Leadville Camping, June 26-29, 2022

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We camped in in Leadville in Molly Brown campground in 2017. I remember loving how many trees there are. Connor started a game board in the dirt and each kid had their own village.

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This year, we camped at Silver Dollar Campground. This site definitely makes the top 5 of best campsites we have camped at.  It was very spacious and we set up 3 tents. Connor was in one, the girls in the other, and me and Lola in the other.

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Unfortunately, it was raining when we arrived.  So, we set up our tents quickly and ate some lunch.  Then, we went to the town of Leadville and looked in a few of their shops.  When the Avs game was about to start, we sat down at Casa Sanchez and ordered dinner, dessert, and Horchata.  We had so much fun watching the Avs win.  When we got back to our site, we were exhausted and went to bed.

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Leadville gets pretty cold at night.  Thankfully, when the sun came out in the morning, it was warm.  We ate a breakfast of little smokies and eggs.  I had Connor cut up all the little smokies and made all the kids a plate.  Then, as I was making my own plate, I looked over and Lola had eaten all my little smokies.  I was so angry and screamed at her.  She was scared of me for about 5 minutes.

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We then went on a nice bike ride.  Leadville has a lot of mountain bike trails and road cycling.  We did a little bit of both.  There was a dirt mountain bike trail next to Turquoise lake and many beautiful road riding through the trees.  Camilla loved this ride most of all.

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The kids ate some lunch and played all of the games I brought.  Camping is becoming different as the kids get older.  They used to find all kinds of games to play in the trees.  Nowadays, they are used to phones and iPads, so it takes a bit more to amuse them.  I got a horseshoe set.

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a frisbee,

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a slam ball game,

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and a hammock

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After resting a bit, we went down to turquoise lake with our paddle boards.  The kids commented on what a pretty color the lake was.  It was a bit windy so the paddling wasn’t easy.  Connor lasted about 15 minutes while the girls lasted 30 minutes.  I stayed out there about an hour. 

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While I was out paddling with Lola, I heard the kids laughing and talking on the beach, which made me happy.

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Connor and Carly had fun doing handstands.

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Camilla had fun sitting next to the fire with Lola.

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We did have a few snags on this trip.  Poor Lola got bit by so many mosquitoes that her face swelled up.  It got so bad that I wondered if I needed to rush her to the ER.  Instead, I gave her Benadryl to see if it would help.  I know that Benadryl is safe for dogs and the swelling went away shortly after I gave it to her.

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The other snag that I ran into was my tent had a small hole in it and the water started dripping into the middle of my tent.  Thankfully, I just put a tarp over the top of the tent and that solved the problem.  Last but not least, my portable air pump broke so I had to blow up my air mattress with my mouth.

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They say that people bond over the campfire and I really felt that this happened on this trip.  We exercised together, played games together, and roasted marshmallows together.  It was a great trip.

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In the end, I did find that my kids can find ways to entertain themselves without electronics.  Connor made his own little square with rocks and dirt.

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Location: Leadville, CO 80461, USA

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