High altitude "Winter Yurt camping" in the San Juan Mtns
My friend Brad has been going into a Yurt system in the Colorado State Forest every January for the last three years (this year will be his fourth trip). Colin read about that system in a backpacking magazine article, which led to research of yurt and hut systems across the mountains of Colorado, which led to a four day, three night trip into the Rambouillet Yurt, part of a 4 Yurt system high above Lake City, Colorado in Hinsdale County, CO. As I've noted before this area is one of my favorite spots (that's right, we were just there for Christmas), especially in the winter when the Texas tourists, who also own much of the property in the area, driving up prices, but providing a nice tax base for the county and town - are generally back home in Texas, leaving the area to the hardy locals, and a few intrepid tourists seeking a quiet spectacular hideaway.
The Hinsdale Haute system (the four Yurts) are managed by Jerry Gray, long time Lake City resident, and county emergency director, and coroner. Yeah, just a bit of irony there. If things go well for the intrepid Yurt visitors, Jerry gets the Yurt rental income. If things don't go so well, then on top of the rental income Jerry gets to leap into action as the emergency services director, and if things really go south, he puts on his coroner hat.
There are three of us, 60 year old me, my 23 year old son Colin, and his 23 year old friend Chris. Colin and I are trying out our new alpine touring gear, Chris goes in on snowshoes pulling his snowboard behind him. The new skis work out well for Colin, not so well for me - as my boots are a tad tight, causing several delays as we go in - changing socks, putting bandaids on toes, finally giving up and switching to hiking shoes, with Colin carrying my skis on his pack, and me carrying my boots, adding to our already fairly heavy packs. So it turns into an epic trip in, arriving at the Yurt at 4:30 PM, just about an hour before dark. Colin saved my bacon, to be sure. You might think that by age 60, some more wisdom would have prevailed, and trying out the new boots on a 4.5 mile Yurt trip at around 12,000 feet would not have been my choice. But alas, wisdom was in short supply.
But in spite of the challenging beginning, we ended up really enjoying our time, so much so that this could become an annual event if schedules allow. We also got real lucky as we were originally scheduled to move on to the Friends of the Colorado Trail Yurt, another 4.5 - 5 miles past the Rambouillet Yurt for the second and third nights, but Jerry came up on his snowmobile the day we went in, and he informed us that the group that was supposed to come into the Rambouillet Yurt for those two nights had canceled, so we could stay all three nights if we wanted to at the Rambouillet Yurt, which is what we did, as there was no way my feet were going to survive the trek to the Colorado trail Yurt and back. In fact I didn't wear the boots again until we came out on Monday.
The Yurt has a wood stove for heat, and a 4 burner propane stove to cook on, a propane lantern for evening light, and cots with ensolite pads to sleep on, so although the Yurt has been around for about 30 years, and is a bit rough around the edges, we were very happy with it. Jerry is going to move the Yurt (maybe this summer?) about a half mile away to a new location with even more impressive views, along with providing some upgrades. An outside porta potty finishes off the creature comforts, so if your idea of a good time is a four star hotel with concierge service, this place is not for you. If on the other hand, spectacular scenery, an unparalleled night sky, views that make the local chamber of commerce salivate, and unsurpassed peace and quiet and solitude are your thing, well then this is heaven. I am in the "this is heaven" camp.
Moose tracks all over the place and Colin and Chris spotted one on the ridge above the Yurt and three wandered into "camp" on our last morning. The boys had fun building several jumps, and playing on the hill above the Yurt. We all took in the sights from the ridge line above the Yurt with 360 views of the San Juans, and all 5 of the Lake City area 14ers in view. We ate well too.
Outside it was in the 20's during the day, but below zero over night. The Yurt got to almost 70 degrees without the stove in the middle of the day, but hovered in the 40's to low 50's at night with one of us (mostly Colin) feeding logs into the stove every hour or two. Invariably, the last logs would go in about 4 AM, so by the time I was getting up around 7 AM, it had dropped to anywhere from 18 degrees one morning to usually around 25 or so. So throw on all my clothes, and get a fire going, and heat up some water for morning coffee, and an hour later all is well again.
Well enough details about life in a Yurt at 11,500 feet in the Colorado mountains in January. Here are a few pics.
The Hinsdale Haute system (the four Yurts) are managed by Jerry Gray, long time Lake City resident, and county emergency director, and coroner. Yeah, just a bit of irony there. If things go well for the intrepid Yurt visitors, Jerry gets the Yurt rental income. If things don't go so well, then on top of the rental income Jerry gets to leap into action as the emergency services director, and if things really go south, he puts on his coroner hat.
There are three of us, 60 year old me, my 23 year old son Colin, and his 23 year old friend Chris. Colin and I are trying out our new alpine touring gear, Chris goes in on snowshoes pulling his snowboard behind him. The new skis work out well for Colin, not so well for me - as my boots are a tad tight, causing several delays as we go in - changing socks, putting bandaids on toes, finally giving up and switching to hiking shoes, with Colin carrying my skis on his pack, and me carrying my boots, adding to our already fairly heavy packs. So it turns into an epic trip in, arriving at the Yurt at 4:30 PM, just about an hour before dark. Colin saved my bacon, to be sure. You might think that by age 60, some more wisdom would have prevailed, and trying out the new boots on a 4.5 mile Yurt trip at around 12,000 feet would not have been my choice. But alas, wisdom was in short supply.
But in spite of the challenging beginning, we ended up really enjoying our time, so much so that this could become an annual event if schedules allow. We also got real lucky as we were originally scheduled to move on to the Friends of the Colorado Trail Yurt, another 4.5 - 5 miles past the Rambouillet Yurt for the second and third nights, but Jerry came up on his snowmobile the day we went in, and he informed us that the group that was supposed to come into the Rambouillet Yurt for those two nights had canceled, so we could stay all three nights if we wanted to at the Rambouillet Yurt, which is what we did, as there was no way my feet were going to survive the trek to the Colorado trail Yurt and back. In fact I didn't wear the boots again until we came out on Monday.
The Yurt has a wood stove for heat, and a 4 burner propane stove to cook on, a propane lantern for evening light, and cots with ensolite pads to sleep on, so although the Yurt has been around for about 30 years, and is a bit rough around the edges, we were very happy with it. Jerry is going to move the Yurt (maybe this summer?) about a half mile away to a new location with even more impressive views, along with providing some upgrades. An outside porta potty finishes off the creature comforts, so if your idea of a good time is a four star hotel with concierge service, this place is not for you. If on the other hand, spectacular scenery, an unparalleled night sky, views that make the local chamber of commerce salivate, and unsurpassed peace and quiet and solitude are your thing, well then this is heaven. I am in the "this is heaven" camp.
Moose tracks all over the place and Colin and Chris spotted one on the ridge above the Yurt and three wandered into "camp" on our last morning. The boys had fun building several jumps, and playing on the hill above the Yurt. We all took in the sights from the ridge line above the Yurt with 360 views of the San Juans, and all 5 of the Lake City area 14ers in view. We ate well too.
Outside it was in the 20's during the day, but below zero over night. The Yurt got to almost 70 degrees without the stove in the middle of the day, but hovered in the 40's to low 50's at night with one of us (mostly Colin) feeding logs into the stove every hour or two. Invariably, the last logs would go in about 4 AM, so by the time I was getting up around 7 AM, it had dropped to anywhere from 18 degrees one morning to usually around 25 or so. So throw on all my clothes, and get a fire going, and heat up some water for morning coffee, and an hour later all is well again.
Well enough details about life in a Yurt at 11,500 feet in the Colorado mountains in January. Here are a few pics.
Chris and Colin going in at about elevation 12,400 feet
View going in
Sunset glow with Cinco DeBaldy
Colin chopping wood
Chris and Colin at the Yurt
Looking south
Colin and Chris going up the ridge to begin building a jump
Ridgeline view
Chris catching some air
Ridgeline view
Ridgeline view - Uncompahgre
Ridgeline view
Ridgeline view
Sunset from the Yurt
Inside of Yurt
Inside of Yurt
Bull moose, with half an antler missing
Night time ski jump construction
Colin catching some air
Colin on way out
Colin on way out, with Uncompahgre in background
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