Colorado and Laforet
Last week I traveled to Carbondale, Colorado to teach a class I developed, entitled “The Art of Living Well.” I’ve been offering this class in various forms over the past decade, and was excited at the prospect of sharing it over a week’s time at a camp setting in the Rockies.
The drive across Kansas and Eastern Colorado is always daunting, and especially so in 100° heat. But I do love the “BIG sky” feeling as I drive across the plains.
Fortunately, I lucked out on the day I left, as temps were only in the 80’s and I had a comfortable drive to Denver, where I spent the night at my nephew’s apartment. (Thanks, Paul, for sharing your cool digs!) Denver was not appealing to me, especially after my recent trip to Italy, where everything felt intimate, safe and friendly. By contrast, in downtown Denver, the surplus of concrete, vast empty spaces, sharp angles, and overabundance of franchise and chain stores left me feeling isolated, lonely, unsafe and eager to leave. Big cities can do that….
Driving through the Rockies the next day, I felt refreshed by the green curves of the mountain landscape. Carbondale is about three hours west of Denver, and a good portion of the drive was through the Rockies.
As I drove towards Glenwood Springs from 1-70, the terrain began to change, from the green of tree-covered hills and gray of mountain peaks to the red and brown of awesome, multi-colored canyons looming above the highway.
Driving into Carbondale, I quickly found the campus of Colorado Rocky Mountain School, where I would be spending the next week.
Nestled in a valley between the foothills of the Rockies and high desert terrain, the school served as a spacious and comfortable home for 60+ campers and staff. Nearby, the Crystal River wound its way around the campus.
Laforet Camp is sponsored by a group of people that gathers every summer for fellowship and learning. The camp has been in existence for some 50 years, and has been meeting in the same location at CRMS for the last 20 years. Many of the campers came as children with their parents; now they bring their own children to attend the camp. Nearly half of the campers this year were children, ranging from 4-18 years, and they had a full schedule of activities to keep them entertained. So the camp serves as a great family vacation experience.
I was invited to teach a workshop for the adult campers, along with several other leaders. This involved teaching every weekday morning for three hours, and several afternoons, for a total of 20 hours of class time. I ended up with a dynamic, attentive group of eight people in my workshop, and thoroughly enjoyed the week of sharing ideas with them. Every morning, I walked along a path that had spectacular views of Mount Sopris, red rock cliffs and high desert terrain. There was also time for fun, making new friends, and one of my great loves, hiking.
On my first free afternoon, I headed out to find Hanging Lake, as I’d heard it was a challenging hike with a spectacular view at the end. The hike was only 1.2 miles, but the challenge came in the terrain…climbing steeply up over large rocks from an altitude of 6000 to 7000 feet. Being a flatlander, I was not accustomed to the altitude shift, and had to stop often to catch my breath and drink water. I made the hike up in 1.5 hours, and stopped for a while to enjoy the unusual waterfalls and teal-blue “hanging lake” at the top, as well as some terrific canyon views.
The descent went much faster, and I had more time to enjoy the beauty of the trees and the mountain stream next to the trail as I made my way back down the canyon.
Another day, I had the chance to go whitewater river rafting (with 34 other campers!) down the Colorado River through those same canyons for 3 hours. We set out at 1pm in pouring rain, which only added to the challenge of getting through the rapids. There were 8-9 people in each raft; in ours half of them were children. We also had an experienced (female!) guide who took us through many tight squeezes with ease, while the guides with less skill on other rafts had to go around these areas. Yeah, Megan! The rain abated after we were on the river for a while, and we were fortunate to have cloud cover for most of the journey, saving us from the hot sun. Towards the end, the sun did come out of hiding, providing the perfect conclusion to our exhilarating ride. I didn’t get any photos that day, but went back later to capture one stretch of river that we rafted down.
The next day I headed out on my own to hike through a nearby Aspen grove, which turned out to be a magnificent space, but all too short of a hike.
I extended it a bit by hiking on up into National Forest land, along ruts made by snowmobile and cross country ski tracks, but even that was short. The drive to the grove, however, provided some magnificent views of nearby Mount Sopris.
During the week of my stay at the camp, I made some new friends, and on the last day, I went exploring with one of them, Julia, and her dog Bosco.
Julia was another workshop leader, teaching a class about the Native American flute. We drove to Aspen, a nearby ski resort, then beyond it to find some grottos that Julia remembered from her childhood. Aided by directions from one of the locals, we easily found the exit to the grottos, about 15 miles south of Aspen, and hiked through the forest to reach granite slabs carved by water into unusual shapes over thousands of years.
I would love to go back and explore this area again, as there were many hiking trails beckoning me to follow them deeper into the forest. I also didn’t get the chance to experience the natural hot springs in Glenwood Springs, so I have several reasons to return.
Later, Julia and I attended the Mountain Fair in Carbondale, a 3-day art festival that was crowded with people buying and selling art; a fair complete with music, food and drink. Our week at camp drew to a close that Friday night with a playful, fun-loving dance, where I won a raffle prize of $105! This was followed by a closing ceremony the next morning where thank yous and goodbyes were exchanged. I had to leave early that morning, so was unable to say many of my thank yous and goodbyes to the folks that made this such a rich experience for me. I won’t list names, for fear of leaving anyone out, but I want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the wonderful people who took my class, the new friends who made me feel welcome and appreciated, the “goddesses” who made me laugh, the staff who did such a great job of making the camp possible, and one old friend who added a soft touch to my stay, bridging the past with the present. If you’d like to know more about Laforet Camp, which will meet again during the last week of July in 2007, I encourage you to visit their website: http://camplaforet.com