Tag Archives: Colorado
Colorado Camping
Monday I told you about the touristy part of our Colorado vacation, today I want to share with you some photos of our main activity… camping. This year we did it glamping style (or as close as we will ever get!) with our new vintage 1950s Garwood camper in the process of being revamped.
Our favorite campground is at the base of Mt. Shavano, at 9200 feet elevation. It is a small, friendly campground nestled in the San Isabel National Forest, lying along the Colorado trail.
We enjoy just hanging around the campground because it is just so beautiful, and peaceful, and relaxing. While my husband rides his bike around the area, I like to set up an outdoor studio. We get our water at this pump, and cook most of our meals over a campfire.
We also spent a lot of time enjoying the antics of the numerous hummingbirds.
We also like to go to a nearby waterfall where we did some reading, sketching, repelling, and picnicking.
The week flew by and it was time to head home… on this beautiful stretch of highway!
What a refreshingly cool and restful trip… but as always, I am glad to be back home too! I am so blessed to do what I do, live where I live, and love those around me!
Vacation Spot: Salida, Colorado
This last week I spent a refreshing week with some of my family camping in the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains. We love just hanging out in the beautiful outdoors, but we also love visiting nearby Salida with its historic downtown full of all kinds of fun shops and galleries.
The buildings themselves are an interesting and lovely blend of yesterday’s style and today’s function. They have carefully retained old painted signs and architecture.
Not only are there a lot of bike riders in the area, nearly every shop has a bicycle “mascot” parked out front, ranging from aged classics to the new and super cute!
We have a couple of favorite coffee shops we stop at. We usually start the day at Café Dawn with lattes and Italian sodas…
And later stop at Brown Dog Coffee…. They won me this year with their coconut carob chip ice cream!
And every time I have to get another photo of the famous kayak wall. I had always thought it would be fun to learn to kayak (lessons happen right there on the river in Salida) but I think I will just settle for painting them this time around.
Last, but not least, I love just driving up and down the streets looking at all the lovely houses. There are miniature little Victorian style brick homes next to adobe homes, next to styles I don’t recognize. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of this colorful cutie tucked in between a couple of stores. I will just have to go back one of these days and get some pictures of homes…
Thanks for letting me share one of my favorite places with you! Have you been to Salida? What was your favorite?
Palette Knife Paintings
One of the things I love about vacation, especially in the great, inspiringly beautiful outdoors, is trying new things. We started with a day trip to nearby Salida, Colorado, a wonderfully artsy town with 20 art galleries! I am not normally much of a landscape painter, but after a visit to the studio/gallery of Carl Bork, I was inspired! So back at the campsite, I pulled out my palette knife, canvas, and acrylic paints, and gave it a try.
This was my first attempt – appropriate for the dusky time of day I was painting. I call it “Night in the Mountains”. I used only a large palette knife, so had to work much “looser” than I was accustomed, focusing more on color than detail. It was so fun! I just had to run to town again to buy more canvas!
This one is “Sunset in the Mountains” inspired by the absolutely gorgeous real thing we had seen the night before.
I couldn’t miss an attempt at the lovely Aspen trees, and the hummingbirds (the only part touched up with a brush) that kept whizzing past my ear as I painted.
In my final landscape, “Mountain Lake” I used a larger canvas and finished up the palette knife painting with paint brush pine needles.
I love this messy, but very satisfying, new to me technique. The moral of the story? Never hesitate to try something new!
To purchase my original artwork, https://www.etsy.com/shop/fromvictoryroad?section_id=7365933
To purchase prints, https://www.etsy.com/shop/fromvictoryroad?section_id=10724179
Vacation Gratitude Greats
There is nothing like camping in the Colorado Rockies for a week to help you appreciate the simple things!
Water for example. There is no tap water at the convenience of the kitchen sink to take for granted at the campsite, but there is a nearby pump where with just a little effort drinkable water is available. Water that requires even a tiny bit of effort is suddenly more valuable. Hmmm….
I also really, really, enjoyed the constant sound of the rushing mountain stream that we were camped next to.
And a little further up, that same stream was a lovely waterfall!
The cool crisp mountain air at 9,000+ feet in elevation was a welcome change from the heat of a Kansas summer, and of course those nippy mornings and evenings were cause for one of my camping favorites, a nice toasty fire. Fire is so fascinating, so dangerous, so enticing… It draws everyone to it, and therefore together as well. Sitting around the campfire just has a bonding effect and I enjoyed the too quickly vanishing time with my three teenage daughters.
Of course, I also have to mention being surrounded with stunning beauty on all sides. It was like manna for my creative soul, nourishing a frenzy of painting, and inspiring me to try new techniques. I even went to town to buy more canvases!
Rest was another enjoyment I was thankful for on vacation. Losing track of time other than night or day. Eating when we were hungry and sleeping when we were tired. Taking time to stare at the clouds and watch the hummingbirds and chipmunks. Dates and schedules did not exist for one blessed week!
Finally, I realized how much I take my sturdy house for granted. Somehow when there is only a thin sheet of nylon between me and the elements (and the black bear that entered our campsite twice!) I become very thankful for what I have.
What were you grateful for this week?
from victory road 