Vedauwoo 2

We’ve found it quite easy to settle in here at Vedauwoo Campground.  Our spot is spacious, water and sewer are provided and it’s just darn beautiful.  The folks who frequent our campground are interesting and friendly and do a pretty good job of cleaning up after themselves which makes our job quite nice.

The Forest Service has seen fit to provide us with transportation for doing our rounds and carrying our supplies.

Number 6773, that’s us!  It’s quite fun tooling around in this little guy.  So much so that we often do rounds even on our days off.

Between the truck and our mini-uniforms of hats, vests and radios we’re looking pretty official these days. 

We’re slowly getting around to exploring the area.  The other day we took a walk on the Turtle Rock Trail.  It’s the most popular trail in the park and makes a three mile circle around the Central climbing area.  It encompasses just about everything the area has to offer including valley views, aspen groves, pine groves, spring flowers, a creek and beaver ponds.  Here’s a few photos…

It’s It is difficult to argue with a Colorado Rocky Mountain View out of our back windows.  Well, except when it keeps getting blocked by the smoke from the High Park fire (just one of the many fires Colorado is currently suffering from).

Even with the devastation the fire is causing the light of the sun setting in the smoke makes for some amazing skylines.

Lately we’ve met a lot of local climbers who have been giving us tips on routes that take smaller gear like what we own.  The Forest Service also just opened up the lower campground in our park and asked if we knew anyone who would like to host there.  Our friends, Lou and Dale, were more than happy to have the opportunity.  We’re pretty excited to have them nearby and Nicole and Dale have already been plotting ways to combine their gear in order to take on a wider variety of the local climbing.  So, at some point in the future (if we can get our camera which is on the fritz to cooperate) climbing photos will appear.

Meanwhile, stay happy and keep it sunny side up.

VEDAU… Can I get a WOO WOO?!

 

There isn’t much to say about our current location. That’s not true!  The truth is there is just too much to say.  And it is all awesome!  We’ve been in Vedauwoo, Wyoming for three weeks now and it is definitely the magical and beautiful place that we had read about.  At some point in the future we’ll write more about our first ever volunteer camphost position here and how much we are totally loving that too.  For now though, we’ll just hit you with some photos and a few descriptions. 

Enjoy!

Pronghorn… Second Fastest Land Animal.  Truth!  Look it up.

 
Bunny… Fastest?  No.  Cutest?  Quite possibly.
This little guy hangs out near our campsite.

He entertains us with games of ‘find the bunny’.

Caught in the act!

This guy enjoys preferred seating on our picnic table.
The place is loaded with every sort of cute ‘rodent’ on the list including:
Gophers, Ground Squirrels, Chipmunks (Big & Little) and Pine Squirrels.

Reportedly, Spring gets fully sprung around these parts sometime in June.  Right now it’s just coiling up with sightings such as the following.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pink flower on the left is a wild rose.  It smells amazing!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the two striped guys.  Just shells of their former selves.

 

 

 

 

 

          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At first we thought finding a cool yellow spider on this white flower was unique.  Then we discovered one on almost every white flower of that kind.  Not sure why.

 

 

 

Kept seeing a lot of these antler rubbings on our walks.  Then one foggy morning while doing rounds we encountered about four different moose!  One was a mother with a baby.  We had to wait until they were done eating to drive by as the Mom Moose indicated she was going to charge us if we kept going.  (Didn’t have our camera that day!)

 

 

 

 
Vedauwoo has a significant history as a premier rock climbing destination.  It’s draw is what is called offwidths.  Man-eating super wide offwidths (cracks) to be exact!  We’re still getting the hang of the unique climbing and the fact that our East Coast gear is either too small or too big.  Sitting at our campsite, some of the best climbing in the area calls to us daily.

The Nautilus crag sits a 10 minute walk to our right.
 
And… a brief 10 minute jaunt to our left is the Central Area Crag.

We did manage to get on one climb the other day.  By rating it was super easy.  Nicole managed to make it super hard when she discovered that her ‘safety’ gear was not fitting to her satisfaction.  But we made it to the top and had a good time on our first official Vedauwoo crack climb.  Bruised knees and egos came free of charge!  No photos this time around as Darlene’s hands were a bit too busy keeping Nicole safely in the air.

By the way… We only head into town only every three weeks'ish so if you email us be patient.  Cell service is spotty.  If you’re wanting to get in touch with us these days text us or leave a phone message and we’ll get back to you.  The phone does receive messages, we just have to find the right place to stand and not move if we want to actually talk on it!

Cutting this short for now.  The cupboards are bare and we’ve got a load of re-stock shopping to do for the next three weeks.  More later…