adolescent male. We pulled into the last spot which would be our home for the weekend, worrying about the AirBNB folks at the house.
After camping for all these years, we have learned how to get the work done up front then relax. I cut as much wood as I could find, the girls gathered kindling and set up the inside of the tent with bags and cots, then MH cooked dinner and we settled in. That’s when the wind began. It was ferocious, blowing our chairs around and making it unbearable outside the canvas walls. I hauled all the wood into the tent and we played cards while the fire raged in the stove.
As you can see, we camp heavy. Gone are the days of the 10×10 David Ellis teepee with two adults, three little girls, and a dog. That was a little cozy.
The Confluences 