The Flat Tops with the Lyons

Gail and I had gotten Birding Trail Guides last year when we visited southern Colorado and decided to follow some of those trail suggestions in planning a camping trip together this year.  If you live in Colorado and love to bird or camp or hike, you must pick one up-for each section of the state.  You can usually get them at state park headquarters.  (They were made possible through a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado which provides lottery funds to worthwhile projects.)

So, since we were already in the Steamboat area and experienced Hahn's, Pearl Lake and Steamboat Lake, we decided to head south to Yampa and go up to the Stillwater Reservoir and Devil's Causeway area of the Flat Tops Wilderness Area in the Routt National Forest.

A beautiful drive along wetlands and forests up into the high country

Beautiful Bear Creek from Stillman Reservoir

Columbines are everywhere

The trail to Bear Lake

The drive down to Yampa was just beautiful-very rural.  Yampa itself is a darling, very small town that was all decked out for the Fourth of July with flags everywhere.  There is a gas station, a fabulous general store (where the owner grinds his own meat for hamburgers and makes his own sausage-both excellent), and a restaurant that is kind of open when it wants to be.

We decided that Bear Lake Campground was probably our best bet, but since we would arrive a little earlier, we checked them all out and decided that Bear Lake it was.  Many were too small and many were dispersed but not very private.  We ended up moving to another site when G and H came up because theirs was full of mosquitos.  Then we remembered that the sun shade was really also a screen house, so we set it up in the aspens overlooking Flat Top Mountain, which was just perfect.

The Flat Tops were formed about 50 million years ago when mountain uplift created molten, volcanic lava which flowed over the Colorado Plateau, later cooling to give the mesa, or tabletop, appearance.
We have been to the southern Flat Tops area around Heart and Owl Lakes and loved it there, but the road up from Dotsero would scare me senseless, so we have decided that for peace and calm, we wouldn't go there again.  So, it was so wonderful to find that there are other ways in.  In fact, where we are is not all that far from the other area, just roadless in between.There are many lakes and reservoirs up here.  Those receding glaciers did a heck of a job of creating beauty in their wake.

We could be a commercial for Crocs!  This is our campsite.

I think everyone in the world gets up earlier than we do.
This morning G and H prepared a fire AND breakfast.  We
usually switch days so we each have a day off from cooking
and cleaning up.  We eat some darned good meals.  We don't
believe in depriving ourselves, just because we are camping.

 Below are just a few examples of the fabulous wildflowers.  The hills are just carpeted with wildflowers- and these are just a few of them.  I spent one day identifying and writing down names in my journal.  I had 30 different varieties.

And the best of all:  the Columbine are everywhere you look.

Bear Lake

Bear Lake spillway

Sunsets are always amazing everywhere, we find.  Hate to
ever miss one.  Though we miss a lot of sunrises!

4th of July brunch

Gail arranging the decorations

Boo asleep on Gail's shirt

We did alot of reading along the way.  Me:  two books I highly recommend:  Soul of an Octopus and Half Broke Horses.  I suffered through The Heart of Everything That Is about Red Cloud and the Sioux but it was a little much for me- describing in detail the bloody battles between the settlers and the native peoples.  A sad time in our history.

On another note, a milestone!  We got G and H to play cards with us!  Five Crowns:  our favorite!  They seemed to enjoy it (although they could have been fooling us!)

Wheeler Dealer

Our mosquito-proof hideout on the hill

 We were high up on a hill above the creek below but could hear it.  We walked as far down as we could without killing ourselves.  The meadow, the trees and the plants were gorgeous beyond description.

And guess who was by my side the whole time.  He is
absolutely mesmerized by chipmunks.  He really thinks
he can catch one.

Our mountain.  I decided to paint this one day and had
a ball.  I am still not done.  I am a terrible self-critic-I
keep finding things I don't like.  Here I decided to
meld this picture with another with wildflowers in
front.  All those firs were a little overwhelming.  That''s
before I found out that all those wildflowers were
overwhelming, too.

 One of our most favorite travel books was given to us by Tom and Kathleen:  a National Geographic Book:  Scenic Highways and Byways.  Ever since we got it, we try to travel the scenic routes:  the blue highways of our country.  I had read about the Flat Tops Scenic Byway and we all thought it would be a great thing to do on a cloudy day.  Harley offered to drive--it took about 8 hours to do the road the way we did (which is to check out campgrounds and scenic views and take lots of pictures), so he deserves alot of credit.  Half of the 82 mile drive is unpaved and it runs from Yampa to Meeker, or vice versa.  10,000 years ago, this area was home to the ancestors of today's Ute indians, until they were removed from this homeland of theirs to a reservation in eastern Utah, after a massacre resulted from the usual disagreements about land and lifestyles.  Good old Teddy Roosevelt used to hunt in this area and his experiences led to what is now known as the U.S. Forest Service.

We ended up at Meeker's Fourth of July Outdoor Fair.
Gail and Harley were not particularly happy with the
choice of Fair food.  Jim and I, on the other hand, were
very happy with a meatball sandwich and pulled pork.

On the way back home we stopped in Steamboat Springs and
saw these wonderful knitted balloon ornaments for sale to
support the balloon festival coming up the next weekend.

And, some gelato on main street

The next two days were full of wonderful hikes, fabulous meals and some good relaxing time.

Stillman Reservoir

There's still snow here!

Gail taking a breather on the trail through
the deep dark forest.

Selfie

The Causeway

Check out the erosion, always happening.

Mandrall Lake path through the aspens

Again!  Never get sick of these beauties!

Thunder!  Better go home!

My love buddy!

My other love!

Last night happy hour, patiently waiting for cheese and crackers!

 As we left in the morning (and the night before), we kept wondering what all the noise was about because it had been so quiet, except for the sound of the creek.  As we pulled out of the campground to head down, we saw 3 or 4 livestock carriers, some cowboys (or sheepherders, whatever you call them) and these beauties baaing up a storm!  Apparently, the Wilderness Act allows commercial livestock grazing to continue where it occurred prior to the wilderness designation.  These boys and girls were very, very happy with all the vegetation up here.

Next Stop:  Brown's Park!